Niki Karimi

Niki Karimi (Persian: نیکی کریمی; born 10 November 1971) is an Iranian actress and filmmaker.^[1] Regarded as "the most prominent figure among the young generations coming after post-Islamic Revolution Iranian Cinema",^[2] she has received various accolades, including a Crystal Simorgh, three Hafez Awards, an Iran Cinema Celebration Award, and three Iran's Film Critics and Writers Association Awards.

Niki Karimi
نیکی کریمی
Karimi in 2020
Born	(1971-11-10) 10 November 1971 (age 52) Tehran, Iran
Occupations	Actress director screenwriter producer
Years active	1989–present

Born in Tehran, Karimi began her career in the late 1980s. She received critical acclaim for her performance in Sara (1992), for which she won the best actress award at the San Sebastian Film Festival.^[3]

Early life

Niki Karimi was born on November 10, 1971, in Tehran, Iran. Her parents are both from Tafresh. She has been active in theater since elementary school, and has said that her early interest in film and literature inspired her to become an actress.

Career

Niki Karimi and Sean Penn

In 1990, she was cast as a young bride in Behrooz Afkhami's hit film The Bride.

Karimi began her career in the late 1980s. She received critical acclaim for her performance in Sara (1992), for which she won the best actress award at the San Sebastian Film Festival.

Karimi has won many awards nationally and internationally for "Sara" such as San Sebastian film festival award for best actress.^[4] She has also recently been on the jury for more than 20 renowned film festivals, including Karlovy Vary Film Festival, the Edinburgh International Film Festival, the Locarno International Film Festival and Thessaloniki International Film Festival and Berlin Film Festival and also the 60th Cannes Film Festival. She was the assistant of Abbas Kiarostami from 1992 to 2007.

Expanding on her career as an actor, she wrote and directed the documentary To Have or Not to Have (2001).

In 2001, she won her first award as a director in Iran's Rain film festival for her work To Have or Not to Have, which was produced by renowned Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami.^[5]

Nominated at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival for her feature film directorial debut One Night (2005), she said that acting no longer satisfied her and she would like to direct more movies.^[6]

In addition to films, Karimi has also done translating work. In 1999 she released her first translation, Marlon Brando's biography Songs My Mother Taught Me, which she translated from English to Persian. She also translated two books by Hanif Kureishi, a Pakistani-English writer.

Her third film as director, Final whistle (2011), won three awards at the Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinema in Vesoul, France.

She has been nominated for the best actress award in Fajr Film Festival in 2011 for I Am His Wife (2011), directed by Mostafa Shayesteh.

She has been awarded recently by the jury of the Iranian Fajr Film ّFestival for her last film as best director, actress and producer. She also got a jury award for acting in two films, Wednesday, May 9 and Death of Fish.^[7]

As a translator

Year	Title
2005	Intimacy by Hanif Kureishi
1999	Songs My Mother Taught Me by Marlon Brando, Robert Lindsey

As a film critic

Year	Title
2022	Member of Jury at Tribeca Film Festival[8]
2021	Head of Jury at Crime and Punishment film festival, Turkey[9]
2020	Member of Jury at Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival, Istanbul
2016	Member of Jury at 35th Istanbul Film Festival, Istanbul[10]
2016	Member of Jury at 34th Fajr International Film Festival, Tehran[11]
2015	Member of Jury at 60th Valladolid International Film Festival, spain[12]
2015	Head of Jury at 19th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, Tallinn[13]
2015	Member of Jury at 10th Batumi International Art-house Film Festival, Batumi[14]
2015	Member of Jury at 33rd Fajr International Film Festival, Tehran[15]
2014	Member of Jury at 20th Kolkata International Film Festival, India[16]
2014	Head of Jury at 68th Edinburgh International Film Festival, Edinburgh[17]
2014	Member of Jury at 4th International Parvin E'tesami Film Festival, Tehran[18]
2014	Member of Jury at 12th Pune International Film Festival, India[19]
2013	Member of Jury at 27th Isfahan International Children Film Festival, Isfahan[20]
2012	Member of Jury at Abu Dhabi Film Festival
2011	Member of Jury at International Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival
2009	Member of Jury at Karlovy Vary International Film Festival
2008	Member of Jury at Dubai International Film Festival
2007	Member of Jury at Berlin Film Festival
2007	Member of Jury at Cannes Film Festival
2007	Member of Jury at Durban International Film Festival
2006	Head of Jury at Reykjavik International Film Festival
2005	Member of Jury at Locarno International Film Festival
2005	Member of Jury at Thessaloniki Film Festival[21]

^[22]

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Director	Notes	Ref(s)
1990	Temptation	Gohar	Jamshid Heydari		[23]
1991	The Bride	Mahin Nazeri	Behrouz Afkhami		[24]
1993	The Wolf's Trail	Negin	Masoud Kimiai		[25]
	Sara	Sara	Dariush Mehrjui		[26]
1995	The Scent of Joseph's Shirt	Shirin	Ebrahim Hatamikia
	Pari	Pari	Dariush Mehrjui
1997	Wind and Poppy		Ziaeddin Dori
	Minoo Watch Tower	Minoo	Ebrahim Hatamikia
	Shadow by Shadow	Gila	Ali Zhekan
	Psycho	Maryam	Dariush Farhang
1998	Jahan Pahlavan Takhti	Director's wife	Ali Hatami, Behrouz Afkhami
1999	Eve's Red Apple	Neda	Saeed Asadi
	Two Women	Fereshteh	Tahmineh Milani
	Girls in Expectancy	Roshanak	Rahman Rezaei
	The Afflicted Generation		Rasoul Mollagholipour
2000	The Mix		Dariush Mehrjui
	Actor	Roya	Mohammad Ali Sadjadi
2001	ABC Africa		Abbas Kiarostami	as assistant director
	A Thousand Women Like Me	Shahrzad	Ali Karimi
	The Hidden Half	Fereshteh	Tahmineh Milani
	To Have or Not to Have		Niki Karimi	also screenwriter
2003	The Fifth Reaction	Fereshteh	Tahmineh Milani
	One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest	Yalda	Ahmad Reza Motamedi
2004	The Ransomer	Rana	Farzad Motamen
2005	One Night		Niki Karimi	also screenwriter
	Top of the Tower	Leila	Kiumars Pourahmad
	Gone with the Wind	Tahmineh	Sadra Abdollahi
2006	Wedding Dinner	Mitra	Ebrahim Vahidzadeh
	Havana File	Zoya Fani	Alireza Raeesian
	A Few Days Later	Shahrzad	Niki Karimi	also screenwriter
	Who Killed Amir?	Ziba Zibadoost	Mehdi Karampour
	Stars 2: She's a Star	Farzaneh Mashreghi	Fereydoun Jeyrani
2007	The Other Wife	Mahtab	Sirus Alvand
	The Music Box	Ali's mother	Farzad Motamen
2008	Three Women	Minoo	Manijeh Hekmat
	Women Are Angels	Nazanin	Shahram Shah Hosseini
	Mr. Seven Colors	Firoozeh	Shahram Shah Hosseini
	Shirin	Woman in Audience	Abbas Kiarostami
2009	Hot Chocolate	Banoo	Hamed Kolahdari
	24th Street	Nazanin	Saeed Asadi
	Trial on the Street	Nasim	Masoud Kimiai
	The Day Goes and the Night Comes	Marjan	Omid Bonakdar, Keyvan Alimohammadi
2010	Hey to Love	Mitra	Asghar Naeemi
	Democracy in Daylight	Ms. Ehsani	Ali Atshani
	Two Sisters	Mahtab	Mohammad Banki
2011	The Playfellow	Naghmeh	Gholam Reza Ramezani
	Wakefulness	Yasaman	Farzad Motamen
	Final Whistle	Sahar	Niki Karimi	also screenwriter, producer
	Crime	Atefeh	Masoud Kimiai
	Along the City	Fariba	Ali Atshani
	The Princess of the Moon		Elham Gharehkhani, Mehrtash Mahdavi
	Calm Streets	The Reporter	Kamal Tabrizi
2012	The Presiden's Cell Phone	Mrs. Tayebi	Ali Atshani
	I'm His Wife	Shahla	Mostafa Shayesteh
2013	Annunciation to a Third Millennium Citizen	Mrs. Safaii	Mohammad Hadi Karimi
2014	Raspberry	Homa	Saman Salur
	Life Is Elsewhere	Shahrzad	Manouchehr Hadi
2015	Wednesday, May 9	Leila	Vahid Jalilvand
	Night Shift	Roya	Niki Karimi	also screenwriter, producer
	Death of the Fish	Tahmineh	Rouhollah Hejazi
2016	Stolen	Mina	Bijan Mirbagheri
2017	Human Comedy		Mohammad Hadi Karimi
	Azar	Azar	Mohammad Hamzei	also producer	[27]
	Maybe It Wasn’t Love		Saeed Ebrahimifar		[28]
2018	The Truck		Kambuzia Partovi		[29]
	Astigmatism	Mrs. Namiri	Majid Reza Mostafavi		[30]
2020	Atabai		Niki Karimi	also screenwriter, producer	[31]
2022	Squad of Girls	Yeganeh Kamayi	Monir Gheidi		[32]
	Until Tomorrow		Ali Asgari	as producer	[33]
	Laleh		Asadollah Niknejad		[34]
TBA	A Time in Eternity		Mehdi Norouzian	as producer	[35]

Web

Year	Title	Role	Director	Platform	Ref(s)
2018	Forbidden	Parvaneh Asadzadeh	Amir Pourkian	Video CD	[36]
2020–2021	Blue Blood	Tina Fazlirad	Behrang Tofighi	Namava, Filimo	[37]
2022	Rebel	Shima	Mohammad Kart	Filimo	[38]
2023–2024	Seven		Kiarash Asadizadeh	Tamashakhaneh
TBA	Poker		Reza Dadooi

Television

Year	Title	Role	Director	Notes	Network	Ref(s)
1995	Life		Mohammad Reza A'alami	TV series	IRIB TV1	[39]
2015–2016	Kimia	Mahboubeh Maleki	Javad Afshar		IRIB TV2	[40]
2023–2024	Homeland	Shaparak Bahadori	Kamal Tabrizi		IRIB TV3	[41]

Awards and nominations

Award	Year	Category	Nominated Work	Result	Ref.
Bratislava International Film Festival	2015	Best Actress	Wednesday, May 9	Won
Cairo International Film Festival	2001	Best Actress	The Hidden Half	Won
Cambridge Film Festival	2021	Best Fiction Feature	Atabai	Nominated
Cannes Film Festival	2005	Un Certain Regard	One Night	Nominated
		Caméra d'Or		Nominated
Dhaka International Film Festival	2022	Best Feature Film – Women Film Maker's Section	Atabai	Nominated
Dubai International Film Festival	2011	Best Feature Film	Final Whistle	Nominated
Fajr Film Festival	1991	Best Actress in a Leading Role	The Bride	Nominated
	1993		Sara	Nominated
	1995		Pari	Nominated
	1998		Psycho	Nominated
	1999		Two Women	Honorary Diploma
	2003		One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and The Fifth Reaction	Won
	2015	Special Jury Prize	Night Shift	Honorary Diploma
	2020	Best Film	Atabai	Nominated
		Best Director		Nominated
Fribourg International Film Festival	2007	Grand Prix	A Few Days Later	Nominated
Hafez Awards	1998	Best Actress – Motion Picture	Psycho	Won
	1999		Two Women	Won
	2001		The Hidden Half	Won
	2003		One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest	Nominated
	2016		Wednesday, May 9	Nominated
	2023	Best Motion Picture	Atabai	Nominated	[42]
		Best Director – Motion Picture		Nominated
		Best Screenplay – Motion Picture		Nominated
Hong Kong Asian Film Festival	2007	New Talent Award	A Few Days Later	Nominated
Iran Cinema Celebration	1999	Best Actress in a Leading Role	Two Women	Won
	2000		The Afflicted Generation	Nominated
	2001		The Hidden Half	Nominated
	2003		The Fifth Reaction	Nominated
	2007		Stars 2: She's a Star	Nominated
Iranian Cinema Directors' Great Celebration	2022	Best Film Director	Atabai	Nominated
Iran's Film Critics and Writers Association	2015	Best Actree in a Leading Role	Wednesday, May 9	Nominated
	2022	Best Film	Atabai	Won
		Best Director		Won
		Best Screenplay		Won
Nantes Three Continents Festival	1993	Best Actress	Sara	Won
San Sebastián International Film Festival	1993	Best Actress	Sara	Won
Sofia Menar Film Festival	2022	Best Film	Atabai	Nominated
Taormina International Film Festival	1999	Best Actress	Two Women	Won
Thessaloniki Film Festival	2005	Golden Alexander	One Night	Nominated
Torino Film Festival	2005	Best Feature Film	One Night	Nominated
		Special Mention		Won
Vesoul Asian Film Festival	2012	Emile Guimet Award	Final Whistle	Won
		INALCO Jury Award		Won
		High Schools Award		Won
		Golden Wheel		Nominated

See also

• Iranian women
• Iranian cinema
• List of famous Persian women
• Persian women's movement
• Fajr International Film Festival

References

1. "Iran Chamber Society: Iranian Cinema: Niki karimi". iranchamber. Retrieved 2022-03-31.
2. Agency, Anadolu (2021-11-29). "Iranian actor Niki Karimi praises Turkish series, films". Daily Sabah. Retrieved 2022-03-31.
3. "Niki KARIMI". Festival de Cannes 2022. Retrieved 2022-03-31.
4. "Niki Karimi". Cannes Festival. Archived from the original on 2007-09-27. Retrieved 2007-08-31.
5. "Niki Karimi :: Biography". Archived from the original on 2006-04-25. Retrieved 2006-04-18.
6. Cannes Interview
7. "Don't make money from films: Iranian filmmaker Niki Karimi". November 13, 2014.
8. Goldsmith, Jill (2022-06-02). "Tribeca Festival Sets Jury With Jessica Alba, Pam Grier, Darren Aronofsky, Daryl Hannah". Deadline. Retrieved 2022-06-03.
9. "Actress Niki Karimi to preside over jury of Intl. Crime and Punishment Film Festival". Tehran Times. 2021-11-03. Retrieved 2022-06-03.
10. "Niki Karimi on Istanbul Film Festival jury". tehrantimes. 9 April 2016.
11. "Fajr Film Festival announces nominations". mehrnews. 10 February 2016.
12. "Niki Karimi to judge Valladolid Intl. Filmfest". mehrnews. 21 October 2015.
13. "Niki Karimi to preside over Estonian festival jury". tehraninformer. Archived from the original on 2016-10-06. Retrieved 2016-10-05.
14. "BIAFF Surprises with New Films and Projects". georgiatoday.
15. "33rd FIFF press conference held in Tehran". mehrnews. 20 April 2015.
16. "India to Honor Niki Karimi". financialtribune. 10 November 2014.
17. "EIFF 2014 Award Juries Announced". edfilmfest.
18. "Parvin E'tesami Film Festival announces jury members". iran-daily.
19. "Niki Karimi on Indian filmfest jury". khabaronline. Archived from the original on 2014-01-24. Retrieved 2016-10-21.
20. "27th Isfahan Children Film Festival Jury - Niki Karimi". icff. Archived from the original on 2019-01-06. Retrieved 2016-10-21.
21. نیوز, باغستان (2005-10-30). "جشنواره فیلم تسالونیکی با حضور نیکی کریمی در سال 2005". سایت باغستان نیوز (in Persian). Retrieved 2022-12-12.
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34. ""لاله" از جنس سینمای آپارتمانی این روزها نیست". مرکز گسترش سینمای مستند، تجربی و پویانمایی (in Persian). 2021-06-16. Retrieved 2022-06-09.
35. ""زمانی در ابدیت" کلید خورد/ همکاری نیکی کریمی و لیلا حاتمی". خبرگزاری مهر | اخبار ایران و جهان | Mehr News Agency (in Persian). 2022-04-24. Retrieved 2022-06-09.
36. "نیکی کریمی | نیکی کریمی بازیگر نقش پروانه در سریال ممنوعه". مجله اینترنتی حرف تازه (in Persian). 2018-09-13. Retrieved 2022-06-09.
37. "نیکی کریمی در سریال آقازاده و بازی در نقش تینا را ببینید". سینمای ایران و جهان (in Persian). 2020-06-28. Retrieved 2022-06-09.
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External links

• Media related to Niki Karimi at Wikimedia Commons
• Official Website
• Niki Karimi at IMDb
• Profile on Cannes Film Festival website
• Niki Karimi interview with Radio Zamaneh
• Her filmography (in Persian)
• New York Times profile