Production Budget Analysis

The production budget for About Elly (2009) has not been publicly disclosed.

CAST: Golshifteh Farahani, Shahab Hosseini, Payman Maadi, Merila Zarei, Ahmad Mehranfar, Mani Haghighi DIRECTOR: Asghar Farhadi CINEMATOGRAPHY: Hossein Jafarian MUSIC: Andrea Bauer PRODUCTION: Dreamlab

Box Office Performance

Theatrical box office data is not publicly available for About Elly (2009). This may indicate a limited release, direct-to-streaming, or a release predating modern box office tracking.

Profitability Assessment

Insufficient publicly available data to assess profitability.

INDUSTRY IMPACT

AWARDS & RECOGNITION

Summary: 23 wins & 17 nominations

Awards Won: ★ Silver Bear for Best Director

Nominations: ○ International Submission to the Academy Awards ○ Asia Pacific Screen Award for Best Feature Film

Additional Recognition: * Won Asia Pacific Screen Award for Best Screenplay 2009 (Asghar Farhadi) * Won Jury Grand Prize Asia Pacific Screen Award 2009 (Asghar Farhadi) * Nominated Asia Pacific Screen Award for Best Film 2009 (Asghar Farhadi - Mahmoud Razavi) * Nominated Asia Pacific Screen Award for Best Actress 2009 (Golshifteh Farahani) * Won Asia-Pacific Film Festival for Best Screenplay 2009 (Asghar Farhadi) * Won Special Jury Award Asia-Pacific Film Festival 2009 (Asghar Farhadi) * Won Silver Berlin Bear for Best Director 2009 (Asghar Farhadi) * Nominated Golden Berlin Bear 2009 (Asghar Farhadi) * Nominated 27th Fajr International Film Festival for Best Actor 2009 (Shahab Hosseini) * Won Netpac Award Brisbane International Film Festival 2009 (Asghar Farhadi) * Nominated Golden Frog Camerimage for Main Competition 2009 (Hossein Jafarian) * Nominated Gold Hugo Chicago International Film Festival for Best Feature 2009 (Asghar Farhadi) * Won Crystal Simorgh for Audience Choice of Best Film in 27th Fajr International Film Festival 2009 * Won Crystal Simorgh for Best Director in 27th Fajr International Film Festival 2009 (Asghar Farhadi) * Won Crystal Simorgh for Best Sound Fajr Film Festival 2009 (Mohammad Reza Delpak) * Won Golden Crow Pheasant (Suvarna Chakoram) International Film Festival of Kerala for Director/Producer 2009 * Won Jury Award Tribeca Film Festival for Best Narrative Feature 2009 (Asghar Farhadi) * Won Reader Jury of the "Standard" Vienna International Film Festival 2009 * House o...

CRITICAL RECEPTION

The film was hailed critically upon the release in its home country. One year after its release, it was voted the 4th greatest Iranian movie of all time by the national society of Iranian critics. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reports a 99% approval rating with an average rating of 8.1/10 based on 70 reviews. The website's consensus reads, "About Elly offers viewers performances as powerful as its thought-provoking ideas, and adds another strong entry to Asghar Farhadi's impressive filmography." On Metacritic, the film holds a score of 87 out of 100 based on 29 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".

One of the strongest supporters of About Elly is David Bordwell, film theorist and film critic, who has called it a masterpiece: "Gripping as sheer storytelling, the plot smoothly raises some unusual moral questions. It touches on masculine honor, on the way a thoughtless laugh can wound someone's feelings, on the extent to which we try to take charge of others' fates. I can't recall another film that so deeply examines the risks of telling lies to spare someone grief. But no more talk: The less you know in advance, the better. About Elly deserves worldwide distribution pronto."

Alissa Simon of Variety wrote in her review: "To many, the film's first half may seem mannered, even boring, with the old pals, particularly the men, indulging in obnoxious, condescending behavior. But after an alarming incident at the 45-minute mark, Farhadi ratchets up the tension, and the pic becomes a mystery thriller of sorts that epitomizes the Sir Walter Scott quote Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive."

Adam Eisenberg in his review from Tribeca Film Festival called About Elly: "a mirror of sorts to Michelangelo Antonioni's stylistic revolution L'Avventura." And wrote: "Here the contrast between Farhadi and Antonioni is perhaps sharpest. Although L'Avventura is certainly cinematic with its relationship between images and themes, ...