MUMBAI: Iranian director Asghar Farhadi, who won this year‘s foreign-language picture Academy Award for his film A Separation, claimed a prize at Cannes to help fund his next film with fellow Oscar-winner Marion Cotillard.
 
Farhadi accepted the European Union‘s Prix Media with $77,000 cash award and later said that he would start filming the as-yet untitled picture starring Cotillard and fellow French actor Tahar Rahim later this year.
 
"At a time when some politicians are trying to transform the beautiful rainbow of cultural diversity in the world into a field of differences and confrontations, I see this distinction as a very encouraging sign," Farhadi has been quoted to have said.
 
Cotillard, who won an Oscar for her portrayal of French torch singer Edith Piaf in La Vie En Rose, is appearing in this year‘s Cannes contender Rust and Bone directed by Jacques Audiard.