by FilmInk Staff
Bahram Beyzaie renowned Iranian director and member of the Oscars, dies at 87
Asghar Farhadi, a two-time Oscar winner: Bahram Beyzaie was my great teacher
Bahram Beyzaie, a prominent Iranian cinema and theatre director, playwright, screenwriter, researcher, and a member of the Academy Awards, passed away in the United States on December 26, 2025, on his 87th birthday, due to complications from cancer.
According to the report of Mansour Jahani, an independent and international cinema journalist, the film Bashu, the Little Strangera is one of the successful films of Bahram Beyzaie and was produced in 1985 in Iran. It was screened at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival in 2025, and the “Venice Classic” award for best restored film went to its director.
Asghar Farhadi, Iranian director a two-time international Oscar winner, wrote in a condolence message: Bahram Beyzaie, my great teacher, whose works, words, and above all, his love for the culture of this land I have followed with all my heart, has now left this world in exile. I have truly never known a more Iranian person than Bahram Beyzaie in this day and age, and how bitter it is that this most Iranian of Iranians, thousands of miles away from Iran, turns a blind eye to the world.
Bahram Beyzaie was born in December 1938 in Tehran, Iran to a family of poets and literary scholars. He wrote his first play, Arash, at age 19 as a response to Arash the Archer by Siavash Kasraei. Beyzaie has since written numerous papers and published more than 70 books, monographs, plays, and screenplays. He has directed 14 staged plays, ten feature films, and four short films.
Beyzaie’s work is inspired by Indo-Iranian mythology and history and draws on his study of ancient Iranian literature and languages. He has reconstructed the indigenous forms of Iranian theatre in his own theatre and cinema works.
His book, Theatre in Iran (1965), is a comprehensive study of the historical evidence of the roots of Iranian theatrical genres such as Naqali (traditional Iranian storytelling), Kheimeh Shab Bazi (traditional Iranian Puppetry), Ta’zieh (passion plays), and Ruhowzi (a comic type of folk drama).
His monographs and essays delve into a study of Indian, Chinese, and Japanese performing art traditions. His scholarly works, “Where is Hezar Afsan (Thousand Legends)?” (2012) and “Seeking the Roots of the Ancient Tree” (2003), examine the origins of “One Thousand and One Nights” and its connection with other significant literary works of Persia such as the Shahnameh in pre- and post-Islamic Persian sources.
As a filmmaker, Beyzaie is considered one of the leaders of Iranian New Wave cinema with films such as Downpour (1972), Bashu: The Little Stranger” (1989), and Killing Rabids (2001). His films have won awards and screened at festivals around the world.
Beyzaie was a founding member of the Center for Progressive Filmmakers in Iran (1973), the Iranian Writers Association (1968), and The Society of Dramatic Authors and Composers (1963). He was the Chair of the Dramatic Arts Department at the University of Tehran. After the Islamic Revolution in 1979, he was forced to resign from Tehran University and his work was censored or banned by the government.
Bayzai left Iran in 2010 and joined Stanford University as a lecturer in Iranian studies. Since arriving at Stanford, he has staged several plays and conducted workshops on Iranian mythology.
