Tributes have been paid to the acclaimed Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami, who has died in Paris after a battle with cancer. He was 76.
The Tehran-born filmmaker won the Palme D'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1997 for Taste of Cherry. Kiarostami made over 40 films during his career and was celebrated for his poetic approach to filmmaking.
Kiarostami's other films included Certified Copy (2010), Ten (2002) and The Wind Will Carry Us (1999). His last feature was 2012's Like Someone in Love. Last week, Oscar organisers the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences had invited him to join the Academy as part of its 683-strong 'Class of 2016'.
Paying tribute, director Martin Scorsese described Kiarostami as "a true gentleman, and, truly, one of our great artists".
"Some refer to his pictures as 'minimal' or 'minimalist', but it's actually the opposite: every scene in Taste of Cherry or Where Is the Friend's House? is overflowing with beauty and surprise, patiently and exquisitely captured," said Scorsese.
"I got to know Abbas over the last 10 or 15 years. He was a very special human being: quiet, elegant, modest, articulate, and quite observant - I don't think he missed anything. Our paths crossed too seldom, and I was always glad when they did."
Abbas Kiarostami with Certified Copy star Juliette Binoche at the Pusan International Film Festival in Busan, South Korea in October 2010
Kiarostami's compatriot Asghar Farhadi, the director of the Oscar-winning A Separation, said: "He wasn't just a filmmaker; he was a modern mystic, both in his cinema and his private life. He definitely paved ways for others and influenced a great deal of people.
"It's not just the world of cinema that has lost a great man; the whole world has lost someone really great."
