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Certified Copy (film)

2010 film by Abbas Kiarostami

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 20, 2026
Entity authorityQ1214594
Source-derived summary

Certified Copy (French: Copie conforme) is a 2010 art film written and directed by Abbas Kiarostami. Set in Tuscany, the film focuses on a British writer (William Shimell) and a French antiques dealer (Juliette Binoche), whose relationship undergoes an odd transformation over the course of a day. The film is a co-production of France, Italy and Belgium. The dialogue is in English, French and Italian.

Certified Copy premiered at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival, where Binoche won the Best Actress award for her performance. Critically acclaimed, the film is considered to be among the best of the year and the decade.

Plot

British writer James Miller makes a stop in Arezzo, Tuscany, on a tour to promote his new book, Certified Copy, which argues that, in art, issues of authenticity are irrelevant because every reproduction is itself an original, and even the original is a copy of another form. A French antiques dealer, who is never named, attends the event with her 11-year-old son in order to have Miller sign several copies of the book she has purchased, but has to leave early because her son is hungry and becomes a distraction. She leaves her phone number with Miller's book's translator. Later, her son suggests that she is romantically interested in Miller, which she denies.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Certified Copy (film)” as 2010 film by Abbas Kiarostami. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Certified, Copy and film.

Editorial reviewA useful identification and reception guide that helps separate the work itself from editions, performances, ownership and later interpretation. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2010—that can be checked directly. The authority record carries competing date values—2010-01-01, 2011-10-13—which should remain separate until their references and qualifiers are resolved. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Certified, Copy and film providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Certified Copy (film)”, the useful work is to connect “2010 film by Abbas Kiarostami” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1214594. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2010.

Critical limits

Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Certified Copy (film)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Certified Copy (film) primary sources, Certified Copy (film) archive and Certified research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Certified Copy (film)”?
  2. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
  3. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Certified Copy (film)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.