[custom_adv] Karimi has won many awards nationally and internationally for "Sara" such as San Sebastian film festival award for best actress. [custom_adv] She has also recently been on the jury for more than 20 renowned film festivals, including Karlovy Vary Film Festival, the Edinburgh International Film Festival, the Locarno International Film Festival and Thessaloniki International Film Festival and Berlin Film Festival and also the 60th Cannes Film Festival. [custom_adv] She was assistant of Abbas Kiarostami from 1992 to 2007. Expanding on her career as an actor, she wrote and directed the documentary To Have or Not to Have (2001). [custom_adv] In 2001, she won her first award as a director in Iran's Rain film festival for her work To Have or Not to Have, which was produced by renowned Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami. [custom_adv] Nominated at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival for her feature film directorial debut One Night (2005), she said that acting no longer satisfied her and she would like to direct more movies.