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How Did Asghar Farhadi Get An Oscar?

Decent Essays

Asghar Farhadi and Oscars At the 89th Academy Awards, the Iranian director, Asghar Farhadi, won his second Oscar in the Best Foreign Language Film category. His first win for A Separation (2012) was a monumental moment as he became the first Iranian to win an Oscar. But his second award for The Salesman (2016) positioned Farhadi next to the names of Federico Fellini and Ingmar Bergman in a shortlist of double-winning foreign filmmakers. Farhadi wasn't present at the ceremony to accept his career-defining award. But his absence spoke volume against the President Trump’s highly controversial executive order, banning immigrants and travellers from the seven Muslim majority countries - Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Sudan and Yemen - to enter the US. The executive order was met with a widespread confusion by the authorities having to implement it and prompted a swarm of …show more content…

His choices were a former NASA scientist, Firouz Naderi, and the first female private space explorer, Anousheh Ansari. The selection showcases achievements made by Iranians in STEM fields, but it also makes a subtle message of unity and global citizenship. Naderi, who was the project manager of the Mars exploration, told reporters that “I think the reason that he chose the two of us … is if you go away from the Earth and look back at the Earth, you don’t see any of the borders or the lines, you just see the one whole beautiful Earth” (Dehghan, “Asghar Farhadi's Oscar message”). Anousheh Ansari read Farhadi’s acceptance speech, which began by thanking the Academy, the crew, and fellow nominees. Farhadi’s speech continued echoing his previous statement, “Dividing the world into the us and the enemy categories creates fear, a deceitful justification for regression and war. These wars prevent democracy and human rights in countries in which have themselves have been victims of

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