Iranian director boycotts Oscars Annual Luncheon ceremony

Iranian director Asghar Farhadi has refused to attend Academy Award’s annual luncheon as he has boycotted the Oscars after Donald Trump’s visa ban.

Academy Award nominees recently took part at an annual luncheon in the Beverly Hilton to be celebrated for their accomplishments.

Despite the remarkable list of cineastes present at the ceremony, the world media mainly focused on some 40 nominees who did not attend the event, including Farhadi, the Iranian director of ‘The Salesman’.

The Iranian acclaimed director last week said he would not attend the Oscars to protest the Trump’s executive order that bans travel of seven majority Muslim countries’ people to the US.

Absentees such as Farhadi have been in an indeterminate state and expected to miss this year’s ceremony due to the US president’s order.

“There is a struggle globally today over artistic freedom that feels more urgent than at any time since the 1950s,” Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs said.

“Art has no borders. Art has no language and doesn’t belong to a single faith… Just as our work does not stop at borders, borders cannot be allowed to stop any of us,” he added.

Before the final event, where the trophies are handed out to the winners, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences holds an annual luncheon to host the nominated contenders from all categories. It is a semi-formal event for the entire nominated contenders to meet each other in a light-hearted atmosphere.

The luncheon honors all the nominees each year before one from each category becomes a winner. The Academy luncheon was held in Los Angeles last Monday where most of the Oscar nominated cast and crew came out to celebrate their nominations.

The 89th Academy Awards ceremony is due to be held on February 26 in Dolby Theatre, Los Angeles.

MG/HY