A renowned Iran filmmaker whose latest movie is up for an Academy Award announced he would boycott next month's Hollywood ceremony in protest of the new U.S. immigration restrictions.
Asghar Farhadi, whose film The Salesman has been nominated for best foreign movie, made the announcement in a statement distributed to U.S. and Iranian media on January 29.
In his statement, Farhadi said he had planned to attend the ceremony but “it now seems that the possibility of this presence is being accompanied by ifs and buts which are in no way acceptable to me even if exceptions were to be made for my trip.”
His announcement follows that of a lead actress in The Salesman, Taraneh Alidoosti, who said last week she also would skip the ceremony, saying the proposed travel restrictions were racist.
The order, issued January 29 by President Donald Trump, applied to refugees, migrants, and green-card-holding legal U.S. residents from seven predominantly Muslim nations: Iraq, Iran, Sudan, Somalia, Syria, Libya, and Yemen.
Others affected include dual nationals of those countries and even European nations.