By Iman Sadri
March 3, 2017
Just call him Oscar Farhadi. Customarily some Iranian Americans named Asghar who move to the United States may choose to Americanize their first name by going by Oscar. Now that Asghar Farhadi is a two time Academy Award winning director, with his film The Salesman, he might as well go by Oscar Farhadi. According to a recent Cohen Media Group tweet, the production company behind The Salesman, Farhadi joins the company of filmmakers Fellini, Bergman, and De Sica to have won the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar multiple times.
As a gesture of solidarity and as a stance against President Trump’s travel ban affecting Iranians and multiple other countries, Farhadi did not attend the Oscars this past Sunday to accept his award in person, despite having had the opportunity to do so. He instead elected to have prominent Iranian Americans Anousheh Ansari and Firouz Naderi attend on his behalf, and read his acceptance speech should The Salesman win. And win it did.
Shirley Maclaine and Charlize Theron presented the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar to Ansari and Naderi as The Salesman’s name was called. After Ansari read the eloquent speech by Farhadi, the audience at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood erupted into a raucous applause, multiple times.
“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 aggression” – Asghar Farhadi
Social media went abuzz with the historic second win by Farhadi. The celebration was enjoyed even after the chaotic ending pertaining to the Best Picture winner. With Farhadi winning his second Academy Award and delivering a powerful and unifying message to hundreds of millions around the world, he might as well now go by Oscar Farhadi, if not formally, at least at Starbucks.
Iman Sadri is the founder of The Persian Observer. He can be reached at ThePersianObserver@Gmail.com
