TEHRAN -- Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Mohammad Hosseini has said that Iran will boycott the 2013 Oscars in protest over the Academy Awards’ silence on the production of an anti-Islam video in the United States.
The amateurish video insulting Prophet Muhammad (S) and posted on the Internet about two weeks ago has provoked a firestorm throughout the Muslim world.
“I officially announce that we will avoid next year’s Oscars as a serious response to the intolerable insult to the Prophet of Islam (S),” Hosseini said during the opening ceremony of a film festival in Kerman on Monday evening.
“Since the insulting film has been made by an American in the United States and no comment has been made about the film by the officials of the Academy Awards, we have decided to boycott the event,” he stated.
Hosseini also called on other Islamic countries to boycott the Oscars in response to the production of the film.
Javad Shamaqdari, the director of the Iran Cinema Organization (ICO), which is affiliated to the Culture Ministry, had urged a board assigned to select Iran’s entry to the 2013 Oscars to boycott the event hours before Hosseini made the remarks.
The board had previously selected Reza Mirkarimi’s family drama “A Cube of Sugar” as Iran’s submission to the Oscars.
The selecting board, composed of nine cineastes and film experts, was appointed by the Farabi Cinematic Foundation (FCF), which is affiliated to the ICO.
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