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Updated: Annette Bening in Tehran Group Visit
Annette Bening joined a delegation of Hollywood dignitaries led by AMPAS president Sid Ganis in an historic visit to Tehran.
Former AMPAS President Frank Pierson at the Iranian Screenwriters Center with director Farhad Tohidi, right, and screenwriter Phil Robinson, left. Mehr/Hossein Golia
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It’s perhaps the most anticipated head-to-head competition in Oscar history.
Kathryn Bigelow’s low-budget indie war film, “The Hurt Locker,” and James Cameron’s 3D mega-blockbuster “Avatar,” both nominated for nine Oscars Tuesday, are going directly against one another for Director and Best Picture, among other categories.
Oh, and of course, Bigelow and Cameron used to be married.
Which film is going to win the big Best Picture prize on March 7?
TheWrap breaks down the competition.
In an historic visit to one of America’s most entrenched adversaries, a delegation of Hollywood dignitaries led by the president of the motion picture academy Sid Ganis is in Tehran on Saturday and Sunday for a cultural exchange.
The delegation was led by Ganis and included actors Annette Bening and Alfre Woodard, Frank Pierson, the former president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science, and producers William Horberg and Tom Pollock. The delegation received approval from the State Department for the cultural exchange, which came barely a month after President Obama - who promised to reach out to U.S. enemies like Iran -- took office. Bening and Woodard donned the Islamic headscarf to tour the city, and Bening expressed hope that the visit would be the start of a new dialogue between Washington and Tehran. "I hope that we can be a bridge to open a dialogue," she said, which was clearly the aim of the visit. The origin of the trip remained obscure, but a White House spokesman denied any direct connection to the administration. But the trip took a tense turn when the Iranian News Agency reported that the art adviser to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedenejad said that Hollywood must apologize for "insults and slanders" about Iranians in films.
"(Iranian) cinema officials will only have the right to have official sessions with... Hollywood movie makers when they apologize to the Iranians for their 30 years of insults and slanders," Javad Shamaghdari said.
He added: "The Iranian people and our revolution has been repeatedly unjustly attacked by Hollywood," he said, citing '300' and recent Oscar nominated movie 'The Wrestler' as among offending films.
The Hollywood blockbuster hit '300', about the Greek and Persian wars, angered Iranians in 2007 for its portrayal of their historic ancestors as bloodthirsty.
Similarly 'The Wrestler' was heavily criticised for a scene of breaking and tearing of the Iranian flag by the picture's star, Oscar nominee Mickey Rourke, the news agency reported.
"We will believe (US President Barack) Obama's policy of change when we see change in Hollywood too, and if Hollywood wants to correct its behaviour towards Iranian people and Islamic culture then they have to officially apologize," Shamaghdari added.
Another indication of how difficult cultural exchange can be came with the not-unusual news reported on Sunday that Iran was charging "29 Zionist officials" -- Israeli elected officials -- with war crimes for their actions in the Gaza Strip.
Regardless, the delegation is an unusual cultural opening toward Iran, and comes in the context of Obama’s promises during the campaign to start a dialogue with the country which has been a traditional enemy of the United States and its allies.
Ganis’s wife, Nancy Hult Ganis, said in an email that the State Department had approved a small delegation from Hollywood “for cultural purposes only.”
But AMPAS spokeswoman Leslie Unger told the AFP that the visit was a "completely private initiative for educational and creative exchange and with no political agenda."
Any visit to Iran would need approval from the State Department because the United States has no diplomatic relations with that country, and maintains sanctions against it.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said in an email that the report that the group was sent by the administration was “not true.”
Hult Ganis said that her husband and other Hollywood figures had been greeted warmly, and showed their films 'Akeelah and the Bee' and also 'Cool Hand Luke.'
The Tehran Times reported that other bold-faced Hollywood names were there for a seminar, writing on Saturday:
"Actress Alfre Woodard “Follow Me Home” (1996), Special Events Programmer and Exhibitions Curator Ellen Harrington, as well as Tom Pollock, the former Universal Pictures chairman, will also be attending the seminars" at a cinema studies house in the capital.
Comments
iSo Says
I know my little chat brother has set up a photo booth at yonja birthday parties and gives away the photos dini sohbet as party favors.You can have people make a RFL banner to chat siteleri use as a backdrop.Have a digital camera, a few memory cards, and a photo printer on site. You can easily charge sohbet $5 a photo. That will be enough to cover your cost for the ink and still make a significant profit to give to ACS almanya sohbet
Raymond Massie Says
Yes, let's deny Annette Bening her FREEDOM of association so we can preserve our FREEDOMS in this country.
That really makes a who lot of SENSE! Think about it.
Hollywood freedom is un-American!! Too bad McCarthy isn't here. He was a TRUE PATRIOT!!!
I mean, why, I ask, isn't Annette Bening home cooking??
Cooking is AMERICAN. Uncooking is UNAMERICAN.
We have to stop that!!
We need FOOD!! Especially in these hard times caused by LIBERALS in Hollywood and San Francisco (and some in Tacoma that I know).
Annette Bening should travel to Skid Row to help the AMERICAN poor, not to the ARABIAN poor in Iran. Let Aladdin take care of them. And let JESUS take care of us all!!!!
Mycall8 Says
The truth is we live in a connected world. The film industry is a major way that people get to know history. How this history is told, is colored by the bend of the perspectives (Governmental, political & religious) and the accepted cultural norm. Meaning to the winner belongs the spoils & the story of what happened. Trash is trash and falsehoods marketed as truth have falsely created mass opinion and perceptions about Iran. Yes, the current form of government there has some pretty strange ways of looking at things. as much as the US wants to control the region in the end we have to let go and let the country itself evolve on it'S own. The problem is: How can the truth be expressed and culturally adjusted to be tolerable to all parties. Mistakes have been made on all sides of the issues. Kind of like how westerns were in the 5os verses "dances with wolves". Best to portray the best rendition of what is known and balance the view points on both sides. Then the viewers have a better place to make their own decision. Of course, that would be probably illegal in Iran. What we have now in Iran (and that whole region) is the result of so many bungles of foreign intervention mixed with geography, military, religious and cultural climate the west just can't get a grip on. Building bridges for peace, tolerance, respect & walking softly in the desert sands can help transform this mess into some kind of communion that can work. I'm not saying that our women should start wearing birka's and all us guys sporting a full beard just accept that we must do in Rome and hopefully lend me your ears....
Ralph Massie Says
oh yea, lets not interact with Iran at all, lets just believe everything that we are told about that nation by the govts of israel and america, yea that would be the solution. Massie, get your head examined!!!
These are actual human beings in Iran, not some boogie men destine to destroy our way of life. The govt is the not the people. wake up and smell the coffee.
Roger Massie Says
I don't believe that anyone from the United States should be allowed a Visa to Iran for any reason. Iran has shown nothing but contempt for our way of life and there should not be any type of relations with a government that would like nothing more than the destruction of the US.
Those in Hollywood would be well served to stay out of politics and policy especially when it comes to governments that are hostile toward the United States. Annette Bening is one of the most liberal of that Hollywood crowd and should not be allowed to go into a hostile country to associate with those who would like to stomp out our freedoms. What Ms. Bening and that delagation fail to understand is that the Iranian government would silence them first.
Another thing that Ms. Bening and delagation should remember is that if this was 1950 and McCarthy was at the helm, their careers would be in peril due to their tendency to UnAmerican Conduct.