Could Iranian Thriller ‘The Seed of the Sacred Fig’ Cause the Academy to Rethink How Countries Select International Oscar Candidates?

Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof’s politically-charged thriller “The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” which has been chosen to represent Germany in the upcoming international feature film Oscar race, is becoming a catalyst for calls urging the Academy to rethink the system under which countries submit their candidates.

Tipped as a frontrunner in the category, Rasoulof’s movie is fueling a rallying cry from a group of dissident Iranian filmmakers and others who are questioning whether national film entities in countries ruled by ideologically-driven authoritarian regimes, such as Iran and China, should be allowed to decide which movies get a shot at the Oscar.

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Secretly shot in Iran, “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” is about an investigating judge in the Revolutionary Court in Tehran who grapples with mistrust and paranoia as anti-government protests intensify and his family life is devastated. The film won multiple awards at the Cannes Film Festival. It will open in U.S. cinemas on Nov. 27 via Neon with the director, who now lives in Germany, expected to be on hand in New York and Los Angeles.

Rasoulof, who in May escaped from Iran on foot to avoid being jailed and flogged for surreptitiously shooting “Sacred Fig” in his country, recently said Germany’s decision to pick his latest film – which was German-financed and produced – as the country’s official Oscar submission “should give great hope” to other filmmakers in Iran whom, he noted, are “making films under censorship.”

Dubai-based producer Kaveh Farnam, who heads the dissident Iranian Independent Filmmakers Association (IIFMA), has long been urging the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to reconsider its rapport with Iran’s state-run Farabi Cinema Foundation, which picks the country’s Oscar contenders. Farnam claims that Farabi is “connected to Iran’s intelligence agency and deeply involved in censorship.”

IIFMA was created in 2023 in response to the Woman Life Freedom movement that grew out of widespread popular protests across Iran in 2022, sparked by Mahsa Amini’s death while she was in police custody.

As this year’s Iranian Oscar contender, Farabi has picked “In the Arms of the Tree,” a first work by actor-turned-director Babak Khajeh that premiered at Iran’s Fajr Film Festival. It’s a family drama about how a married couple’s fraying relationship impacts their children’s world that, according to Farnam, “they know perfectly well doesn’t stand a chance” and was chosen “only because it’s in-line with regime.”

Just as Iran announced “In the Arms of the Tree” as its Oscar candidate in September, directorial duo Maryam Moghaddam and Behtash Sanaeeha suffered another instance of political persecution. They were blocked at the Tehran airport after being led to believe they could travel to Sweden to promote their film “My Favourite Cake,” which sold widely around the world following its Berlin premiere earlier this year, sans directors in tow. The duo had refused to bow to pressure from Farabi to withdraw the film, which is about a 70-year-old woman who revitalizes her love life while living alone in Tehran after her husband dies and her daughter has left for Europe. “My Favourite Cake” cannot be screened in Iran because it shows a woman not wearing the mandatory hijab and people drinking alcohol and dancing.

Farnam, who has produced several of Rasoulof’s films – though not “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” – passionately points out that by empowering Iran’s Farabi foundation, the Academy is delivering the following message to Iran’s young generation of filmmakers: “If your film doesn’t toe the line of regime propaganda, it won’t have any chances of getting to the Oscars.”

Farnam also underlines that over the years, Iran has selected none of several other prizewinning films directed by Rasoulof as the country’s candidate for the international Oscar. Rasoulof, who is among Iran’s most prominent auteurs, was chosen by AMPAS in 2017 to become one of its members.

AMPAS had no comment regarding the latest appeal recently launched by IIFMA for the second consecutive year urging the Academy “to reconsider its partnership with Farabi due to doubts about the integrity of their selection,” it said in a statement.

According to the Academy rulebook, “selection of a country’s film must be made by one previously approved organization, jury or committee, of which at least 50% must include artists and/or craftspeople from the field of motion pictures” and “when an established, approved selection committee is currently in good standing, the creation of a new one is not possible.”

The Farabi Cinema Foundation, which is Iran’s top film promotion and production entity, has been banned from the Berlin and Cannes film festivals ever since Mahsa Amini’s death in September 2022. They are clearly still in good standing with the Academy.

Farabi could not be reached for comment.

Speaking at the Busan Film Festival, where he was a member of the jury panel, Rasoulof noted that besides Iran “there are also other films submitted to the Oscars that are chosen by the regimes of other countries,” adding that he hoped that going forward other movies not selected by film organizations in authoritarian countries “will also have a chance to go to the Oscars.”

China, which has never won an Oscar over the course of the 25 years during which it has been participating in the Academy Awards race, has increasingly veered toward promoting patriotic movies for Oscar consideration rather than critically acclaimed arthouse titles.

China’s recent selections have included 2017’s “Wolf Warrior 2,” in which heroic Chinese mercenaries project power overseas; 2020’s “Leap,” which chronicled never-say-die spirit in the women’s national volleyball team; 2021’s “Cliff Walkers,” featuring spies in action against Japanese invaders; and 2023’s “The Wandering Earth,” demonstrating the power of Chinese science and the country’s newfound proficiency in the sci-fi genre.

While many of its immediate predecessors have been box office successes, China’s choice for this year is the more obscure documentary “The Sinking of the Lisbon Maru.” It documents how 380 British prisoners of war were rescued by Chinese fishermen after the Japanese transport ship they were being carried on was torpedoed by the U.S. navy during WWII.

It is unclear whether an alternate Oscar nominating committee would ever be permitted, either by AMPAS or by Chinese authorities. But other selection tracks already exist. Democratically-run Taiwan hosts the Golden Horse Film Awards, which is open to films in all variants of the Chinese language. The event is currently boycotted by mainland authorities and those mainland filmmakers who seek a career in the People’s Republic, but a handful do participate. And, increasingly, filmmakers including Wang Xiaoshuai and Lou Ye are voting with their feet and making indie Chinese films outside of China.

Russia has been boycotting the Oscars since 2022 due to the country’s tensions with the U.S. over its war with Ukraine. 

IIFMA’s latest appeal dovetails with a separate call made to AMPAS by exiled Iranian filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi, who has urged the Academy to create a new best international feature film category that would give representation to exiled filmmakers, in a similar way to how the International Olympics Committee has created a Refugee Olympic Team that competed for the first time at the Rio 2016 games.

It’s another call to which AMPAS has not responded, according to Farnam, who said he believes that “many Academy members favor this initiative” which is also backed by IIFMA.

Commenting on the decision to select “Sacred Fig” made by film body German Films – which has a selection committee comprising nine representatives from eight different organizations and institutions active in the country’s film industry – Rasoulof said “this had a very great meaning, because they are opening their arms and understanding other cultures and the human meaning that has come from those cultures.”

Now, after finding open arms in Germany, Rasoulof and others are hoping the Academy will finally embrace their cause and help find a way to give more movies that speak truth to power a shot at Oscar.