As you all know, the 79th annual Academy Awards will be held at the famous Kodak Theater on Feb 25th 2007. Like each year we will see an army of nominees in competition in 24 different categories. If the best director, film, actor and actress categories are sure to draw most of every movie buff’s adrenaline, it should be noted that the Academy also awards many of the unknown talents that contribute to the Art and who are most often behind the scenes in post production for Visual Effects, Costume Design, Music Score, Screenplay or Sound Editing to name a few.

This year the Iranian Community is once again being honored thanks to the superb work done on Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto by Supervising Sound Editor  Kami Asgar who has been nominated for best Sound Editing along with colleague Sean McCormack.

The movie was co-produced by another Iranian compatriot Farhad Safinia who also co-wrote the script with Gibson.  Interestingly Kami Asgar had worked with Gibson on the controversial epic  The Passion of the Christ but also with fellow Iranian Kayvan Mashayekh on The Keeper: The Legend of Omar Khayyam.

Last time another compatriot was nominated for an Oscar it was Shohreh Aghdashloo for best supporting role in a House of Sand and Fog in 2003.

The competion will nevertheless be tough with four other nominees: Blood Diamond, Flags of Our Father’s and Letters from Iow Jima as well as Pirates of the Caribbean :Dead Man’s Chest.

 

But let’s keep our Fingers crossed for our national Kami Asgar and stay tuned for an exclusive interview with him in a near future.

Photo 1: Nominated for Best Sound Editor for Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto at the 79th Annual Academy Awards ©Kami Asgar

 

Photo 2: Kami Asgar worked for Gibson’s Block Buster  epic The Passion of the Christ and  Kayvan Mashayekh’s independent epic The Keeper :The Legend of Omar Khayyam ©imdb.com

 

 

Author’s Notes

 

Recommended Website: Official Oscar website Ceremony due on Feb 25th 2007

 

Recommended Reading: Persian Golden Boys in Hollywood by Darius KADIVAR

 

Recommended Reading: Lessons from the Keeper by Darius KADIVAR

 

Recommended Reading: Monsieur OSCAR Mangez-Vous Ispahan ? by Darius KADIVAR

 

Recommended Reading: A HERO HOSTS: Adrian Pasdar at the 64th Golden Globe Awards by Darius KADIVAR