“Thanks for everyone involved to helping this process and thanks for all the solidarity and the effort from the American friends,” wrote director Feras Fayyad on Twitter.
After two weeks of uncertainty, Last Men in Aleppo producer Kareem Abeed will be able to attend the Oscars on Sunday.
Due to restrictions placed on eight predominantly Muslim countries by the Trump administration, Abeed, who is Syrian but currently resides in Turkey, was denied a visa to enter the country to attend the awards show. Now, after a successful appeal to the U.S. State Department, Abeed has been granted a visa and is expected to be in attendance at the March 4 ceremony.
The doc’s subject Mahmoud Al-Hattar, co-founder of the White Helmets, will still not be able to attend the Oscar ceremony, having been denied a passport by the Syrian government.
“Thanks for everyone involved to helping this process and thanks for all the solidarity and the effort from the American friends for facing Trump ban to help us to be with our film,” wrote director Feras Fayyad on Twitter.
Last week the Academy voiced their solidarity with Abeed and the filmmakers behind Last Men in Aleppo, which documents those on the frontlines of the Syrian civil war, is competing for best feature documentary.
Oscar-winning Iranian director Asghar Farhadi, who was nominated in the best foreign-language film Oscar category for The Salesman, did not attend last year’s Academy Awards in protest of President Donald Trump’s policy. Additionally, Khaled Khateeb, the Syrian cinematographer behind last year’s documentary short Oscar nominee The White Helmets, was barred from entering the country. Both Farhadi and Khateeb’s films went on to win in their respective categories.
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