Iranian director Jafar Panahi , who has been selected by Busan International Film Festival as this year’s ‘Asian Filmmaker of the Year’, called on the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) to separate Best International Film submissions from the control of government-sanctioned selection committees around the world.

He was speaking at BIFF just one day after France’s CNC announced that it would submit his Cannes Palme d’Or-winner It Was Just An Accident as France’s entry for the Best International Feature category of the 98th Academy Awards. The Persian-language film is eligible as it’s a co-production with Paris-based producer Les Films Pelléas and distributed in France by Memento Distribution.

Iran’s government-sanctioned selection committee was never likely to su

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