William Wyler of the most important directors in her career. "Friendly Persuasion" (1956) was awarded the Palme d'Or (Golden Palm) at the Cannes Film Festival. And in 1959, Wyler directed "Ben-Hur", which won 11 Oscars, a feat unequaled until "Titanic" in 1997. He had also assisted in the production of the . Wyler and its star, Charlton Heston, both knew what the film meant for MGM, which had massive investments in its final outcome, with the film's budget having gone from $7 million to $15 million, and the fact that MGM was already in dire financial straits. They were aware that if
The Salesman (2016 film) Jeremy Zimmer, announced that UTA's annual Oscars party was cancelled and a protest rally would be held instead. On 24 February, Farhadi announced that Anousheh Ansari, known as the first female space tourist, and Firouz Naderi, a former director of Solar System Exploration at NASA – would represent him at the Oscars ceremony. The night of the Oscar ceremony, 26 February, as the film won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, Anousheh Ansari took to the stage to read from a prepared statement Farhadi had written which said in part "My absence is out of respect for the people