Iranian Oscar winners urge international military action as protests intensify

Two Iranian Oscar winners have called on the international community to intervene militarily in Iran, citing widespread killings and human rights abuses.

Hossein Molayemi and Shirin Sohani, directors of “In the Shadow of the Cypress”, described the situation as a “national tragedy unfolding under enforced silence” and warned that without intervention, the Iranian people “cannot dismantle a regime that has made peaceful change impossible,” Caliber.Az reports per US media.

“What is happening in Iran right now cannot be reduced to headlines or statistics. It is a national tragedy unfolding under enforced silence,” they wrote.

They highlighted mass killings of unarmed civilians: “live ammunition fired into crowds, people shot in public squares and bodies disappearing in the dark.” They said the regime cuts internet and phone lines to prevent families from connecting and to limit international awareness.

“Despite this blackout, credible reports from inside Iran indicate that at least 12,000 people have already been killed in the streets. The true number is likely far higher. The regime conceals corpses, intimidates families and falsifies records. This is not repression alone. It is extermination,” they wrote.

Molayemi and Sohani also cited severe economic hardship, with average monthly incomes collapsing to $100–150. “Families cannot afford food, medicine or shelter. Poverty is no longer accidental, it is structural,” they said.

They argued that peaceful avenues for reform have been blocked for decades. “They are not asking for cosmetic reforms. They are demanding an end of the system itself,” they wrote.

Accusing the regime’s allies of controlling international narratives, they said: “They deliberately reduce the demands of the Iranian people to issues like hijab laws or limited women’s rights, while censoring the truth: This is a national revolution against the entire ruling structure.”

They noted that many Iranians support Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi as a transitional leader. “For years, some have tried to erase this reality by imposing artificial figures, fragmenting leadership and weakening the movement because a united people with a clear alternative terrifies the regime,” they said.

“No one welcomes foreign military intervention in their country. But when a state wages war on its own people, when mass killing becomes policy and when civilians are left defenseless, non-intervention is no longer neutrality — it is complicity. International military intervention is not only a necessity; it is a moral responsibility,” the filmmakers wrote.

They urged global action, saying: “Silence enables atrocities. Attention saves lives. When the world watches, it becomes harder for this regime to kill in the dark. That is why media coverage matters. That is why artists, journalists, public figures, human rights organisations, cultural institutions and governments must speak — and act — now. We must ensure that history does not record that, in the 21st century, humanity looked away while a peaceful nation was crushed in silence.”

Earlier, Iranian director Jafar Panahi called on Hollywood and the international film community to support protestors in Iran. Receiving the Best International Film award for It Was Just an Accident, Panahi highlighted the ongoing violence in his home country, describing it as “a reality ridden with bullets, day after day.”

Panahi, who filmed his latest movie in secret and was recently sentenced in absentia to another year in prison, stressed that cinema should now use its voice to confront Iran’s crackdown. He urged artists to speak out, appeal to governments, and not remain silent as bloodshed continues on Iranian streets.

Panahi has previously condemned the Iranian government’s repression alongside fellow filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof, warning that “a massacre is coming” if the international community does not act.

By Aghakazim Guliyev