Embarrassment as Iran accidentally sends video from inside nuclear weapons facility as Oscars foreign language nomination

TEHRAN: There were embarrassed blushes in Tehran this morning after officials from the Iranian Film Society revealed they had sent the wrong DVD to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Earlier in the week it was announced that Oscar-winner Asghar Farhadi’s French-language drama The Past would represent Iran in the Foreign Language category at next year’s Academy Awards. But following a mix-up, the DVD sent for review was reportedly an amateur video of former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad being given a guided tour around a secret nuclear weapons making facility.

“It was an unfortunate error and we’re asking the Academy to please return the DVD forthwith,” said a spokesman for the Iranian Film Society. “Although if they’d like to rate the quality of camerawork and lighting when Ahmadinejad laughs maniacally while holding a barrel of enriched uranium then that’d obviously be fine.”