Among the eight dropped categories at this year’s 94th Academy Awards is Best Live Action Short Film category, actor Riz Ahmed claimed the win in this category for his short film “The Long Goodbye”. This marks Riz Ahmed’s first Academy Award win since his Best Actor category nomination last year. While accepting the award for his short film, the actor gave an inspiring acceptance speech speaking about the importance of unity at a time when Ukraine is facing a humanitarian crisis. Ahmed said, “In such divided times, we believe that the role of story is to remind us there is no ‘us’ and ‘them’. There’s just ‘us’. This is for everyone who feels like they don’t belong. Anyone who feels like they’re stuck in no man’s land. You’re not alone. We’ll meet you there. That’s where the future is. Peace.”
Ahmed’s film The Long Goodbye features music from his 2021 album of the same name. The live action short film is based on a South Asian family in London who are attacked by members of an all-Caucasian group. Ahmed, a British actor of Pakistani descent, has cowritten the film along with Aneil Karia. Last year, Riz Ahmed made history as he was nominated in the 93rd Academy Awards’s Best Actor category for his role in the film “Sound Of Metal”. Ahmed is the first Muslim to be nominated in this particular category. In Sound of Metal he played the role of a drummer who loses his hearing abilities, also starring in the film were Olivia Cooke, known for Ready Player One(2018) and Paul Raci.
Soon after the release of the nominations, Ahmed took to social media to express his gratitude and feelings, writing alongwith a couple of Sound of Metal, “Wow! I’m honoured to be nominated by my fellow actors alongside such inspiring performances and am grateful to the Academy for their support and encouragement. I’m equally thrilled for our visionary writer-director Darius Marder and the brilliant Paul Raci, as well as our editor Mikkel, sound designer Nicolas and co-writer Abe Marder. Sound of Metal is about how a health crisis can cut you off from your life and loved ones and force you to grow in unexpected ways.”
Riz Ahmed began his acting career in 2006 by starring in a film titled “Road To Guantanamo”, playing the role of a terror suspect named Shafiq who gets detained by the American government. He then did critically acclaimed films such as Jake Gyllenhaal-starring Nightcrawler(2014), played the protagonist in Mira Nair-directed The Reluctant Fundamentalist(2012), Tom Hardy’s Venom(2018) etc. He also starred in hit series such as The Night Of(2016), which won two Primetime Emmy awards and The OA(2016).