5 Broken Cameras 
 
 If you follow Michael Moore on Twitter, you’ll be aware that 5 Broken Cameras’ Palestinian director Emad Burnat was detained by immigration officers on his arrival at LAX airport. Burnat is in Los Angeles for Sunday’s Academy Awards, where the film he made with Israeli director Guy Davidi is nominated for Best Documentary. 
 
 In response to this incident, Burnat just released the following statement through the film’s distributor, Kino Lorber: 
 
 Last night, on my way from Turkey to Los Angeles, CA, my family and I were held at US immigration for about an hour and questioned about the purpose of my visit to the United States. Immigration officials asked for proof that I was nominated for an Academy Award® for the documentary 5 Broken Cameras and they told me that if I couldn’t prove the reason for my visit, my wife Soraya, my son Gibreel and I would be sent back to Turkey on the same day. After 40 minutes of questions and answers, Gibreel asked me why we were still waiting in that small room. I simply told him the truth: ‘Maybe we’ll have to go back.’ I could see his heart sink. Although this was an unpleasant experience, this is a daily occurrence for Palestinians, every single day, throughout the West Bank. There are more than 500 Israeli checkpoints, roadblocks, and other barriers to movement across our land, and not a single one of us has been spared the experience that my family and I experienced yesterday. Ours was a very minor example of what my people face every day. 
 
 — Emad Burnat, Co-Director of 5 Broken Cameras 

 UPDATED: Emad Burnat, whose "5 Broken Cameras" is nominated for best documentary, was held as he arrived for Oscar week; he has since issued a detailed statement about the incident. 
 
 Emad Burnat, the first Palestinian documentary filmmaker nominated for an Academy Award, narrowly avoided a mix-up Tuesday at a Los Angeles airport that could have barred him from attending the ceremony. 
 
 Burnat, co-director of 5 Broken Cameras, was detained along with his family by immigration officials after arriving at LAX, his representative confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter. He was released after questioning. Michael Moore, a governor of the Academy's documentary branch and a champion of Burnat's film, helped clear up the situation. 
 
 "Last night, on my way from Turkey to Los Angeles, CA, my family and I were held at U.S. immigration for about an hour and questioned about the purpose of my visit to the United States," Burnat said in a statement issued to THR. "Immigration officials asked for proof that I was nominated for an Academy Award for the documentary 5 Broken Cameras and they told me that if I couldn't prove the reason for my visit, my wife Soraya, my son Gibreel and I would be sent back to Turkey on the same day. After 40 minutes of questions and answers, Gibreel asked me why we were still waiting in that small room. I simply told him the truth: 'Maybe we'll have to go back.' I could see his heart sink. 
 
 Although this was an unpleasant experience, this is a daily occurrence for Palestinians, every single day, throughout he West Bank. There are more than 500 Israeli checkpoints, roadblocks, and other barriers to movement across our land, and not a single one of us has been spared the experience that my family and I experienced yesterday. Ours was a very minor example of what my people face every day." 
 
 STORY: Michael Moore, Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi on '5 Broken Cameras' 
 
 "Emad, his wife & 8-yr old son were placed in a holding area and told they didn't have the proper invitation on them to attend the Oscars," he wrote. "Although he produced the Oscar invite nominees receive, that wasn't good enough & he was threatened with being sent back to Palestine... Apparently the Immigration & Customs officers couldn't understand how a Palestinian could be an Oscar nominee. Emad texted me for help... I called Academy officials who called lawyers. I told Emad to give the officers my phone # and to say my name a couple of times." 
 
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 5 Broken Cameras focuses on Burnat's small Palestinian village and the peaceful resistance it has waged against encroaching Israeli settlements. Shot on small digital cameras and co-directed by Israeli filmmaker Guy Davidi, the film won the World Cinema Documentary Directing Award at Sundance in 2012 and this year's Cinema Eye Award, which Moore accepted Jan. 10 on Burnt and Davidi's behalf. 
 
 "To live in a small town, small village, and just to be traveling around the world to many countries and many festivals and to get many awards, it’s very exciting," Burnat recently told THR. "This was important for me, you know. I didn’t expect that the film would be very successful, and I didn’t expect the success. It’s not just for me, the success is for my village and my people in Palestine." 
 
 Moore told THR: "[5 Broken Cameras] isn’t just one of the best documentaries of the year, it’s one of the best movies of this year. I’d put it on the same level as any of the other great fiction films made this year."
– Emad Burnat is nominated for Best Documentary for his film about the Palestinian protest of an Israeli security fence in the West Bank, 5 Broken Cameras—but he didn't have an easy time of it yesterday when he entered the US to attend Sunday's award ceremony. According to Michael Moore's Twitter account and a statement from Burnat picked up by the Hollywood Reporter, Burnat and his family were held up for more than an hour by immigration officials at LAX who threatened to send the family home because authorities were skeptical of his claim to be an Oscar nominee. The family was eventually released after Moore contacted the Academy, whose lawyers contacted immigration. "Although this was an unpleasant experience, this is a daily occurrence for Palestinians, every single day, throughout he West Bank," says the filmmaker's statement. "There are more than 500 Israeli checkpoints, roadblocks, and other barriers to movement across our land, and not a single one of us has been spared the experience that my family and I experienced yesterday. Ours was a very minor example of what my people face every day." Click for a Burnat interview about the incident via the Huffington Post.