 In 2019, Norwegian director Anders Hammer traveled to Hong Kong to document the demonstrations that erupted after a bill was introduced allowing criminal suspects to be extradited to mainland China. It was the beginning of the end for Hong Kong's political independence. Hammer's documentary short, Do Not Split, takes viewers into the streets as protesters go head-to-head with the police in a desperate fight to preserve their freedoms. Do Not Split, which premiered at Sundance, has garnered glowing reviews and an Academy Award nomination. The film is also one reason that the Oscars won't be broadcast in Hong Kong for the first time in more than half a century. The Communist Party's propaganda department issued the order to all media outlets not to broadcast the Oscars, according to anonymous sources cited by Bloomberg. Along with Do Not Split, censors object to the nomination of Beijing-born director Chloe Zhao, who is up for best director for her film Nomadland, and was once hailed as the pride of China. But that was before a 2013 interview resurfaced, where Zhao recalled the China of her youth as a place where there are lies everywhere. Beijing is known to react. They will take actions in many different ways if they feel that something is going against their plan. After the movie got shortlisted for Oscars, many people told us that Beijing would react in one way or the other. According to Variety, Chinese censors have also scrubbed mention of Do Not Split, Nomadland and the Academy Awards from social media. One of the biggest social media platforms in China has removed Oscars 2021 and that they have had this cleaning process on the platform and also removed any reference specifically to our documentary. That has supposedly also happened on other platforms in mainland China. The Academy hasn't offered to alter its program to appease Beijing. But American companies, including Hollywood studios, do have a history of making creative decisions that allow them to retain access to the Chinese market. Hammer expects this moral quandary to become a bigger problem as China's market power continues to grow. This will be a dilemma for political organizations and commercial organizations and also entertainment business have to deal with because if they want to stand up for human rights and they want to take a stand against parts of Beijing's politics, that will most likely be sanctioned. Ironically, Beijing's actions are having the opposite of their intended effect. So we have had so many more media requests after this became a news story. The movie had already been out for a little while and this completely changed the situation in terms of bringing attention to this documentary. It has become reported in entertainment news, which is normally not dealing too much with political stuff and in that sense I'm happy and in that sense I also think that Beijing is helping the aim of this movie which is to bring attention to the political situation in Hong Kong. Also, we used to have a lot of freedom, you know, when I was young, I never thought of, you know, I could not say something, but now I find it is really, maybe for something I cannot really say for example, you know, fuck China, maybe I can say it today, but I'm afraid I cannot say it tomorrow. I hope people will get emotional when they see the documentary. That's the aim of the documentary to make people care about what is going on in Hong Kong and how they are trying to stand up against a very powerful political leadership. Since Hama returned to Norway, activists and legislators who oppose Chinese rule have been arrested in mass. The city is firmly under the control of Beijing and the fight to preserve Hong Kong's one-country-two-systems rule is effectively over. Whether do not split wins on Oscar night, Hama hopes his film and the increased attention brought about by China's censorious reaction will shed light on what is happening in the region. These are very dark times for Hong Kong. I think the development that we were following in our documentary has just been continuing and I don't know where it will stop and how serious and critical it will become. I would say it's really serious at this point and it seems like it will continue.