At the New York Film Festival, three instant classics of engagé cinema -- one from Egypt and two from Iran (including BFF Oscar-winner A Separation) -- quite stunningly took on the weight of history. From the confines of house arrest, through a divorce drama, to the living, breathing expanse of the literal Arab street, engagé cinema is most hearteningly alive and well.

In a world where attention scarcity has displaced access as the new information problematic, how do you get your issue noticed? This is precisely the question that confronted Invisible Children, the international NGO that produced the viral online video “Kony 2012.” Since its release on March 5, it has been nothing short of a sensation: within two days YouTube tallied over 11 million viewings. That number tripled by the following afternoon and presently – four days after release – the number exceeds 52 million.

When Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi took the stage to accept the Oscar for A Separation, he spoke of his film as a counter narrative to talk of war and offer a view of Iran “through her glorious culture, a rich and ancient culture that has been hidden under the heavy dust of politics.”

When Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi took the stage to accept the Oscar for A Separation, he spoke of his film as a counter narrative to talk of war and offer a view of Iran “through her glorious culture, a rich and ancient culture that has been hidden under the heavy dust of politics.” During times of escalating political rhetoric, films can help shape and, as Farhadi hopes, reshape national images. For public diplomacy, the Oscars offer lessons not only in culture, but in the persuasive power of storytelling.

This year's Oscar for the best foreign film went to Iran, a country which is grappling with a tense international environment because of its nuclear program. One debate, always important to Iranians, is about the contribution of such movies to the Iranian image.

This year's Oscar for the best foreign film went to Iran, a country which is grappling with a tense international environment because of its nuclear program. Despite its small budget, A Separation has come to generate a considerable amount of discussion both inside Iran and abroad. One debate, always important to Iranians, is about the contribution of such movies to the Iranian image.

Unsuspectingly, Sunday night's Academy Awards turned into a kind of prism of global politics as Oscars were given out to Iranian and Pakistani films as well as to a film produced by a French director with French actors financed with French subsidies.

Richard Nixon had his “ping-pong diplomacy” with China. Maybe it’s time for Barack Obama to try a little “Oscar diplomacy” with Iran...Who knows? If a process of change can begin with a ping-pong paddle, maybe it can also begin with a golden statuette.