MUMBAI: Iran has criticised Hollywood for awarding its top honour to the Iran hostage drama Argo.

"This anti-Iran movie lacks artistic value," said Culture and Islamic Guidance Minister Mohammad Hosseini. "It was awarded the top honour through a massive financing and advertisement campaign ... so that it attracts more attention worldwide," he added.

Iran‘s state television earlier slammed the 85th Academy Awards saying that this year‘s Oscars was the most political Oscar ever, no sooner the news of Argo winning the coveted best film Oscar award broke out.

The broadcaster accused director Ben Affleck of specialising in exaggeration, blowing things out of proportion and creating false scenes.

Argo recounts the long-classified CIA plot to extract six US hostages out of revolutionary Iran, who managed to evade Islamist students storming the US embassy in Tehran on 4 November 1979. The other 52 hostages were held for 444 days in an action that caused the rupture of diplomatic ties between Washington and Tehran.