Update: Backlash to Academy Awards response over No Man’s Land co-director’s ‘lynching’ leads to apology, new statement
Over 800 members of the Academy for Motion Picture Arts and Science signed an open letter against the body’s response to the attack by West Bank settlers on the Hamdan Ballal, co-director of this year’s Best Documentary Oscar winner, No Man’s Land. Ballal reported that the settlers in the West Bank referenced the Oscar during the attack, which his Israeli co-director Yuval Abraham described as a ‘lynching’. The letter, signed by stars including Natasha Lyonne, Olivia Colman, Javier Bardem, Mark Ruffalo, Riz Ahmed, John Cusack, Joaquin Phoenix, Ava DuVernay, Alfonso Cuarón, Penélope Cruz, Emma Thompson, Tony Kushner and Jonathan Glazer comes after the Academy belatedly condemned the attack in a statement that didn’t mention Ballal by name and referenced the Academy membership’s “many unique viewpoints”. In response to the members’ letter, the Academy’s board has called an extraordinary meeting to discuss a new response. Following the meeting an apology to Ballal was released by AMPAS, condemning “violence of this kind anywhere in the world”, published below.
The letter started by condemning AMPAS’s leadership: “The statement by Bill Kramer and Janet Yang fell far short of the sentiments this moment calls for. Therefore we are issuing our own statement” and continues “it is indefensible for an organization to recognize a film with an award in the first week of March, and then fail to defend its film-makers just a few weeks later… As artists, we depend on our ability to tell stories without reprisals. Documentary film-makers often expose themselves to extreme risks to enlighten the world” and promises to “continue to watch over this film team. Winning an Oscar has put their lives in increasing danger, and we will not mince words when the safety of fellow artists is at stake.” Abraham pointed out the difference between AMPAS’s response over this to its statement after the Iranian government imprisoned Oscar-winner Jafar Panahi in 2011.
No Man’s Land, currently available to watch free in the UK on Channel Four still does not have a US distributor, something the letter refers to: ”Most films in competition are buoyed by wide distribution and exorbitantly priced campaigns directed at voting members. For No Other Land to win an Oscar without these advantages speaks to how important the film is to the voting membership.”
Updated 29 March 2025:
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has apologised:
“We sincerely apologise to Mr Ballal and all artists who felt unsupported by our previous statement and want to make it clear that the Academy condemns violence of this kind anywhere in the world.”
“We abhor the suppression of free speech under any circumstances.”
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