Oscar winner Jonathan Glazer confronts Gaza crisis in acceptance speech

CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES: The Zone of Interest director Jonathan Glazer delivered a powerful message regarding Israel’s bombardment of Gaza during his speech while accepting the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film on 10 March.

Glazer said, “All our choices were made to reflect and confront us in the present, not to say: ‘Look what they did then’ — rather, look what we do now’.

Our film shows where dehumanization leads at its worst.

It’s shaped all of our past and present.

Glazer, who is Jewish, emphasized, “Right now, we stand here as men who refute their Jewishness and the Holocaust being hijacked by an occupation which has led to conflict for so many innocent people.”

He continued, “Whether the victims of October 7 in Israel or the ongoing attack on Gaza — all the victims of this dehumanization, how do we resist?”

The film, set during the Holocaust, explores the daily lives of a Nazi commandant and his family living comfortably next to the horrors of the Auschwitz concentration camp.

Out of all the major award winners, the film’s team is the only one to explicitly mention Gaza on Hollywood’s biggest stages, since the continuous bombardment of Gaza has killed at least 31,000 Palestinians.

Since Glazer’s speech, clips of the speech have been widely shared on social media platforms, including a post by United Kingdom journalist Sulaiman Ahmed, which garnered 5.9 million views on X (formerly Twitter).

BREAKING: JONATHAN GLAZER ACCEPTS OSCAR FOR BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM AND CONDEMNS ATROCITIES IN GAZA

“Our film shows where dehumanization leads at its worst … We stand here as men who refute their Jewishness and the Holocaust being hijacked by an occupation which has led to… pic.twitter.com/Yx2QLydqEN

— Sulaiman Ahmed (@ShaykhSulaiman) March 11, 2024

Acknowledging parallels to Gaza

According to a report by HuffPost, during the recent BAFTA Awards, the film’s producer James Wilson highlighted the parallels to Gaza in his acceptance speech upon winning the award equivalent to Best Film Not in the English Language.

In his speech, Wilson shared a poignant reflection from a friend who had watched the film recently.

“A friend wrote me after seeing the film the other day that he couldn’t stop thinking about the walls we construct in our lives which we choose not to look behind.”

“Those walls aren’t new, from before or during or since the Holocaust, and it seems stark right now that we should care about innocent people being killed in Gaza or Yemen, in the same way we think about innocent people being killed in Mariupol [in Ukraine] or in Israel … or anywhere else in the world. And thank you for recognizing a film that asks us to think in those spaces.”

Celebrities advocate for cease-fire in Gaza, wear “Artists4Ceasefire” Pins

The Oscars ceremony on Sunday experienced a delay as protesters advocating for a cease-fire in Gaza blocked a major intersection where celebrities were arriving at the Dolby Theater.

Several notable figures on the red carpet demonstrated their support for the cause by wearing “Artists4Ceasefire” pins.

Among those spotted with the pins were Mark Ruffalo, Billie Eilish, Riz Ahmed, Ramy Youssef and Mahershala Ali.

Additionally, actors from “Anatomy of a Fall,” Milo Machado Grenier and Swann Arlaud, sported buttons featuring the Palestinian flag.

These red pins were distributed by a coalition of celebrities and entertainment industry members who had collectively signed a letter in late October, urging United States President Joe Biden to demand a ceasefire and the safe release of captives in Gaza.

The pin design features a red glossy circle with a hand and a black heart, symbolizing solidarity and support for peace in Gaza.

Sunrise Coigney and US actor Mark Ruffalo (Photo: David Swanson/AFP)