US EditionFilm academy apologizes for not naming ‘No Other Land’ co-director in response to attack on him
- On Friday, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences apologized for failing to defend Oscar-winning Palestinian filmmaker Hamdan Ballal, co-director of 'No Other Land', after he reported being attacked by Israeli settlers and detained by the Israeli military in the West Bank earlier in the week.
- The apology followed mounting criticism of the Academy's initial muted response to the incident, where Ballal sustained injuries during a confrontation in his hometown of Susiya.
- Hamdan Ballal, co-director of 'No Other Land', was detained for allegedly throwing stones at a settler, though Ballal denies these allegations and was later released after being detained for over 20 hours.
- Following the Academy's initial statement on Wednesday that condemned harming or suppressing artists but did not name Ballal, over 600 Academy members signed an open letter calling the leadership's response 'indefensible' and stating, '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 filmmakers just a few weeks later'.
- Academy leaders Bill Kramer and Janet Yang issued a new statement on Friday, regretting the failure to directly acknowledge Ballal and 'sincerely apologiz to Mr. Ballal and all artists who felt unsupported by our previous statement,' while reiterating that the Academy 'condemns violence of this kind anywhere in the world' and 'abhor the suppression of free speech under any circumstances'.
152 Articles
152 Articles
Since Oscar, attacks have increased in Masafer Yatta, the Palestinian village where No Other Land was shot.
Awarded the Oscar for Best Documentary Film in Hollywood at the beginning of March, No Other Land has been worth since a multiplication of Israeli settler attacks in the Palestinian village of Masafer Yatta in which it was shot. While its co-director, Palestinian Hamdan Ballal, was violently attacked by Jewish extremists and then arrested by the Israeli army this week upon his return home, the Academy of Oscars has just published a second letter…
Academy apologizes for not naming 'No Other Land' co-director in response to attack on him
The Academy condemned 'suppressing artists for their work or their viewpoints' after Hamdan Ballal was attacked by a settler mob and arrested by soldiers in the West Bank on Monday. Other groups, such as the European Academy, vocally protested the assault
Halle Berry questions if being first Black Best Actress Oscar winner mattered: 'Did it really change anything?'
"It's forced me to ask myself, did it matter?" Berry asks in the documentary "Number One on the Call Sheet: Black Leading Women in Hollywood."Taylor Hill/FilmMagic Halle Berry at the 2025 Vanity Fair Oscar PartyHalle Berry is reflecting on being the first — and only — Black woman to win Best Actress at the Oscars.The X-Men star, who won the trophy for her performance in Monster's Ball in 2002, discussed the challenges of witnessing the Academy A…
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