Over 600 Oscar Voters Slam Academy For 'Lack Of Support' Shown To Palestinian Filmmaker

Oscar-winning "No Other Land" director Hamdan Ballal was beaten by Israeli soldiers and kept in inhumane conditions for more than 20 hours.

More than 600 members have signed an open letter criticizing the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ “lack of support” for Hamdan Ballal, the Oscar-winning documentarian who was arrested Monday by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank.

The letter noted that Academy president Janet Yang and CEO Bill Kramer “fell far short” with their statement Wednesday, which was apparently emailed to members under the subject line, “Our Global Film Community.” The statement didn’t mention Ballal or his film by name.

His 2024 documentary “No Other Land” chronicled the ongoing eviction of Palestinians from their West Bank homes and was co-directed with Basel Adra, a fellow Palestinian, and Israeli filmmakers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor. It won the Oscar for Best Documentary earlier this year.

“We stand in condemnation of the brutal assault and unlawful detention of Oscar-winning Palestinian filmmaker Hamdan Ballal by settlers and Israeli forces in the West Bank,” the letter opened. “As artists, we depend on our ability to tell stories without reprisals.”

“Documentary filmmakers often expose themselves to extreme risks to enlighten the world,” it continued. “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.”