Academy apologizes for the declaration on Hamdan Ballal Attack

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences apologized for his response to an attack on the Oscar -winning filmmaker Hamdan Ballal after the pressure of the Voting members.

Hundreds of members of the Academy criticized the award organization for not having recognized Ballal by their name in his initial declaration shared after the Palestinian director said that he had been attacked by Israeli colonists held by soldiers in the West Bank earlier this week.

The Academy published the Declaration on March 26, condemning attempts to “harm or delete artists for their work or their views”, but it did not directly appoint Ballal – the “No Other Land” co -director, which won the price for the best documentary to the Oscars of this year.

An open letter signed by more than 700 of the members of the organization of the organization said that the Academy’s declaration “was far from the feelings of this moment.”

“It is indefensible for an organization to recognize a film with a prize during the first week of March, then defending his filmmakers a few weeks later,” read the letter in part. He was co-signed by Mark Ruffalo, Javier Bardem, Olivia Colman and Joaquin Phoenix, among the other personalities in the film industry.

After a meeting with the Academy’s board of directors, the CEO of the Academy, Bill Kramer, and its president, Janet Yang, told members that they had regretted their inability to recognize the winner of the Palestinian Oscars.

In a new statement published Friday and shared with Business Insider, the Academy said: “Wednesday, we sent a letter in response to violence reports against the winner of Oscar, Hamdan Ballal, co-director of No Ether Land, linked to his artistic expression. We regret not directly recognizing Mr. Ballal and the name film.”

“We sincerely apologize to Mr. Ballal and all the artists who did not feel taken care of by our previous declaration and want to clearly indicate that the Academy condemns violence of this kind all over the world,” he continues. “We disturb the suppression of freedom of expression in all circumstances.”

Ballal, with the filmmakers Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor and Basel Adra, received the Oscar for best documentary during the 97th Academy award ceremony in early March.

The film, which was produced between 2019 and 2023, documents the displacement of the Palestinians of their houses in the region of Masafer Yatta in the West Bank, focusing on the development alliance between Adra, Palestinian activist, and Abraham, an Israeli journalist.

The documentary had trouble finding a distributor in the United States, and the producers finally chose to self-distribute the film, which a critic of the New York Times described as “daring and devastating”.

Since its theatrical release in January, “no other land” has only reported almost $ 2 million at the national level.

The open letter from the members of the Academy said that the film had particularly done the fact that it was not “supported by a large distribution and campaigns at exorbitant prices” of which others loved.

“For” no other land “to win an Oscar without these advantages testifies to the importance of the film for the voting members. The targeting of the ballal is not only an attack on a filmmaker – it is an attack on all those who dare to wear a witness and tell unfave truths”, indicates the letter.

Addressing the Associated Press about the attack, Ballal said he was detained alongside two other Palestinians after Israeli settlers attacked his village. He said at the point of sale that he then had blindfolded for more than 20 hours and he had heard those who kept him say his name and the word “Oscar”.

Israeli defense forces have said that an Israeli and three Palestinians had been arrested for suspicion to launch rocks by the AP.