Academy apologizes for not adequately supporting Oscar-winning Palestinian director

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences issued a statement to its members on Friday apologizing for not adequately expressing its support of the Palestinian Oscar-winning filmmaker Hamdan Ballal.

Ballal, who won this year’s feature-length documentary Academy Award for co-directing the film No Other Land about the difficulties of life under Israeli occupation, said he was attacked on Monday by Israeli settlers. He was then arrested by the Israeli army. Israeli authorities released the director the following day, saying Ballal had been detained for hurling stones. The filmmaker and witnesses deny this accusation.

The Academy’s initial statement in response to the alleged attack, sent out on Wednesday to its roughly 11,000 members, did not include Ballal’s name or the title of his film.

Co-signed by Academy CEO Bill Kramer and President Janet Yang, the Wednesday statement spoke in generalities, such as, “The Academy condemns harming or suppressing artists for their work or their viewpoints,” and, “We believe deeply in the ability of film to illuminate, to provoke thought, and to bridge divides by offering a window into diverse human experiences.”

Kramer and Yang’s updated statement, sent out on Friday and shared by the Academy’s press office on Saturday via email with NPR, was more explicit:

“We regret that we failed to directly acknowledge Mr. Ballal and the film by name,” it said. “We sincerely apologize 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.”

The apology appeared after a wave of online protests against the Academy — first for not responding to Ballal’s attack, and then for not responding adequately to it.

“Sadly, the US Academy, which awarded us an Oscar three weeks ago, declined to publicly support Hamdan Ballal while he was beaten and tortured by Israeli soldiers and settlers,” wrote No Other Land co-director Yuval Abraham on X on Wednesday, before Kramer and Yang released their first statement.

“Several US Academy members — especially in the documentary branch — pushed for a statement, but it was ultimately refused. We were told that because other Palestinians were beaten up in the settler attack, it could be considered unrelated to the film, so they felt no need to respond,” Abraham wrote.

After Kramer and Yang’s initial statement was issued, a large group of Academy members launched a letter of protest on Friday against it. Among the signatories, which had exceeded 800 in number at the time of writing, are Hollywood A-listers including Pedro Pascal, Joaquin Phoenix, Olivia Colman, Steve Buscemi and America Ferrera.

“The statement by Bill Kramer and Janet Yang fell far short of the sentiments this moment calls for,” the protest letter states above the signatures. “Therefore we are issuing our own statement, which speaks for the undersigned members of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.”

In an email on Saturday, the Academy told NPR its updated apology naming Ballal and his film was already in the works prior to the much-signed protest petition, but that the 55-member board needed to convene before it could be released, requiring additional time.

The incident involving Ballal highlights the ongoing outbursts of violence in the West Bank. Attacks on Palestinians have escalated since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza in October 2023.