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  • 6 days ago
Over 600 Oscar voters have signed an open letter criticizing the leadership of the The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for its initial response to the recent assault and arrest of Oscar winner Hamdan Ballal.
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00:00Over 600 Oscar voters have signed an open letter criticizing the leadership of the Academy of
00:05Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for its initial response to the recent assault and arrest of Oscar
00:10winner Hamdan Bilal. The 603 voting Academy members who signed the letter include Olivia
00:17Coleman, Javier Bardem, Mark Ruffalo, Ava DuVernay, Emma Thompson, Joaquin Phoenix,
00:23Tony Kushner, Richard Gere, Andrea Risborough, Todd Haynes, Sandra Oh, Penelope Cruz, Natasha
00:30Leone, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Peter Sarsgaard, and Elizabeth Olsen, among many others. The letter
00:36reads in part, we stand in condemnation of the brutal assault and unlawful detention of Oscar-winning
00:42Palestinian filmmaker Hamdan Bilal by settlers and Israeli forces in the West Bank. The statement
00:48goes on to say, documentary filmmakers often expose themselves to extreme risks to enlighten
00:54the world. It is indefensible for an organization to recognize a film with an award in the first
00:58week of March and then fail to defend its filmmakers just a few weeks later. To win an Oscar is not an
01:04easy task. Most films in competition are buoyed by wide distribution and exorbitantly priced campaigns
01:10directed at voting members. For no other land, to win an Oscar without these advantages speaks to how
01:15important the film is to the voting membership. The letter concludes by saying,
01:19the targeting of Bilal is not just an attack on one filmmaker. It is an attack on all those who
01:24dare to bear witness and tell inconvenient truths. We will continue to watch over this film team.
01:29Winning an Oscar has put their lives in increasing danger. We will not mince words when the safety of
01:34fellow artists is at stake. The letter comes after Academy leaders Bill Kramer and Janet Yang put out a
01:39statement Wednesday that suggested the beating and arrest of Bilal is something Academy members will
01:44quote, have many unique viewpoints on. Bilal, who won an Oscar for co-directing Best Documentary
01:49Feature winner No Other Land, was attacked and arrested by the Israeli military earlier this week
01:54during a confrontation with settlers that took place on the West Bank. He was released the next day.
01:59For more on this story and all the latest updates, go to THR.com. This is the Hollywood Reporter News.
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