00:00Cease fire now! Cease fire now!
00:03People protesting the Israel-Hamas war outside the 2024 Film Independent Spirit Awards
00:09could be heard inside throughout the ceremony on Sunday afternoon.
00:13A handful of protesters were outside the tent, located on the beach in Santa Monica,
00:16playing recorded chants on a megaphone such as Cease Fire Now, Free Palestine, and Long Live Palestine.
00:22Long live Palestine!
00:24Sources told The Hollywood Reporter that the chants were very audible inside the tent
00:28where the ceremony was taking place.
00:30They could also be heard on the live stream of the event on Film Independent and IMDb's YouTube channels.
00:34According to a source, a bus also appeared to be intentionally put in front of the protesters outside
00:39in an attempt to block some of the sounds.
00:41When director Kelly Reichert accepted the Robert Altman Award for A24's showing up during the ceremony,
00:46she acknowledged the protesters.
00:47Just this weirdness of us being here and celebrating each other and our work,
00:53and also, you know, life goes on outside the tent.
00:58Earlier Sunday, while on the red carpet prior to the ceremony,
01:01IMMA Virgo creator Boots Riley called out Hollywood for not speaking out more about what's happening in Gaza.
01:06And in the place where everybody's got the loudest voice, you're not going to hear many people talk about that, right?
01:13As artists, we need to be part of helping movements that are trying to stop it.
01:17After the show ended, the Hollywood Reporter located Josh Welsh,
01:21the long-serving president of Film Independent, for his response to the protesters.
01:25He said,
01:25At Film Independent, we embrace the First Amendment and freedom of speech.
01:29And this is clearly a moment where people feel passionately about what's happening in the world
01:33and want to speak out about it.
01:34We support that.
01:35Of course, we also want to honor the filmmakers here today in their moment being recognized for their beautiful work.
01:40But I think today was a beautiful show,
01:41and people incorporated what was going on into their remarks in really great ways.
01:46For more on this story, go to THR.com.
01:48This is the Hollywood Reporter News.
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