Headline Roundup • March 11th, 2024
Director's Comments on Israel, Gaza in Oscars Acceptance Speech Spark Divided Reactions
Summary from the AllSides News Team
Jonathan Glazer, director of the Holocaust film “The Zone of Interest,” sparked divided reactions after his comments on Israel and Gaza during his acceptance speech for Best International Feature.
Key Details: In his speech, Glazer lamented dehumanization and occupation in Israel and Gaza. His film is about a Nazi commandant who lived next to the Auschwitz concentration camp.
Key Quote: "Right now we stand here as men who refute their Jewishness and the Holocaust being hijacked by an occupation which has led to conflict for so many innocent people, whether the victims of October 7 in Israel or the ongoing attack in Gaza," said Glazer.
For Context: The team behind "The Zone of Interest" was the only award winner to directly address Israel and Gaza on stage Sunday.
How the Media Covered it: Some sources on the left framed Glazer's speech as a righteous condemnation of Israel's military operations in Gaza. Some on the right framed his comments as offensive to Jewish people.
Featured Coverage of this Story
Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP
As widely predicted, “Oppenheimer,” the biopic of Jewish nuclear physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, swept a number of categories at Sunday’s Oscars, including best picture, in a year unusually heavy with Jewish nominees.
But the most talked-about Jewish moment of the night came courtesy of Jonathan Glazer, writer-director of the cerebral Holocaust drama “The Zone of Interest,” who used his acceptance speech to comment on the Israel-Hamas war.
Standing alongside producers James Wilson and Len Blavatnik during his acceptance speech for best international feature, Glazer, who is Jewish and came to Israel on...
Rodin Eckenroth / Getty Images
The director of a Holocaust film that won an award on Sunday night at the Oscars used his moment on stage to slam Israel with false claims about what is going on inside of Gaza.
Jonathan Glazer — who directed “The Zone of Interest,” a film about the life of a Nazi commandant who lived next to the Auschwitz concentration camp that won the Academy Award for Best International Film — first thanked all the institutions that helped him create the film.
“All our choices were made to reflect and confront us...
GINA FERAZZI VIA GETTY IMAGES
“The Zone of Interest” director Jonathan Glazer called out Israel’s bombardment of Gaza while accepting the Academy Award for Best International Film, one of the only award winners Sunday to directly acknowledge the war in Gaza onstage.
“All our choices were made to reflect and confront us in the present, not to say: ‘Look what they did then’ — rather, look what we do now. Our film shows where dehumanization leads at its worst. It’s shaped all of our past and present. Right now, we stand here as men who...
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