This is certainly not something you see every day in Hollywood. Actual courage. It hardly ever happens that people put their names on the line to stand up for what they believe in. They aren’t revoking Glazer’s Oscar or anything like that. He isn’t being “canceled.”
Glazer’s speech angered many people, not just showbiz people either. Videos and social media posts cropped up on TikTok, Youtube, and X. Here is the Variety exclusive:
More than 450 Jewish creatives, executives and Hollywood professionals have signed an open letter denouncing Jonathan Glazer’s “The Zone of Interest” Oscar speech.
The list of co-signees provided to Variety Monday morning covers a broad swath of the industry including actors (Debra Messing, Tovah Feldshuh), executives (Gary Barber, Gail Berman), creators (Amy Sherman-Palladino), directors (Eli Roth, Rod Lurie), producers (Lawrence Bender, Amy Pascal, Hawk Koch, Sherry Lansing) and representatives (UTA’s Jake Fenton, Gersh’s Jeffrey Greenberg, attorney Craig Emmanuel). About 50 more individuals have added their names since the open letter was first published.
Here is the letter:
If you are interested in signing it, you can do so here.
And here are all the names.
Here is why I won’t be signing the letter. It isn’t that I don’t agree with it. What I think about it is beside the point. I applaud all of them for standing up for what they believe in and for the Jewish people. But it’s not appropriate for me to sign it, as I’m not a Hollywood professional or an Academy member. I have also made my own feelings known about this, but I’ll say it again anyway.
Here is Glazer’s speech:
Thank you so much. I’m gonna read. Thank you to the Academy for this honor and to our partners A24, Film4, Access, and Polish Film Institute; to the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum for their trust and guidance; to my producers, actors, collaborators. 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 shaped all of our past and present. 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 the — [Applause.] Whether the victims of October the 7th in Israel or the ongoing attack on Gaza, all the victims of this dehumanization, how do we resist? [Applause.] Aleksandra Bystroń-Kołodziejczyk, the girl who glows in the film, as she did in life, chose to. I dedicate this to her memory and her resistance. Thank you.
He is saying even the brutality on October 7th is Israel’s fault. He’s saying Israel should not exist because it is an “occupation” and that the Jews have no right to live there, and so, from the river to the sea, Palestine should be free. Okay.
The speech he should have given he gave on the thank-you cam later.
I’m not going to speak on the war itself. I am not educated enough about it to do that. But I will say I applaud the signers of the letter, and I admire their courage for speaking out. I think Jonathan Glazer is kind of a pompous jerk and an opportunist for standing there in a tuxedo, holding a gold statue, and then going off to drink champagne afterward. He’s not the one whose wife was raped and then shot right in front of him or the one whose child is still being held hostage, yes, even now. He’s just a filmmaker, and who gives a shit. Sorry, but give me a break.
Political speeches at the Oscars are ultimately self-serving. People who win awards seem not really to want them. They need to absolve themselves of the sins of even being there and winning one. And for what? For people to pat them on the back? Write essays? Surely there are better ways to bring awareness to the plight of victims of the war in Gaza. Why not make that movie?
Anyway, you can read the whole story here.
