2026 Oscars: The War in Gaza is Dividing Hollywood

When the Oscars are held this year, there will be two tribes in attendance. “Free Palestine” vs. those who support Israel.

The war is playing out at every festival, from Venice to Toronto. As we speak, The Voice of Hind Rajab, the film about the Palestinian girl who was killed by the IDF, is playing to rapturous crowds and standing ovations. Meanwhile, The Road Between Us, the film about October 7th was almost not shown at all in Toronto, but it has been reinstated. From the AFP:

A documentary about a retired Israeli general who rescued his family from Hamas’s October 7, 2023, massacre that is set to premiere at the Toronto film festival — after initially being cut from the schedule — has become the latest flashpoint in Hollywood’s internal split over the Gaza conflict.

“The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue,” which charts how Noam Tibon saved his family and others during the attack, is due to screen at North America’s biggest movie festival Wednesday.

The Canadian-produced film makes use of actual Hamas bodycam footage of the attack that resulted in the deaths of some 1,200 people in Israel, mostly civilians.

And:

More than 1,000 entertainment industry figures, including Amy Schumer and Debra Messing, had signed a petition accusing the festival of silencing Jewish voices.

Sharon Waxman penned an op-ed for the New York Times:

She writes:

On one side is a deeply wary and often well-established Jewish community that suspects, not without evidence, that stories that present Israel’s point of view sympathetically are unwelcome and that the rising threat of antisemitism is being ignored by progressive colleagues.

On the other is a cohort of politically aware artists and executives, including a younger generation of Jews, who are horrified by the carnage in Gaza yet fear that publicly supporting Palestinians could hurt their careers. Susan Sarandon spoke at a pro-Palestinian rally and was dropped by her talent agency. Melissa Barrera was booted from her role in the “Scream” franchise after she posted criticism of Israel’s military response to the Oct. 7 attacks and appeared to endorse a conspiracy theory that Jews control the media.

And on the flipside:

Defending Israel isn’t without consequence, either. A vocal supporter of Israel, Mayim Bialik, lost her gig as a “Jeopardy” host in December 2023, and some whispered that it was because of her activism. Ms. Gadot, who starred with Ms. Zegler in “Snow White,” gave a revealing interview this summer on Israeli TV in which she said out loud (but in Hebrew) what she avoided previously: “What’s happening in all kinds of industries and also in Hollywood is that there’s a lot of pressure on celebrities to bring up things against Israel.” Like Ms. Zegler’s, Ms. Gadot’s career seems to have slowed.

And:

Nobody wants to court controversy now. But Hollywood has always processed the political through telling human stories. Mr. Ingel pointed out to me that TIFF this year includes four films that told Palestinian stories, which is why he is glad that his group was able to put “The Road Between Us” on, too. One of those four films, the director Kaouther Ben Hania’s Gaza drama “The Voice of Hind Rajab,” won the second-place grand jury prize at Venice.

Culturally, it is better for one’s reputation to be pro-Palestine. If you are pro-Israel, you are not only hated but hated openly and loudly. Pro-Israel is the invisible power, people who are too afraid to come out publicly lest they become a target for attacks and boycotts. It is quite a bind for Hollywood heading into the Oscars, however.

This is a house divided against itself. There was a time when the only thing people thought about the Oscars and the Academy was that they were invented by and run by Jews, many of them immigrants.

When the Academy Museum was unveiled to the public, there was some outrage about the suppression of its Jewish roots. They fixed that last year, per the New York Times, shown below, and a picture of the exhibit, by Josh White/Academy Museum Foundation:

Things are not getting any better with the war in Gaza. They are only getting worse. Israel ordered immediate evacuation and warned residents, from the BBC:

After a night of strikes, Palestinians in Gaza City awoke to orders from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to evacuate the city.

Leaflets rained down over the rubble, showing a map and the order to leave the city. The military’s Arabic spokesman told as many as one million Palestinians living in Gaza’s biggest urban centre to evacuate southwards. “Remaining in the area is extremely dangerous,” he said.

People are being told to go the al-Mawasi area – a small area the IDF has designated as a “humanitarian zone”.

The international voting bloc of the Academy, which is substantial, is likely to be more sympathetic to the Palestinian cause, as opposed to industry veterans. That’s just a guess. The conflict is hardly new, to say the least. Celebrities are forced to take a side or to take a public stance. That will be true heading into the Oscars. How that manifests in terms of wins, I do not know. But I imagine the speeches will revolve very loudly around Palestine, not Israel.

Where do I stand? Like so many others, I am conflicted. This is war. This is what that looks like. It’s ugly. It’s apocalyptic. It’s deadly. At the same time, there are still hostages being held in Gaza since October 7th. Why? If this is a “genocide” and “apartheid,” which I do not believe it is, then why wouldn’t they have given up the hostages a long time ago and saved the Palestinian people?

It seems to me much of what happened on October 7th has been memory-holed, as though it never happened at all. The idea that Israel would not retaliate is like thinking that if you throw rocks at a grizzly bear, it will back off.

People don’t fight wars to lose. You don’t hit a country like Hamas did on October 7th and not expect them to come and fight. They knew that. Probably, they wanted it to be this bad to win over the hearts and minds throughout the world. They seem to be winning that war, while Israel is winning the hot war.

The reason so many celebrities signed that letter is that they knew if they didn’t, it would become a bigger story, not to mention many of them are now emotionally invested in Gaza and Palestine. There will be protests at every festival. This story will only get bigger.

One thing is for sure. We’re heading for a Category Five Shitstorm.