It has been a week since the 96th Academy Awards ended, but the controversy surrounding certain details at the awards ceremony has not yet subsided. Compared with the attention of Asian netizens on the so-called neglect of Michelle Yeoh and Kevin Kwan, the Western world focused more on the famous British director Jonathan Glazer's acceptance speech when he received the Best International Film Award.
Glazer's acceptance speech triggered criticism from Jewish groups
Jonathan Glazer's award-winning work "The Zone of Interest" tells the daily life of Nazi officers during World War II, presenting the tragic massacre from an alternative perspective. The history of massacre has a strong anti-war connotation. At the
awards ceremony, Glazer, who is Jewish himself, accompanied by producer James Wilson and executive producer Len Blavatnik, received awards from award guest "The Rock" Johnson and music After "Bad Bunny" took the statuette from his hand, he took out the manuscript he had prepared. After briefly thanking the Oscar organizers, the Polish Film Institute and the producers, he mentioned the ongoing Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
Jonathan Glazer
"You will reap what you sow. The choices we have made in the past will eventually reflect and backfire on us now. So there is no need to use the Nazis as an example, just look at what is happening now. Know this. "Zone of Interest" shows the worst consequences of the genocide of humanity, which also affects our past and present. At this moment, we stand on this stage to challenge this hijacking of our Jewish identity and the hijacking of the Nazis. Say no to the practice of massacre to justify our own occupation. This occupation has involved a large number of innocent people in the conflict. Whether it is the Israeli victims on October 7 or the victims of the attack on Gaza at this moment, all of these How do we respond to the victims of dehumanization?"
's brief but powerful speech won warm applause and cheers from Mark Ruffalo, Sandra Wheeler and others at the award ceremony, but the camera could not reach it. , and others, such as the black actress Damien Joy Randolph, who just won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, gave no reaction at all. Afterwards, this speech really aroused heated discussions between pros and cons in all walks of life. As for Glazer himself, he did not go to the media center to be interviewed by reporters as usual after receiving the award. He has not further explained his specific views in any way. I am afraid that he has already anticipated the ripples this speech may cause.
"Zone of Interest" poster
Among the criticisms coming from both online and offline afterwards, the most violent ones came from various Jewish groups. Many Holocaust survivors have written open letters criticizing the director's wording for confusing Nazi atrocities in World War II with the current Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The Holocaust Survivor's Foundation publicly criticized Glazer's comments as "morally indefensible" and accused him of "being ashamed of himself for using Auschwitz to criticize Israel."
94-year-old foundation chairman David Schaecter said that among his 105-member extended family, the Nazi Holocaust claimed the lives of the remaining 104 people. “When I heard on Sunday that you used the platform of the Oscars to equate Hamas’s insane brutality against innocent Israelis with Israel’s difficult but necessary self-defense in the face of ongoing barbarity, I was again A heart-wrenching experience. Yes, you are a Jew, you made a movie about the Holocaust, and you won an Oscar. But you want to represent the 6 million Jews who died in the Holocaust just because they were Jewish, including those who 1.5 million children, this is really shameful."
The anti-defamation league, a non-governmental civil organization that best represents the interests of Jews in the United States, even criticized Glazer's remarks: "Israel did not abduct Jews. Or the Holocaust. Glazer's remarks are inconsistent with the facts and should be morally reprehensible. He downplayed the catastrophe caused by the Nazis and justified the heinous acts of terrorism."
Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the organization and a former special assistant to the president in the Obama administration, also wrote on social media: "Director Glazer keeps saying that he wants us to understand that dehumanization may lead to The worst consequences, only to turn a blind eye to Hamas's inhumane practices against Jews and Israelis. Let me say it again: Israel is not hijacking anyone’s Jewish identity. Israel is defending the right of every Jew to exist. "
and Michael Freund, an Israeli political activist who served as a senior official in the Netanyahu government in the 1990s, also wrote on personal social media: "Jonathan Glazer is a A self-hating Jew, a Jew of the worst kind, who used the Holocaust to publicly attack Israel at the Oscars. "Shmuley Boteach, an influential religious leader in the American Jewish community, also criticized Glazer for "betraying his people and losing face."
Stills from "Zone of Interest"
However, there are also Jewish organizations that support the director. For example, Stefanie Fox, executive director of the Jewish Voice for Peace, which has always had left-leaning views, said that Glazer’s views represent the global Jewish community. There is a growing belief among them that they are willing to stand with their Palestinian brothers and sisters, fight for freedom and justice, and oppose the inhumane banditry of the Israeli government.
There is also the American Jewish civil organization "if not now" The founder of "Simone Zimmerman" also expressed similar views in an interview with "Variety". "Glazer said it very well. The purpose of this movie is to sound a wake-up call for us today. . And those who criticize him are also those who strongly deny the atrocities that Israel is committing in Gaza, and the director is right. These people have indeed been hijacking the painful memory of the Holocaust to fuel their own current situation. defense to crime. "
The film industry is divided into two camps.
At the same time, Jonathan Glazer's acceptance speech also sparked a big debate in Hollywood and the global film industry. Those who support him include those who have filmed the popular American drama " Jesse Perez, the American Jewish director of "Girls", Boots Reilly, the Jewish black director of the film "Sorry to Bother You", who won the 2015 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for "Amy" Indian-Muslim director Asif Kapadia (asif kapadia), etc.
Kapadia admired Glazer’s bravery very much and wrote on social media: “Glazer has used his power and status to spread his influence around the world. On the biggest stage, speak out for those who have no power, no voice, or those who dare not speak out. In this industry that has always been very conservative and has various dark histories, Glazer stood up and told the truth. This is what a real artist should do. "
On the other side, producer Richard Trank, who won the 1998 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for his Israeli refugee-themed work "Long Way Home," took the initiative to submit a letter to "Hollywood "Reporter" criticized Glazer's statement as "arrogant, disrespectful and disregarding historical facts". Actor Michael Rapaport, who has participated in popular American dramas such as "Friends" and " jailbreak ", also strongly directed: " You use the Holocaust, the victims and survivors of the Holocaust, make a movie, win an award, and then say no to your Jewish identity in front of the whole world!
In response to this statement, many netizens corrected themselves and said that they had misinterpreted Glazer's original wording, saying that they would "say no to this practice of hijacking our Jewish identity to justify their own occupation." The wrong sentence became "We have to say no to our Jewish identity," which is why he was criticized for forgetting his responsibilities. In fact, many critics did not watch the live broadcast at all, and the replayed video did not appear online for the first time due to copyright issues. .As a result, many industry media, including "Variety", immediately quoted Glazer's speech in text and incorrectly punctuated the sentence - directly labeling the moment when he stopped because of the applause from the audience as a commas, thus leading to misunderstandings from the outside world. Although several media outlets quickly made corrections, the falsehoods spread out of control.
Stills from "Zone of Interest"
The latest person to express his opinion is Hungarian director Laszlo Nemes, who also won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film for his film "Son of Saul" about the Auschwitz concentration camp. He expressed his thoughts on Glazer in a statement to Variety: "This is an important film, made in a different way, with a new cinematic grammar. But the director of this film should have maintained Silence, rather than revealing his shortcomings, shows his ignorance of that period of history and the destructive power of civilization. Precisely because this is an important film, he should have shouldered this heavy responsibility. . He should not have accepted the false propaganda of those whose ultimate goal is to completely wipe out the Jews from the face of the earth."
On March 15, Danny Cohen, another executive producer of "Zone of Interest" ( Danny Cohen, regardless of his status as a colleague, admitted that he "fundamentally cannot agree with Jonathan's views" and criticized the latter's speech for "choosing the wrong place and time."
Danny Cohen, 50 years old, is from the UK. He is the CEO of Arkas Entertainment, which participated in the investment and production of "Zone of Interest" together with the British Channel 4 Film and Television Production Company (film4) and the Polish Film Institute, and its parent company Akas Entertainment The founder of Cass Industries Group was none other than Len Blavatnik, who took the stage with the director to receive the award. This Ukrainian-Jewish tycoon who now lives in London prospered through the oligarchic economy after the collapse of the Soviet Union. His current net worth is as high as US$3 billion. More than ten years ago, he began to invest in the entertainment industry and participated in the filming of "Hacksaw Ridge " and other films; he also established Acas Entertainment nine years ago and poached Danny Cohen, the boss of BBC TV Production Department Serve as the top leader; in recent years, he has invested in a24 Pictures and participated in the production of popular films such as " Ready Player One ", "Bo is Scared" and "Iron Claw".
Danny Cohen, who is also Jewish, publicly expressed his fundamental differences with Glazer on related issues when participating in a podcast. "I also think the war is tragic and horrific and I think the loss of civilian life is horrific, but I blame it all on Hamas. Hamas is responsible for the war and its occurrence and continuation. This is an extermination It is a racial terrorist organization that continues to seize and torture hostages. Instead of using tunnels to protect innocent civilians in Gaza, it uses tunnels to hide itself and let Palestinian civilians die."
Based on this view, he said that he understood why there were So many people were outraged by Glazer's comments, and it was revealed that the acceptance speech was written by the director and his long-time producer friend James Wilson. As for him and his boss, Len Blavatnik, No prior knowledge.
"They spent ten years making this movie and it ended up being something extraordinary, but what people are talking about more in the past few days is what he said in those 30 seconds. I feel like that The situation is really regrettable, and I would rather the outside world can focus on the movie itself." Danny Cohen continued, "This is his movie, of course he can stand there and say what he wants to say. That's no problem. But in my opinion, this is not the right time. The time I can speak is very short, and I cannot explain more background to everyone, which also distracts the outside world from paying attention to this great work of art."
At about the same time, behind the scenes A spokesman for boss Blavatnik finally clarified that he had never been consulted in advance and had never seen the director's speech. In other words, although the director kept saying "we", he probably only represented the views of him and producer Wilson, and did not include the award recipient Blavatnik who was also standing on the stage.
The last time the 66-year-old billionaire was in the news was in December 2023.At the time, Harvard University's then-president was accused of turning a blind eye to rampant anti-Semitism on campus. Soon, Blavatnik announced that he would stop donating to Harvard University. In life, it is said that he is a good friend of the current Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, and he also has a large business presence in Israel. In the United States, he has a close relationship with the Republican Party and has long provided financial aid to Republican politicians such as Trump, Mitch McConnell, and Marco Rubio.
