Film academy apologizes for not naming 'No Other Land' co-director in
response to attack on him
[March 29, 2025]
By JAKE COYLE
NEW YORK (AP) — After mounting criticism following its initial response
to the violent attack on Oscar-winning “No Other Land” co-director
Hamdan Ballal, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences
apologized Friday for not acknowledging Ballal by name.
In a letter to academy members, academy CEO Bill Kramer and its
president, Janet Yang, said they regretted not issuing a direct
statement on Ballal. The director on Monday, witnesses said, was beaten
by Israeli settlers in the West Bank and then detained by the Israeli
military.
The attack, just weeks after Ballal and his fellow directors won best
documentary at the Academy Awards, was widely condemned by numerous film
organizations, among others. The academy on Wednesday released a
statement condemning “harming or suppressing artists for their work or
their viewpoints."
Yuval Abraham, a journalist and co-director of “No Other Land,” was
highly critical of that response, comparing it to “silence on Hamdan's
assault."
On Friday, more than 600 of the academy's 11,000 members issued an open
letter saying the academy's statement "fell far short of the sentiments
this moment calls for.” Among the signatories were Joaquin Phoenix,
Olivia Colman, Riz Ahmed, Emma Thompson, Javier Bardem, Penélope Cruz
and “The Zone of Interest” filmmaker Jonathan Glazer.
After a meeting Friday by the academy's board of governors, Kramer and
Yang responded with a new statement.
“We sincerely apologize to Mr. Ballal and all artists who felt
unsupported by our previous statement and want to make it clear that the
academy condemns violence of this kind anywhere in the world,” they
wrote to members. "We abhor the suppression of free speech under any
circumstances.”
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Hamdan Ballal, Oscar-winning Palestinian director of "No Other
Land," is released from a police station in the West Bank settlement
of Kiryat Arba a day after being detained by the Israeli army
following an attack by Jewish settlers, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP
Photo/Leo Correa)
 After being detained for more than
20 hours, Ballal was released by Israeli soldiers. Ballal and two
other Palestinians were accused of throwing stones at a settler,
allegations they deny. After being released, Ballal told The
Associated Press a settler kicked his head “like a football” during
an attack on his village.
“I realized they were attacking me specifically,” Ballal said at a
West Bank hospital after his release Tuesday. “When they say
‘Oscar’, you understand. When they say your name, you understand.”
“No Other Land,” a joint Israeli-Palestinian production, chronicles
the situation in Masafer Yatta, which the Israeli military
designated as a live-fire training zone in the 1980s and ordered the
expulsion of the residents, mostly Arab Bedouin. Around 1,000
residents have largely remained in place, but soldiers regularly
come in to demolish homes, tents, water tanks and olive orchards.
After not finding a U.S. distributor despite wide acclaim, “No Other
Land” was self-released in theaters. It still managed to surpass $2
million in North American theaters.
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