Over 600 Oscars Voters Sign Letter Criticizing Academy Silence on Hamdan Ballal

Over 600 members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences signed an open letter criticizing the Academy’s “lack of support” for No Other Land director Hamdan Ballal on March 27 following his detainment by Israeli authorities. “As artists we depend on our ability to tell stories without reprisals,” the letter says. “Documentary filmmakers often expose themselves to extreme risks to enlighten the world. It is indefensible for an organization to recognize a film with an award in the first week of March, and then fail to defend its filmmakers just a few weeks later.” Notable signatories include Alfonso Cuarón, Riz Ahmed, Mark Ruffalo, Penélope Cruz, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Todd Haynes, Olivia Colman, and Joaquin Phoenix. Also among them is Jonathan Glazer, the director of the Holocaust drama Zone of Interest, who spoke out against Israel’s “dehumanization” of Gaza in his 2024 Oscars speech.

More than 400 signatories are from AMPAS’s documentary branch. “The statement by Bill Kramer and Janet Yang fell far short of the sentiments this moment calls for,” it reads. “Therefore we are issuing our own statement, which speaks for the undersigned members of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.”

The Academy released a statement on March 26 from Kramer, its CEO, and Yang, its president, that did not name Ballal. “The Academy condemns harming or suppressing artists for their work or their viewpoints,” it reads. “We are living in a time of profound change, marked by conflict and uncertainty — across the globe, in the U.S. and within our own industry. Understandably, we are often asked to speak on behalf of the Academy in response to social, political and economic events. In these instances, it is important to note that the Academy represents close to 11,000 global members with many unique viewpoints.”

No Other Land, which documented the Palestinians resisting displacement in Masafer Yatta, won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film at the 2025 Oscars. Ballal, who is Palestinian, was injured in an attack by Israeli settlers on Susiya, a village in the region, and detained by the IDF, per March 24 reports. He was released on March 25, according to a tweet from one of his No Other Land co-directors, Yuval Abraham.

Related

• No Other Land Director Hamdan Ballal Freed Following Attack in West Bank
• No Other Land Makes a Statement at the Oscars
• ‘You’re Not Thinking About the Film. You’re Filming to Survive.’