‘No Other Land' Co-Director Yuval Abraham Slams Oscar Academy Letter To Members In Wake Of Hamdan Ballal Attack

Yahoo

27-03-2025

Oscar-winning No Other Land filmmaker Yuval Abraham is continuing to exert pressure on the Oscar Academy for the way it has responded to a violent settler attack on Palestinian co-director Hamdan Ballal and his Israeli military detention earlier this week.
Israeli director Abraham, who had previously criticised the organisation's failure to publicly support Hamdan in the wake of his arrest, has hit out at a letter co-signed by Bill Kramer and Janet Yang sent to Academy members on Wednesday, seemingly in response to what happened to Ballal.
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They condemned 'harming or suppressing artists for their work or their viewpoints', but also noted that the Academy represented 'close to 11,000 global members with many unique viewpoints.'
Abraham slammed the letter.
'After our criticism, the academy's leaders sent out this email to members explaining their silence on Hamdan's assault: they need to respect 'unique viewpoints',' wrote Abraham in an X post.
He also noted that unlike a previous statement in favor of persecuted Iranian director Jafar Panahi, the letter had failed to mention Ballal by name.
'Compare this, to the academy's rightfully strong position when it's the Iranian government oppressing filmmakers,' he wrote, posting an extract of the letter related to Panahi's detention in 2010.
Deadline has contacted the Academy in Abraham's comments but has not received a response.
In a incident for which there are multiple eyewitnesses as well as video footage, Ballal was attacked by Israeli settlers in his home village of Susiya on Tuesday evening, he was then arrested by Israeli soldiers and held in a military base overnight. The filmmaker has since recounted how he feared for his life.
The attack took place less than a month after Ballal was feted at the 97th Academy Awards ceremony in L.A. with the Best Documentary prize, alongside co-directors, Abraham, fellow Palestinian filmmaker and activist Basel Adra and Israeli cinematographer, editor and director Rachel Szor.
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