Academy Awards officials have issued a formal statement after receiving extreme backlash over neglecting Oscar-winner Hamdan Ballal’s detention by Israeli military.
On Friday, March 28, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences issued a follow-up letter to its 11,000 members after receiving huge criticism for not supporting the No Other Land co-director publicly, reported Variety.
Hamdan Ballal, who recently won an Oscar for co-directing Palestinian-Israeli documentary, No Other Land, was recently detained by Israeli armed forces.
In the statement sent by the Academy, the officials apologized for excluding both Hamdan and his documentary from a statement issued earlier this week.
Related: Israeli-Palestinian documentary ‘No Other Land’ wins big at Oscars 2025
Oscars’ follow-up letter reads, “On Wednesday, we sent a letter in response to reports of violence against Oscar winner Hamdan Ballal, co-director of No Other Land, connected to his artistic expression. We regret that we failed to directly acknowledge Mr. Ballal and the film by name.”
It continued, “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. We abhor the suppression of free speech under any circumstances.”
Related: Hollywood stars call out Oscars over silence on ‘No Other Land’ co-director’s assault
The letter was signed by Academy’s CEO Bill Kramer and President Janel Yang.
