Oscar-winning director Jonathan Glazer finds public support amid backlash from Jewish celebrities
Zone of Interest director Jonathan Glazer's Oscars speech had stirred a controversy
Looks like Jonathan Glazer has found some support from the rest of Hollywood which doesn’t think that his Oscars speech after winning Best International Feature Film for The Zone of Interest was out of place.
I’m a Virgo creator Boots Riley took to X and wrote, “Salute to Jonathan Glazer,” for “speaking out against the atrocities in Gaza & saying that his movie is about the present day.”
The band Massive Attack also posted on X, “Jonathan Glazer is a filmmaker of the highest integrity, craft & bravery. A filmmaker who researches his subject matter painstakingly, & weighs his artistic judgements with high care & deep humanity. That care, judgement & humanity led to the conclusions of his speech. Solidarity.”
Directors Asif Kapadia and Jesse Peretz also expressed support for Jonathan Glazer’s speech.
Why did the Hollywood Jewish community get upset with Jonathan’s Oscars speech?
The filmmaker started this week on a low after nearly 500 Jewish celebrities issued a letter denouncing his Oscars speech as they wrote: “We refute our Jewishness being hijacked for the purpose of drawing a moral equivalence between a Nazi regime that sought to exterminate a race of people and an Israeli nation that seeks to avert its own extermination.”
After winning Best Film in the International Feature category, Jonathan walked up on the stage and said, “Our film shows where dehumanisation leads at its worst. It’s shaped all of our past and present. Right now, we stand here as men who refute their Jewishness and the Holocaust being hijacked by an occupation which has led to conflict for so many innocent people.”
“Whether the victims of October — whether the victims of October the 7th in Israel or the ongoing attack on Gaza, all the victims of this dehumanisation, how do we resist? Alexandria, the girl who glows in the film as she did in life, chose to. I dedicate this to her memory and her resistance,” he added.
Meanwhile, someone has also started a Change.org petition of support for Glazer. As of now, it has 176 signatures.
