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At this year’s Oscars, Hot Spot director Jonathan Glazer took home the award for most polarizing speech. And the swirl surrounding exactly what he said and what he meant (still a matter of debate) doesn’t seem to be abating.
When the British filmmaker took the stage after the Holocaust drama set in Auschwitz was announced as best international film, he was greeted with a standing ovation. He then referred to the notes he had prepared in advance, thanked the necessary actors and drew a parallel between the “Zone of Interest” and the current conflict in Gaza that was difficult to decipher due to the audience’s applause and his own murmurs.
“All of our decisions were made to reflect and confront ourselves in the present, not to say look what they did then, but look what we do now,” he said, according to the official transcript of the Academy speech. “Our film shows where dehumanization leads at its worst. It has shaped our entire past and present. Right now, we stand here as men refuting their Judaism and the Holocaust held hostage by an occupation that has driven so many innocent people into conflict. Whether they are the victims of October, whether they are the victims of October 7 in Israel or the current attack on Gaza, all the victims of this dehumanization, how do we resist?”
Glazer skipped the backstage press room after the victory and has not given any interviews to clarify the point he hoped to make with his speech. He declined to comment for this story.
That hasn’t stopped people from weighing in: Their divergent views correspond to the spectrum of positions on the war between Israel and Hamas.
“He used his power, his position and the largest world stage to speak on behalf of people who are powerless, voiceless, or those who are too afraid to speak, in an industry that is very conservative and risk-averse and has a long history. history of blacklisting. people,” says Asif Kapadia, who won the Oscar for best documentary feature in 2015 for “Amy.” Variety. “He stood up and told the truth. This is what true artists do.”
That support was shared by Jesse Peretz, director of the film “Our Idiot Brother” and the HBO series “Girls” and a signatory of Artists4Ceasefire, who says: “I think this is a case where it is unfortunately dangerous to try to use a nuanced language.” Employ, because our intense emotions can make us want to distort the meaning behind the words that make us uncomfortable, so that it is easier to reject them.”
But others criticized Glazer’s speech, including Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt, who wrote on …about the Holocaust. Glazer talks about understanding where dehumanization can lead, but he misses the fact that it is Hamas’s dehumanization of Jews and Israelis that led to the current war. Let me be clear: Israel is not hijacking anyone’s Judaism. It is defending the right of every Jew to exist.”
Greenblatt declined to comment further, but an ADL representative tells him Variety which referred to the entire speech and not just fragments that circulated on social networks. Many of those who initially commented on Glazer’s speech, such as actor Michael Rapaport, did not appear to have heard or read the speech in its entirety. (Rapaport wrote that Glazer “exploited the HOLOCAUST, its victims and survivors, while you refute his Judaism in front of the world.”) Others, like commentator Ben Shapiro, did not appear to have seen the film based on his widely circulated tweet the day after the Oscars that said: “Not a single Jew is seen in Jonathan Glazer’s ‘Zone of Interest.’ Those are the best Jews, according to Glazer: the faceless victims screaming in the distance. Ironically, he is the villain: he collects prizes from the bodies of those anonymous dead Jews while ignoring the living who are massacred in the Gaza Strip by genocidal murderers.’” (There are several Jewish characters depicted in “The Zone of Interest” ).
Glazer’s speech and reactions highlight a growing divide in Hollywood that erupted in the wake of the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks in Israel. Even in the room, Glazer’s speech was met with a mixed response. While Mark Ruffalo could be seen applauding enthusiastically in the front row of the Dolby Theatre, others stood motionless like Da’Vine Joy Randolph, who had just won the Oscar for her supporting role in “The Holdovers.”
Best Supporting Actor nominee Ruffalo was one of many Oscar attendees wearing the Artists4Ceasefire pin. He has been an outspoken defender of the Palestinian cause. But he has also worked behind the scenes in efforts to free hostages still held by Hamas. Sources say Ruffalo met with family members of the hostages, as well as people who survived the Hamas attack.
While much has been made of Glazer’s speech, perhaps an even more controversial move was who joined him on stage when he collected the Oscar. Silent behind the filmmaker stood Len Blavatnik, a Soviet-born billionaire with long ties to sanctioned Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg. Blavatnik, one of the richest men in the world, has donated millions to Republican causes, including $1 million to Donald Trump’s inauguration committee alone. Additionally, he was in business with Harvey Weinstein and Brett Ratner before they were brought down by #MeToo allegations. In a further twist, Blavatnik It is informed He is a close friend of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and has contributed large sums of money to various Israeli causes. (A spokesperson for Blavatnik, who is listed as executive producer of the A24 film, says: “Mr. Blavatnik is extremely proud of ‘The Zone of Interest’ and the praise it has received. His long-standing support for Israel is unwavering . .”)
It was also unclear who Glazer was referring to when he said “we” with the phrase “we are here as men who refute your Judaism and the Holocaust hijacking…” Blavatnik is Jewish. It’s unclear whether the film’s producer James Wilson, who was alongside Glazer, is or not.
For Stefanie Fox, executive director of the leftist group Jewish Voice for Peace, those attacking Glazer are simply making their point. “He wants to apply the lessons of the Holocaust to the horrors we ‘face today,’ while his critics want nothing more than to divert and distract our attention from the genocide of Palestinians by the Israeli government,” she says. “Glazer speaks on behalf of the enormous and growing number of Jews who honor our stories by joining our Palestinian brothers in their fight for freedom and justice.”
A similar sentiment was added by Simone Zimmerman, founder of the grassroots organization If Not Now, which calls for a ceasefire and an end to “US support for Israel’s apartheid system.”
“For me, the most important line of the speech, and the one that no one gets angry about, is the idea that this film is intended to be a wake-up call for us in the present,” he says. Variety. “The people who are hysterical about the speech are the same people who are aggressively involved in denying the atrocities currently being committed in Gaza by those who, in fact, invoke the memory of the Holocaust to justify their crimes.”
The last time a Holocaust drama won the Oscar for best international film was Hungarian director László Nemes’ harrowing “Son of Saul,” which, like “The Hot Spot,” was set in Auschwitz. In a statement to VarietyNemes expressed his opinion on the film and Glazer’s speech.
“I really like ‘The Hotspot’ and I think it’s an important film,” he said. “When you make a film like this, it comes with a responsibility. It is evident that Glazer has failed to measure this responsibility, even with respect to the destruction of European Jewry. And it was terrifying that the cinema elite applauded him for it.”
While many questions remain about Glazer’s brief speech, it doesn’t sound like the director plans to answer them anytime soon.