Daily Times

The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences has issued an apology for not acknowledging Palestinian filmmaker Hamdan Ballal, of Oscar-winning ‘No Other Land’, by his name in the statement.

Following the mounting criticism towards their initial response to the violent attack on the Oscar-winning co-director of ‘No Other Land’, the prestigious film academy apologized on Friday for not naming Hamdan Ballal in the statement.

In a letter to its 11,000 members, CEO Bill Kramer and President Janet Yang of the Academy said they regret not issuing a direct statement on Ballal, who was beaten by Israeli settlers in the West Bank earlier this week and was then detained by the Israeli military.

After more than 600 of the academy’s 11,000 members, including Joaquin Phoenix, Olivia Colman, Riz Ahmed, Emma Thompson, Javier Bardem, Penélope Cruz and filmmaker Jonathan Glazer, issued an open letter to the Academy, saying its statement ‘fell far short of the sentiments this moment calls for’, the board of governors met on Friday and Kramer and Yang issued a new statement, with an apology.

“We sincerely apologise 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,” read the Academy’s new statement to its members. “We abhor the suppression of free speech under any circumstances.”

For the unversed, the attack on Ballal came just weeks after he and his fellow directors won Best Documentary at the Academy Awards 2025, for ‘No Other Land’.

Ballal, who was detained for more than 20 hours, said a settler kicked his head ‘like a football’ during an attack on his village. He also revealed, “I realised they were attacking me specifically. When they say ‘Oscar’, you understand. When they say your name, you understand.”

The attack was widely condemned by his fellow artists and film organizations.

“We stand in condemnation of the brutal assault and unlawful detention of Oscar-winning Palestinian filmmaker Hamdan Ballal by settlers and Israeli forces in the West Bank,” read the letter signed by Mark Ruffalo, Ava DuVernay and Alfonso Cuarón, criticizing the Academy’s silence on Ballal’s detainment.