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Random freezes, missing sound and display glitches usually trace back to one bad driver. Find and replace yours safely.Free scan · under a minuteMore than 600 Academy members signed an open letter criticizing the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ initial response to the attack and detention of No Other Land co-director Hamdan Ballal. The letter, reported on March 28, 2025, faulted the Academy for issuing a general statement without naming Ballal or his Oscar-winning film. Academy leaders later apologized for that omission.
What the Academy members objected to
Ballal was attacked in the West Bank village of Susiya and detained by Israeli forces on March 24, 2025, according to The Guardian and the Associated Press. Earlier that month, No Other Land had won the Academy Award for documentary feature.
The Academy’s first statement condemned harm to artists in general but did not mention Ballal or No Other Land by name. It referred instead to the Academy’s members’ “many unique viewpoints,” The Guardian reported. The open letter’s signatories argued that this response failed to defend a filmmaker the Academy had recently honored.
“We stand in condemnation of the brutal assault and unlawful detention of Oscar-winning Palestinian film-maker Hamdan Ballal by settlers and Israeli forces in the West Bank,” the letter said, as reproduced by The Guardian. It also called it “indefensible for an organization to recognize a film with an award in the first week of March, and then fail to defend its film-makers just a few weeks later”.
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Which actors signed the letter?
Actors reported among the signatories included Olivia Colman, Javier Bardem, Joaquin Phoenix, Penélope Cruz and Emma Thompson. Other actors named in contemporary coverage included Natasha Lyonne, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, Riz Ahmed, John Cusack, Elizabeth Olsen, Marisa Tomei and Susan Sarandon.
They signed alongside filmmakers and writers, including Ava DuVernay, Alfonso Cuarón, Adam McKay, Jonathan Glazer and Tony Kushner. These are examples reported by The Guardian and the Los Angeles Times, not a complete roster: The Guardian reported that signatories were still being added.
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How many members signed?
The Associated Press reported on March 28, 2025, that more than 600 Academy members had signed. The Los Angeles Times described support from 600 members that day. Because the letter was still being updated, these are publication-time counts, not a final verified total.
What did the Academy say about Hamdan Ballal?
After criticism and a meeting of the Academy’s board of governors, CEO Bill Kramer and President Janet Yang apologized to Ballal and other artists who felt unsupported. Their follow-up directly acknowledged that the earlier statement had not named Ballal or the film. Kramer and Yang wrote: “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,” according to the Associated Press.
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How to understand the episode
The dispute was about the Academy’s response to Ballal’s attack and detention—not about the Oscars ceremony or the documentary’s award. The sequence matters: the Academy first issued a general statement, members then criticized its lack of a direct acknowledgment, and Academy leadership subsequently apologized for that omission.
Accounts of the confrontation itself included disputed claims. The Los Angeles Times reported allegations by the filmmakers alongside a different account from an Israeli military spokesperson. The open letter and the Academy’s apology address the response and the filmmakers’ treatment; they do not, by themselves, settle every disputed detail of the incident.
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