“The Zone of Interest” writer/director Jonathan Glazer addressed the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict head-on during the 2024 Oscars.
“Our film shows where dehumanization leads at its worst. It’s shaped all of our past and present,” Glazer said in his acceptance speech for Best International Feature. “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.”
Glazer was joined on stage by fellow producer on the film James Wilson and its financial backer Leonard Blavatnik.
Glazer continued, “Whether the victims of October the 7th in Israel or the ongoing attack on Gaza — all the victims of this dehumanization, how do we resist?”
The World War II period piece is set against the backdrop of Auschwitz as a German Nazi commandant (Christian Friedel) and his emotionless wife (Sandra Hüller) condone the mass-murders of Jews.
The “Birth” filmmaker previously told IndieWire that he wanted “The Zone of Interest” to be filmed like a reality TV show to “make it present.”
“We are looking at the perpetrator square in the eye,” Glazer said of the Holocaust feature. “We can’t dismiss it as a film. We can’t say, ‘I’m safely watching a film.’”
Glazer isn’t the only person to speak out on the Israel-Palestine conflict this awards season. A pro-Palestine protest was heard outside of the red carpet at the Los Angeles-based Oscars awards ceremony. Similarly, a pro-Palestine protest interrupted the Indie Spirit Awards earlier this year.
“No Other Land” documentarian Yuval Abraham said during his 2024 Berlinale closing ceremony speech that he received “death threats” after speaking out on an Israeli channel censoring his movie over claims of it being “anti-semitic.”
Filmmaker Eliza Hittman called for a ceasefire, saying at Berlinale, “As a Jewish filmmaker who won the Silver Bear in 2020, it is important for me to be here. There is no ‘just war,’ and the more people try to convince themselves there’s a just war, the more they commit a grotesque act of self-deception.”
Keep track of all the 2024 Academy Award winners here.
