Zone of interest Director Jonathan Glazer’s speech at the 96th Academy Awards on March 10 drew criticism from more than 450 Jewish Hollywood professionals in an open letter he released Diversity on Monday.
While accepting the Oscar for best international feature along with producer James Wilson, Glazer, 58, said in part: “Our film shows where dehumanization at its worst leads.”
The English director continued: “Right now we stand here as people who deny their Jewishness and the Holocaust that was hijacked by the occupation, which led to conflict for so many innocent people – whether the victims of October 7 in Israel or the ongoing attack in Gaza — all the victims of this dehumanization… how can you resist?”
The speech was met with mixed reactions amid the ongoing war between Israel and Gaza. An open letter published by him Diversity includes signatures from actors Jennifer Jason Leigh and Brett Gelman, directors Eli Roth and Rod Lurie, creators Amy Sherman-Palladino, Joel Fields and Joe Weisberg, and more.
“We reject the hijacking of our Jewishness for the purpose of drawing a moral equivalence between the Nazi regime which sought to exterminate a race of people and the nation of Israel which seeks to prevent its own extermination,” the letter reads in part.
Christian Friedel and Sandra Hüller d Zone of interest (2023).
Courtesy of A24
The letter continued, saying Glazer’s speech “gives credence to the modern blood libel fueling growing anti-Jewish hatred around the world, in the United States and in Hollywood. The current climate of rising anti-Semitism only underscores the need for the Jewish State of Israel, a place that will always welcome us, as it neither country did during the Holocaust depicted in Mr. Glazer’s film.”
Glazer had no comment when contacted by PEOPLE.
Separately, Zone of interest executive producer and co-financier Danny Cohen said in last Thursday’s episode Unholy podcast, “I just fundamentally disagree with Jonathan on this,” adding, “My support for Israel is unwavering.”
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“I think the war is tragic and terrible, and the loss of civilian life is terrible, but I blame Hamas for that. And I think any discussion of the war, without saying that, to me, lacks the proper context in which any discussion of the war, from my perspective, it should have,” Cohen said.
The militant group Hamas killed 1,200 civilians and soldiers and took at least 200 more hostage in Israel last October. Israel responded by declaring war on Hamas – which controls the Palestinian territory of Gaza – and indicated that a long military campaign to defeat the Islamist militants was on the horizon. But since then, the Israeli siege has greatly harmed civilians and many activists have called for a ceasefire. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu strongly rejected accusations of genocide, saying the country was acting in self-defense.
During Cohen’s podcast, he also said he had been contacted by “a lot of people in the Jewish community” who felt yes Zone of interest is “a remarkable and very, very important film, which in itself tells the story of the Holocaust and forms a very, very important part of Holocaust education.”
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Jonathan Glazer (center) accepts the award for Best International Film at the Academy Awards in Los Angeles on March 10, 2024.
PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images
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“And I think they’re troubled by the sentiment that they feel is mixed with what’s going on [in Gaza currently]whether that was Jonathan’s intention or not,” he added.
For Cohen: “It’s really important to recognize [that Glazer’s speech] upset a lot of people, and a lot of people feel upset and angry because of it.”
“And I understand that anger, honestly,” he added during the podcast interview.
Adaptation of the 2014 novel by Martin Amis. Zone of interest tells the story of real-life Nazi officer Rudolf Höss (played by Christian Friedel), his wife Hedwig Höss (Sandra Hüller) and their five children, who led their daily lives in a house not far from the Auschwitz concentration camp that Rudolf was in charge of. The film depicts the daily mundane activities of a German family, juxtaposed with the horrors of the Holocaust taking place just beyond the fence.
Zone of interest it was nominated for five Oscars this year, including Best Picture, Best International Film and Best Sound.
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Source: HIS Education