After “No Other Land” co-director Yuval Abraham took to Twitter/X earlier March 26 to criticize the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for not releasing a statement in support of his co-director and fellow Oscar winner Hamdan Ballal, following Ballal’s beating and arrest in the West Bank earlier this week, AMPAS has sent a letter to its membership clarifying its position on political issues.
Without naming Ballal directly, the Academy‘s letter, co-signed by CEO Bill Kramer and president Janet Yang, condemned “harming or suppressing artists.” It was sent to the Academy’s membership by email the evening of March 26.
What follows is the entire letter:
Dear Academy Members,
At the heart of the Academy’s mission is a commitment to honoring excellence in the motion picture arts and sciences and connecting the world through the power of cinema. We do this through our work on the Oscars, our exhibitions and programs, our preservation and education efforts, and so much more. We believe deeply in the ability of film to illuminate, to provoke thought, and to bridge divides by offering a window into diverse human experiences.
We fundamentally believe that film has the power to enlighten global audiences and highlight different perspectives — and we encourage our members to use their art to do so. The Academy condemns harming or suppressing artists for their work or their viewpoints.
We are living in a time of profound change, marked by conflict and uncertainty — across the globe, in the U.S., and within our own industry. Understandably, we are often asked to speak on behalf of the Academy in response to social, political, and economic events. In these instances, it is important to note that the Academy represents close to 11,000 global members with many unique viewpoints.
We are, however, united in a shared belief in the importance of storytelling, in the value of empathy, and in the role of film as a catalyst. As an organization, our focus continues to be the celebration of creative voices that make up the global community — and supporting your freedom to create, to challenge, and to imagine.
We remain steadfast in this work, and we are grateful to walk alongside each of you in it.
Bill Kramer and Janet Yang
Ballal was beaten by a group of settlers in the occupied West Bank earlier this week, an attack that his co-director Abraham (who made “No Other Land” with Ballal as well as Basel Adra and Rachel Szor, all four of whom collected Oscar statuettes for winning Best Documentary Feature at the Academy Awards March 2) said on X may have been motivated by resentment toward the film having won the Oscar. He was then arrested by Israeli soldiers and held in a prison where Abraham claims he was beaten.
Given that Ballal won the Oscar just a little over three weeks ago, Abraham called out the Academy for not releasing a statement defending the filmmaker. He wrote on X on March 26, “Sadly, the US Academy, which awarded us an Oscar three weeks ago, declined to publicly support Hamdan Ballal while he was beaten and tortured by Israeli soldiers and settlers.”
