Jonathan Glazer, who directed “The Zone of Interest,” accepted the Oscar for best international feature film Sunday night with a speech condemning the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
The film followed the family life of a Nazi commandant who lived outside the Auschwitz concentration camp, where more than 1 million Jews were killed during the Holocaust in the early 1940s. The film, Glazer said, highlights the consequences of dehumanization.
“All our choices were made to reflect and confront us in the present. Not to say, ‘Look what they did then,’ rather, ‘Look what we do now,’” Glazer said, reading from prepared remarks on the Oscar stage.
“Our film shows where dehumanization leads, at its worst. It shaped all of our past and present,” he added.
Flanked by two producers of the film, Glazer continued, “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.”
“Whether the victims of October the 7th in Israel, or the ongoing attack on Gaza, all are victims of this dehumanization. How do we resist?”
The speech garnered raucous applause at the ceremony, which featured other moments of protest against the war in Gaza.
Several artists, including singer Billie Eilish, director Ava DuVernay, and “Poor Things” stars Ramy Youssef and Mark Ruffalo all wore pins calling for a cease-fire in Gaza. The pins were part of the organization, Artsists4Ceasefire, and were aimed at demonstrating “collective support for an immediate and permanent cease-fire, the release of all of the hostages and for the urgent delivery of humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza,” according to a statement sent to The Hill.
“The Zone of Interest” was nominated for four other Oscars — best picture, best director, best adapted screenplay and best sound, which it won.