What did Jonathan Glazer say during his Oscars acceptance speech? Controversy over Gaza remarks explained

At the 96th Academy Awards, Jonathan Glazer accepted the Best International Feature Oscar for The Zone of Interest.

The British filmmaker condemned the violence in the Middle East on Sunday, March 10, as he accepted the award.

He went on to invite the audience to think about how they could "resist" the "dehumanization" of the Gaza War.

The German-language British film depicts the carefree lives of a Nazi commandant and his family close to the unimaginable horrors of Auschwitz. As per Times, the author and director of the film said,

“Our film shows where dehumanization leads at its worst… 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 people, whether the victims of October the 7th in Israel, or the ongoing attack on Gaza.”

Glazer then asked the viewers across the world who were watching the telecast,

“How do we resist?”

---

Jonathan Glazer’s Oscars acceptance speech over Gaza created a buzz

The Zone of Interest is a drama that follows Nazi commandant Rudolf Hoss and his family as they try to create a perfect existence just outside the walls of the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland during the Holocaust. The movie won Jonathan Glazer the Oscar.

However, the UK and Polish co-production purposely avoids depicting the horrors carried out by the Nazi authorities inside Auschwitz.

Nevertheless, the social media response to Jonathan Glazer's Oscars acceptance speech has been intense. This is due to the fact that during the speech, the director of the Zone of Interest made reference to the Israel-Gaza conflict and claimed that he disputed his "Jewishness and the Holocaust being hijacked by an occupation."

Jonathan Glazer further congratulated his collaborators on the movie in his prepared speech. He then delivered a remark addressing his work and referencing the Israel-Gaza conflict.

According to Times, during that, he further said,

“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’.”

The same source claimed this wasn't the only political remark made this year on the Oscars stage. Many in attendance had current events in their thoughts, from writer-director Mstyslav Chernov's moving plea for Ukraine in 20 Days in Mariupol to Jimmy Kimmel's message of support for entertainment unions, which was woven throughout a painstakingly safe opening monologue.

However, according to Vanity, everything Jonathan Glazer said after that has been misquoted, misinterpreted, or taken out of context by some. Glazer, who is Jewish himself, went on,

“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.”

Owing to some clumsy wording, some spectators mistakenly believed Glazer to be publicly denying his Jewish heritage rather than that a component of his identity was being "hijacked" for military purposes.

However, as per BBC News, Jonathan Glazer was the only one in the largely liberal industry to directly address the carnage in Gaza and Israel, a conflict that has dominated international headlines for the past five months.

---

The majority of presenters and winners at previous Hollywood award presentations in recent months have not direct mentioned the controversy. However, on the Oscars red carpet, Billie Eilish, Mark Ruffalo, and Ramy Youssef wore red pins, signifying demands for an end to hostilities.

On the other hand, The Zone of Interest is the third British film to receive a nomination in this category. The previous two, mostly made in Welsh, are Hedd Wyn (1993) and Solomon & Gaenor (2000).