Jonathan Glazer Condemns ‘Occupation’ and Violence in Israel and Gaza

The Israel-Hamas war was prominently addressed on the Oscars stage on Sunday in an acceptance speech for “The Zone of Interest,” which follows the domestic life of a Nazi commandant whose house is just outside the Auschwitz concentration camp.

The director Jonathan Glazer read from prepared remarks after the film won for best international feature, offering thanks to collaborators before turning to the conflict.

“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.’ Our film shows where dehumanization leads at its worst. It shaped all of our past and present.”

Glazer, who is Jewish, said that he rejected “Jewishness and the Holocaust being hijacked by an occupation, which has led to conflict for so many innocent people.”

He continued: “Whether the victims of October the seventh in Israel or the ongoing attack on Gaza, all the victims of this dehumanization, how do we resist?”

“The Zone of Interest,” featuring Sandra Hüller and Christian Friedel, was nominated for five Oscars, including best picture.

On the red carpet earlier in the evening, some attendees — including the singer Billie Eilish and the actor Ramy Youssef — wore red pins to signify their call for a cease-fire in the conflict. This year’s Golden Globes, Emmys and Grammys included few references to the war, with celebrities wary to weigh in.

James Wilson, a producer of “The Zone of Interest,” also addressed the war in one of his acceptance speeches at the BAFTA Film Awards last month. In his speech, he referred to the walls that people construct in their lives.

“Those walls aren’t new from before or during or since the Holocaust,” Wilson said at the BAFTAs. “And it seems stark right now that we should care about innocent people being killed in Gaza or Yemen in the same way we think about innocent people being killed in Mariupol or in Israel.”