No to war. And a free Palestine.” So said Javier Bardem at the Oscars this year, before he, along with Priyanka Chopra Jonas, presented the award for the Best International Feature to Joachim Trier for Sentimental Value. The applause that greeted this sentiment was deafening.

Two years ago, the same award became the occasion for another political statement. Accepting the trophy for The Zone of Interest, filmmaker Jonathan Glazer called out the “hijacking” of the Jewish identity and the Holocaust by “an illegal occupation”. It had been just six months since the October 7 attack by Hamas and Israel’s disproportionate response as it reduced Gaza to rubble. Applause greeted this speech, too, but as the camera panned across the room, it showed an audience that was largely — and stubbornly — silent.

There is something ritualistic about how the same debate surfaces every year: Were the Academy Awards “too political”? The show has certainly had such moments in the past, most famously when Michael Moore attacked US President George W Bush at the 2003 ceremony, shortly after the US attacked Iraq. He was met with open hostility from a large section of the audience, as was Bert Schneider, winner of the 1975 documentary feature award for the anti-Vietnam war film Hearts and Minds, when he read out........

© Indian Express