The Film Academy apologized for not giving the name of Hamdan Ballal, the co-director of ‘No other land’, in response to attacking him.

Hamdan Ballal, Oscar winner Palestinian co-director ‘No other land’, is checked in a hospital in Hebron, a day after being detained by the Israeli army, after an attack by Jewish settlers in Susia village on Tuesday, March 25, 2025, on Tuesday, March 25, 2025. Photo Credit: AP

After growing criticism after his initial response to a violent attack on Oscar winner No other land Co-director Hamdan Ballal, Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences on Friday apologized for not accepting Ballal by name.

In a letter to the members of the Academy, the Academy CEO Bill Kreer and its chairman, Janet Yang, said that he regrets not issuing direct statements on Ball. The director said on Monday, witnesses said, “West Bank was beaten by Israeli settlers and then detained by Israel’s army.”

The attack was widely condemned by several film organizations by Banglal and his fellow directors a few weeks after winning the best documentary at the Academy Awards. The academy issued a statement on Wednesday in which “to harm or suppress the artists for their work or their approach.”

Yuval Abraham, a journalist and co-director No other landIt was highly important for that response, compared to “silence on the attack of Hamdan”.

On Friday (March 28, 2025), more than 600 out of 11,000 members of the academy issued an open letter, stating that the Academy’s statement “was much less than the feelings of this moment for this moment.” The signators were Jokin Phoenix, Olivia Callman, Ridge Ahmed, Emma Thompson, Xavier Bardem, Penelope Cruise and were Field of interest Filmmaker Jonathan Glazer.

After a meeting by the Academy’s Board of Governors on Friday, Kreer and Yang responded with a new statement.

He said, “We honestly apologize to Mr. Ballal and all the artists who felt inability to our previous statement and want to clarify that the academy condemns such violence anywhere in the world,” he wrote to the members. “We hate the suppression of free speech under any circumstances.”

After being detained for more than 20 hours, Ball was issued by Israeli soldiers. Balls and two other Palestinians were accused of throwing stones at a settlement, denying the allegations. After release, Ball told The Associated Press One settler kicked his head “like football” during an attack on his village.

“I realized that they were exclusively attacking me,” Balal said at a West Bank Hospital after his release on Tuesday. “When they say ‘Oscar’, you understand. When they say your name, you understand.”

No other landA joint Israeli-Filistinian production revolutionary in Masafar Yata, which the Israeli army nominated as a live-fire training area in the 1980s and ordered the expulsion of the inhabitants, mostly Arab Bedouin. Around 1,000 residents remain largely in place, but soldiers regularly come to demolish houses, tents, water tanks and olive gardens.

After not finding American distributors despite widespread praise, No other land Self-immunity was done in theaters. It still managed to cross $ 2 million in North American theaters.