Jonathan Glazer‘s Oscar acceptance speech after Zone of Interest won the Oscar for Best International Feature Film has drawn condemnation from more than a thousand Hollywood actors, creatives and executives over the past few days, but there are also a few in the entertainment industry who have spoken in support of Glazer and his speech. (For full details about Glazer’s speech and the backlash, click here.)
For context, here is the entirety of Glazer’s speech:
Thank you so much. I’m going to read, I’m afraid.
Thank you to the Academy for this honor and to our partners A24 Films for access and Polish Film Institute, to the Stead Museum for their trust and guidance, to my producers, actors, collaborators.
All our choices were made to reflect and confront us in the present, not to say look what they did then, but rather look what we do now.
Our film shows where dehumanization leads at its worst. It’s shaped all of our past and present. 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 — whether the victims of October the 7th in Israel or the ongoing attack on Gaza, all the victims of this dehumanization, how do we resist? Alexandria, the girl who glows in the film as she did in life, chose to. I dedicate this to her memory and her resistance. Thank you.
Yesterday, She Said star Zoe Kazan shared a string of tweets that read in part, “kind of shocked that anyone who saw zone of interest could be shocked by what glazer said at the oscars…a movie so rigorously intent on not allowing its audience escape into sentiment or self-congratulation, that turns a mirror instead, asking us to look at ourselves and think….. that the person who made that film might ask the same of us while accepting an award for his work…it makes me so sad that this could even be considered a political stance.”
Among the others speaking out in support was I’m a Virgo creator Boots Riley. “Salute to Jonathan Glazer,” Riley wrote on X. He praised Glazer for, among other things, “speaking out against the atrocities in Gaza & saying that his movie is about the present day.”
The band Massive Attack weighed in as well with, “Jonathan Glazer is a filmmaker of the highest integrity, craft & bravery. A filmmaker who researches his subject matter painstakingly, & weighs his artistic judgements with high care & deep humanity. That care, judgement & humanity led to the conclusions of his speech. Solidarity.”
Directors Asif Kapadia and Jesse Peretz also expressed support for Glazer’s speech, according to Variety.
Maybe the most surprising response was posted by Auschwitz Memorial Director Dr. Piotr M. A. Cywiński on that organization’s official X page.
“In his Oscar acceptance speech, Jonathan Glazer issued a universal moral warning against dehumanization,” the statement begins. “His aim was not to descend to the level of political discourse. Critics who expected a clear political stance or a film solely about genocide did not grasp the depth of his message. The Zone of Interest is not a film about the Shoah. It is primarily a profound warning about humanity and its nature.”
Further afield, someone has also started a Change.org petition of support for Glazer. As of this writing, it has 176 signatures.