Politically charged awards season ends with some at the Oscars advocating for peace in Gaza
Wire desk byline Sourced from Xinhua, Dawn, Arab News, Anadolu and Minute Mirror. Translated and abridged by the GSRRA Desk.
Priyanka Chopra and Javier Bardem on stage. (AFP)
- “No to war and free Palestine,” actor Javier Bardem said onstage before presenting the best international feature film.
- On Sunday, attendees representing “The Voice of Hind Rajab” wore a new red “Artists4Ceasefire” pin
The presence of “BE GOOD” and “ICE OUT” pins at the Academy Awards paled in comparison to last month’s Grammys. But those who did wear protest apparel used Sunday’s red carpet to also advocate for Palestinian liberation and a ceasefire amid the fragile situation in Gaza, adding to the growing artist-driven activism at entertainment awards shows.
“No to war and free Palestine,” actor Javier Bardem said onstage before presenting the best international feature film. He wore a patch reading “No a la Guerra,” the same anti-war slogan he sported to protest the Iraq war more than two decades ago.
As Hollywood’s awards season comes to a close with the Oscars, political organizers suggested that celebrities found their political voices more this cycle than in recent years. Maremoto Executive Director Jess Morales Rocketto, whose Latino advocacy group was behind the immigration pins that debuted at the Golden Globes, called it a “return to form” for artists’ political engagement.
She credited comments by Mark Ruffalo on the Golden Globes red carpet in January. The actor, who is often outspoken, told Entertainment Tonight that “as much as I love all this,” he found it difficult to pretend “like this crazy stuff isn’t happening.”
“I think we tapped into something early on that this is a time to take stands and make clear where you are at this moment in history,” Morales Rocketto said ahead of Sunday’s Oscars.
On Sunday, attendees representing “The Voice of Hind Rajab” wore a new red “Artists4Ceasefire” pin. The docudrama, which follows efforts to rescue a Palestinian girl killed in Gaza, was nominated for best international feature film.
Israeli strikes have killed hundreds of Palestinians since a U.S.-brokered truce went into effect in October, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
“Our struggles are connected. So is our liberation. And we’re so, so honored to be here tonight,” Saja Kilani, one of the film’s stars, told The Associated Press on the red carpet.
The content of Sunday’s ceremony proved more political than previous years — even if it lacked direct references to the Iran war and other global issues. “One Battle After Another” director Paul Thomas Anderson said he wrote the political drama for his children to apologize for the “housekeeping mess we left in this world we’re handing off to them.”
Host Conan O’Brien cracked jokes at the expense of the U.S. health care system and Kid Rock, referring to conservative organization Turning Point USA’s alternative Super Bowl halftime show.
In a rare moment of sincerity, O’Brien said the Oscars are particularly resonant in “moments like these,” nodding broadly at the many different world crises.
“We pay tribute tonight not just to film, but to the ideals of global artistry, collaboration, patience, resilience, and that rarest of qualities today: optimism,” he said.
Reference Link:- https://www.arabnews.com/node/2636551/lifestyle
Zamir Ahmed Awan is the founder and Chair of the Global Silk Route Research Alliance, a think tank in Islamabad. He studied engineering at Shanghai University in the 1980s, and years later he went back to China as Pakistan's science counsellor in Beijing, from 2010 until 2016, working on science and higher education cooperation between the two countries.…
