‘No Other Land' director, Hamdan Ballal receives Academy support

Hamdan Ballal and his team for No Other Land just received an apology.

After The Academy of Motion Pictures addressed the attack on the director rather indirectly, the platform has now apologized for not mentioning the film nor the filmmaker by name.

As per Variety, the Academy CEO Bill Kramer and president Janet Yang have sent a new statement, saying, “On Wednesday, we sent a letter in response to reports of violence against Oscar winner Hamdan Ballal, co-director of No Other Land, connected to his artistic expression.”

“We regret that we failed to directly acknowledge Mr Ballal and the film by name. We sincerely apologize to Mr Ballal and all artists who felt unsupported by our previous statement and want to make it clear that the Academy condemns violence of this kind anywhere in the world. We abhor the suppression of free speech under any circumstances,” they concluded.

This comes as a response after 690 Academy members including Mark Ruffalo, Joaquin Phoenix, Riz Ahmed, Penélope Cruz, Emma Thompson and Olivia Colman, signed an open letter against The Academy of Motion Pictures, condemning their silence.

“On 26 March 2025, the leadership of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences emailed its membership a statement with the subject line, ‘Our Global Film Community,’” the letter began.

It continued, “The statement was ostensibly responding to the detention of Palestinian filmmaker and 2025 Best Documentary Feature Academy Award winner Hamdan Ballal, one of the directors of No Other Land, although it failed to mention either Ballal or the film by name, nor did it describe the events it was responding to.”

“We stand in condemnation of the brutal assault and unlawful detention of Oscar-winning Palestinian filmmaker Hamdan Ballal by settlers and Israeli forces in the West Bank. The targeting of Ballal is not just an attack on one filmmaker—it is an attack on all those who dare to bear witness and tell inconvenient truths,” the note further read.

“We will continue to watch over this film team. Winning an Oscar has put their lives in increasing danger, and we will not mince words when the safety of fellow artists is at stake,” the letter concluded.