You may have noticed that Sunday’s Academy Awards ceremony began a few minutes late. That was with good reason: As attendees made their way to Ovation Hollywood, the Los Angeles entertainment complex that is home to the Dolby Theatre, demonstrations against the Israel-Hamas war by Film Workers for Palestine and SAG-AFTRA Members for Ceasefire were unfolding nearby, dramatically slowing—if not outright halting—the flow of traffic around the venue. (One protest near the Cinerama Dome, a shuttered movie theater on Sunset Boulevard, reportedly attracted between 500 and 700 people.)
On the Oscars red carpet, several guests echoed the calls for ceasefire sounding throughout downtown Los Angeles—if somewhat more subtly. Billie Eilish, Finneas, Mark Ruffalo, Ramy Youssef, Mahershala Ali, Ava DuVernay, and more celebrities could be seen sporting small red pins on Sunday night representing Artists4Ceasefire, which describes itself as a group of artists and advocates who have come together “as human beings witnessing the devastating loss of lives and unfolding horrors in Israel and Palestine.” Among the 400-odd creatives who have signed an open letter to President Biden asking that he and Congress “call for an immediate de-escalation and ceasefire in Gaza and Israel before another life is lost” are America Ferrera, Andrew Garfield, Ayo Edebiri, Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett, Gigi Hadid, Jennifer Lopez, Jeremy Allen White, Jessica Chastain, Lily Gladstone, Phoebe Bridgers, and Quinta Brunson.
“We’re calling for immediate, permanent ceasefire in Gaza,” Youssef told Variety on Sunday. “We’re calling for peace and lasting justice for the people of Palestine. It’s a universal message of let’s stop killing kids. Let’s not be part of more war.”
Other guests, such as The Zone of Interest director Jonathan Glazer (who accepted the prize for best international feature film), brought their responses to the war to the Oscars stage. Of making Zone, which centers on Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss and his wife, Hedwig, Glazer said: “All our choices were made to reflect and confront us in the present—not to say, ‘Look what they did then,’ rather, ‘Look what we do now.’ Our film shows where dehumanization leads at its worst. It shaped all of our past and present.”
He went on, “Whether the victims of October the 7th in Israel or the ongoing attack in Gaza, all the victims of this dehumanization, how do we resist?”