Two Israeli films were nominated for Academy Awards—a documentary about an anti-war vigil in Tel Aviv and a movie about a Palestinian butcher in a Tel Aviv supermarket accused of tearing down hostage posters. Neither Hilla Medalia’s “Children No More: Were and Are Gone” nor Meyer Levinson-Blount’s “Butcher’s Stain” won an Oscar on Sunday night, though the Jewish state made news during the program anyway.
The Spanish actor Javier Bardem, who plays Rubén Cevantes, the ambitious owner of the fictional APXGP team in “F1 the Movie” (2025), nominated for Best Picture, was on stage alongside British Indian actress Priyanka Chopra as a presenter at the 98th Academy Awards.
“No to war, and free Palestine,” Bardem said from the stage. (“F1” was up for four awards and won Best Sound.)
Before the show, Bardem said on the red carpet that he was wearing a lapel pin “that I used in 2003 with the Iraq war, which was an illegal war.”
“We are here, 23 years after, with another illegal war created by Trump and Netanyahu with another lie, which is to defeat the regime,” he said. “But they are radicalizing the regime by their horrific actions.”
“So that’s not the reason, as it was not the reason with weapons of mass destruction in 2003,” he added. “Also, the Palestine symbol of resistance,” he added, pointing to a second pin.
At an Oscars after-party, Bardem defended his on-stage statement.
“It’s important to understand that you can be part of the movie-making community and also be a citizen who uses this huge speaker to denounce injustice,” he said. “In this case, it’s the genocide in Palestine that is still going on.”
Charithra Chandran, who starred in a season of the Netflix television series “Bridgerton,” also made anti-Israel comments on the red carpet and wore an “artist for ceasefire” pin.
“What we are demanding is a ceasefire in Gaza,” she said. “Sometimes, the news cycle is so fast, and people move on, but the people in Gaza and the West Bank are still suffering.” (A ceasefire has been in place in the Gaza Strip since October.)
Three individuals connected to the docu-drama “The Voice of Hind Rajab,” which was nominated for Best International Feature Film but did not win, also wore ceasefire pins.
They claimed that there are attacks happening in “Palestine, Lebanon, Iran and Venezuela, everywhere.”
