Joaquin Phoenix and Joel Coen among Jewish creatives backing Glazer's Oscars speech

Oscar winners Joaquin Phoenix and Joel Coen lead a group of more than 150 Jewish Hollywood figures publicly backing director Jonathan Glazer's controversial speech.

The pair have signed an open letter alongside the likes of comedian David Cross, three-time Oscar nominee Debra Winger and Titanic actress Frances Fisher. In it, they state they are “alarmed to see some of our colleagues in the industry mischaracterise and denounce his remarks” and that “attacks on Glazer are a dangerous distraction from Israel’s escalating military campaign which has already killed over 32,000 Palestinians in Gaza and brought hundreds of thousands to the brink of starvation".

Dubai-based British-Palestinian filmmaker Farah Nabulsi scored an Oscar nomination in 2020. Photo: Farah Nabulsi

Farah Nabulsi: I stand behind Jonathan Glazer – we need to have each other's backs

It also refers to grieving for the 1,200 Israelis killed in the October 7 Hamas attacks as well as the 253 taken hostage. However, it further states that attacks on Glazer have a “silencing effect” on the industry and contribute to the suppression of free speech and dissent.

It continues: “Glazer, Tony Kushner, Steven Spielberg and countless other artists of all backgrounds have decried the killing of Palestinian civilians. We should all be able to do the same without being wrongly accused of fueling antisemitism.

“We honour the Holocaust by saying: Never again for anyone.”

What Glazer said during his Oscars speech

The Zone of Interest, a German-language film set during the Holocaust, won the Best International Film award at this year's Oscars.

During his acceptance speech, Glazer said the film showed “where dehumanisation leads at its worst”.

He added: “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'."

The film tells the disturbing story of a group of people living near the Auschwitz concentration camp in Nazi-controlled Poland during the Second World War, who block out the horrors happening nearby and lead apparently normal lives.

“Our film shows where dehumanisation leads at its worst,” Glazer continued. “It shaped all of our pasts and present. Right now, we stand here as men who refute their Jewishness and the Holocaust being hijacked by an occupation that has led to conflict for so many innocent people.

“Whether the victims of October 7 in Israel or the ongoing attack on Gaza, all the victims of this dehumanisation. How do we resist?”

His words were met with both backlash and praise. In a different open letter on March 18, more than 450 Jewish creatives and execs denounced his speech for helping “fuel growing anti-Jewish hatred around the world.”