The Oscars were silent on Trump, diverging from protests of past years | Oscars

The 97th Academy Awards had one of the longest run times for the annual show in recent history, yet the least mentions of the current political climate – with not a single person uttering the name “Donald Trump”.

While few people watch awards shows – least of all the Oscars – for political discussion, comments on world events have long been an expected part of the broadcasts. Trump himself has even weighed in on a show – at least once while it aired: last year, while campaigning for re-election, he posted on Truth Social and asked rhetorically whether there was ever a “worse host” than Jimmy Kimmel at the 2024 Oscars and criticized his opening monologue.

After the 2017 Oscars, when La La Land was mistakenly announced as the best picture winner over Moonlight, Trump later said in an interview: “They were focused so hard on politics that they didn’t get the act together at the end. It was a little sad. It took away from the glamour of the Oscars.”

Immediately following the Russian invasion in February 2022, Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskyy appeared via satellite at the Cannes and Venice film festivals as well as the Grammy awards. The Recording Academy even announced a partnership with Global Citizen and Stand Up for Ukraine for the 2022 Grammys telecast.

At the Golden Globes in 2023, Zelenskyy appeared via a pre-recorded video message and thanked the “free world” for its support.

The latter feels particularly far away from the events of just last week, when Zelenskyy met with Trump to discuss ongoing ceasefire talks with Russia but was received with an unabashed display of aggression in the Oval Office. The antagonism was widely criticised, with Ukrainians themselves claiming that both the US president and vice-president, JD Vance, deliberately and cynically started “a brawl”.

This year, host Conan O’Brien opened the show addressing the devastating Los Angeles wildfires.

“The people of Los Angeles have clearly been through a devastating ordeal and this needs to be addressed,” O’Brien said. “In moments such as this, any awards show can seem self-indulgent and superfluous, but what I want to have us do is remember why we gathered here tonight.”

He then celebrated those behind the scenes in Hollywood, like the “craftspeople, technicians, costumers” – the “hardworking men and women behind the camera who have devoted their lives to making film”.

O’Brien continued: “Even in the face of terrible wildfires and divisive politics, the work, which this is about, the work continues. And next year, and for years to come, through trauma and joy, this seemingly absurd ritual is going to be here … the magic, the madness, the grandeur and joy of film worldwide is going to be with us forever.”

But the mention of politics or anything other than the wildfires stopped there. There were few mentions of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – an act that recently saw its third anniversary and has prompted the largest refugee crisis since the second world war – and even fewer of the crisis in Gaza, which has seen its death toll of Palestinians exceed 45,000 since 7 October 2023.

Daryl Hannah offered a “Slava Ukraine!” before presenting the award for best editing while O’Brien quipped about Vladimir Putin in the latter half of the show’s broadcast, saying: “Anora’s doing great tonight. Two awards. I think Americans are finally ready for someone to stand up to a powerful Russian.”

In his speech for winning best actor, Adrien Brody offered some general thoughts on the state of the world and said he prays “for a healthier and a happier and a more inclusive world”.

“I believe if the past can teach us anything, it’s a reminder to not let hate go unchecked,” he said.

A mere handful of comments marks a stark departure from how Hollywood’s heavyweights have previously addressed a myriad of crises. Perhaps most notable is that the nominated films themselves hardly avoided politics. Both A Real Pain and The Brutalist involved the Holocaust and immigrants’ journeys’, and Emilia Pérez centers on the transition of a trans woman. And let’s not forget The Apprentice – a film about Trump himself.

No Other Land, which shows the destruction of the occupied West Bank’s Masafer Yatta community by Israeli soldiers, won the Oscar for best documentary but can’t get a distributor in the US, which Mehdi Hasan has noted “tells you everything about censorship in the US”.

On Gaza, the sole mention of the conflict at the Oscars came via the acceptance speech from the winners of this year’s best documentary feature for the West Bank-based film No Other Land. Co-director Basel Adra said he had recently become a father and hoped his daughter’s life would not be like his – “always fearing certain violence, home demolitions and forced displacement”.

He said his film reflected “the harsh reality” that his fellow Palestinians had endured for many years, “as we call on the world to take serious action to stop the injustice and stop the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people”. Co-director Yuval Abraham said that Palestinians and Israelis had made the film together “because together our voices are stronger. We see each other. The atrocious destruction of Gaza and its people must end.

“Israeli hostages brutally taken in the crime of October 7 which must be freed. When I look at Basel, I see my brother but we are unequal. We live in a regime where I am free under civilian law but Basel has to live under military laws that destroy his life and he cannot control.”

Abraham continued: “There is a different path. A political solution. Without ethnic supremacy, with national rights for both of our people. And I have to say, as I am here, the foreign policy in this country is helping to block this path.

“Why? Can’t you see that we are intertwined? That my people can be truly safe if Basel’s people are truly free and safe. There is another way. It’s not too late for life, for the living. There is no other way.”

Previously, awards show attendees showed their support for Gaza both verbally and with accessories. At the 2024 Emmys, Nicola Coughlan, Dallas Goldtooth, Brittani Nichols and others donned a pin with a red field, an orange hand and a black heart to signify that they were advocates for a ceasefire, the liberation of all hostages and the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza – part of an ongoing campaign by Artists4Ceasefire.

The pins made an appearance earlier that same year, at the 96th Academy Awards, where there were also widespread Israel-Gaza protesters near the red carpet who caused the show to start late for the one of the only times in its history.

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