Film academy apologizes for not naming 'No Other Land' co-director in response to attack on him

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Film academy apologizes for not naming 'No Other Land' co-director in response to attack on him

2025-03-29 08:16 Last Updated At：08:51

NEW YORK (AP) — After mounting criticism following its initial response to the violent attack on Oscar-winning “No Other Land” co-director Hamdan Ballal, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences apologized Friday for not acknowledging Ballal by name.

In a letter to academy members, academy CEO Bill Kramer and its president, Janet Yang, said they regretted not issuing a direct statement on Ballal. The director on Monday, witnesses said, was beaten by Israeli settlers in the West Bank and then detained by the Israeli military.

The attack, just weeks after Ballal and his fellow directors won best documentary at the Academy Awards, was widely condemned by numerous film organizations, among others. The academy on Wednesday released a statement condemning “harming or suppressing artists for their work or their viewpoints."

Yuval Abraham, a journalist and co-director of “No Other Land,” was highly critical of that response, comparing it to “silence on Hamdan's assault."

On Friday, more than 600 of the academy's 11,000 members issued an open letter saying the academy's statement "fell far short of the sentiments this moment calls for.” Among the signatories were Joaquin Phoenix, Olivia Colman, Riz Ahmed, Emma Thompson, Javier Bardem, Penélope Cruz and “The Zone of Interest” filmmaker Jonathan Glazer.

After a meeting Friday by the academy's board of governors, Kramer and Yang responded with a new statement.

“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,” they wrote to members. "We abhor the suppression of free speech under any circumstances.”

After being detained for more than 20 hours, Ballal was released by Israeli soldiers. Ballal and two other Palestinians were accused of throwing stones at a settler, allegations they deny. After being released, Ballal told The Associated Press a settler kicked his head “like a football” during an attack on his village.

“I realized they were attacking me specifically,” Ballal said at a West Bank hospital after his release Tuesday. “When they say ‘Oscar’, you understand. When they say your name, you understand.”

“No Other Land,” a joint Israeli-Palestinian production, chronicles the situation in Masafer Yatta, which the Israeli military designated as a live-fire training zone in the 1980s and ordered the expulsion of the residents, mostly Arab Bedouin. Around 1,000 residents have largely remained in place, but soldiers regularly come in to demolish homes, tents, water tanks and olive orchards.

After not finding a U.S. distributor despite wide acclaim, “No Other Land” was self-released in theaters. It still managed to surpass $2 million in North American theaters.

Jay North, TV's mischievous Dennis the Menace, dies at 73

2025-04-08 05:35 Last Updated At：05:40

LAKE BUTLER, Fla. (AP) — Jay North, who starred as the towheaded mischief maker on TV's “Dennis the Menace” for four seasons starting in 1959, has died. He was 73.

North died Sunday at his home in Lake Butler, Florida, and had colon cancer, said Laurie Jacobson, a longtime friend, and Bonnie Vent, who was his booking agent.

“He had a heart as big as a mountain, loved his friends deeply. He called us frequently and ended every conversation with ‘I love you with all my heart,’” Jacobson wrote in a tribute on Facebook.

North was 6 when he was cast as the smiling troublemaker in the CBS sitcom adaptation of Hank Ketcham's popular comic strip that took place in an idyllic American suburb.

Often wearing a striped shirt and overalls, Dennis’ mischievous antics frequently frustrated his retired next-door neighbor George Wilson, played by Joseph Kearns. After Kearns died, Gale Gordon played Wilson’s brother. Dennis' patient parents were played by Herbert Anderson and Gloria Henry.

The show ran on Sunday nights until it was canceled in 1963. After that it was a fixture for decades in syndication.

Later, North appeared on TV in shows including “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.,” “The Lucy Show,” “My Three Sons,” “Lassie” and “The Simpsons,” and in movies like “Maya” (1966), “The Teacher” (1974) and “Dickie Robert: Former Child Star” (2003).

North is survived by his third wife, Cindy, and three stepdaughters.