No-one loves dead Jews more than Hollywood

And so to the 97th Academy Awards, where two of the top gongs - best actor and best supporting actor - were won by two men playing Jews in films about the Holocaust, but absolutely no one said the word Jew, and the only mention of the 59 hostages still being held in Gaza by modern-day Nazis was, well, less than ideal.

Yes, last night, the nipped and tucked of Hollywood hit the red carpet for their most auspicious night of back-slapping of the year. It has long been a joke that if you want to win an Oscar you need to appear in a film about the Holocaust, and last night proved the case once again.

First up there was Adrien Brody, who won his second best actor Oscar for playing a Holocaust survivor. His first win, in 2003, was for The Pianist, where he played Władysław Szpilman, a Jewish pianist who survived the Warsaw ghetto. Last night, he scooped his second best actor trophy for his portrayal of visionary Hungarian-Jewish architect László Toth in The Brutalist.

Notably, while Brody is halachically Jewish (his mother's mother was Jewish, although she was raised Catholic), he was not raised, nor does he identify, as a Jew. In fact, you could say he’s not actually Jewish in any way, shape or form - apart from the way he looks, which makes him a go-to for casting directors looking for “strong” male Jewish leads.
To give Brody his props, he did mention antisemitism in his acceptance speech. The problem was, it was couched within so many generic references to “lingering traumas and… systematic oppression…. othering and racism” that it lacked any real force or meaning. But still, under the circumstances, I'll award him a B+ for effort, becuase it really could have been so much worse.

Next, to Kieran Culkin, who scooped the best supporting actor award for his role in Jesse Eisenberg's A Real Pain, which follows two American cousins as they retrace their family history in Poland. If Brody's acceptance speech glossed over the Jewish question, Culkin's ignored it altogether. In fact, his speech was mostly a sappy monologue to his wife about his desire to have more kids, which I think everyone in the room could have done without. But once again, it really could have been worse.

For an example of worse, you need only look so far as Guy Pearce - who starred alongside Brody in The Brutalist and was up against Culkin for the best supporting actor award. The Australian actor, who has been one of Hollywood's most vocal anti-Israel voices since October 7th, sported a pin in the shape of a white dove emblazoned with the words “Free Palestine”. Commenting on Instagram, Jewish activist Elizabeth Savestsky wrote: “Guy Pearce, nominated for playing a man who assaults a Holocaust survivor, wears a “Free Palestine” pin - because irony is dead.”

In contrast there was, of course, nary a yellow ribbon to be seen. The closest we got was Gal Gadot's husband, Jaron Varsano, who sported a discreet silver ribbon on his lapel - for which I will be awarding him mensch of the night (there's no trophy, but he does get my undying respect, which is rarer than gold).

Then we have the winner of the best documentary feature film which, unsurprisingly, went to No Other Land, a film about the lives of Palestinians in the West Bank. Perhaps the most rapturous applause of the night went to the documentary’s co-director, writer and protagonist, Basel Adra, when he called on the world to “stop the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian people”. This was quickly followed by the night’s only mention of the hostages, as one of the film’s two directors, Yuval Abraham, took to the mic, briefly mentioning “the Israeli hostages brutally taken in the crime of October 7 which must be freed”. That the first speech spoke only of the pain and oppression experienced by one people, while the second spoke of unity, brotherhood and a joint future for both Israelis and Palestinians, was probably just a coincidence, right?

If there was one ultimate winner on the night, it was undoubtedly author Dara Horn. She wasn't nominated for any awards, or even in attendance (as far as I know), but her proclamation - people love dead Jews – once again proved to be more prescient than ever. The fact that our stories are told so frequently and poignantly used to feel like an honour. But now? It feels exploitative at best and perverse at worst.

I never thought I'd find myself advocating for Jewish stories to not be told, but I think we need a moratorium on Holocaust films until we work out how to reconcile depictions of our past with the realities of our present. Of course, as Hollywood is run by Jews, I'm sure this won't be too hard to arrange.