Palestinian filmmaker Basel Adra showed support for Palestine on the Oscar red carpet in Los Angeles on Sunday, ahead of his co-directed film No Other Land's Academy Award win.
Adra wore shoes by Resolute RGL, a trainer start-up brand he cofounded featuring embroidery by the Women's Weaving Cooperative of the Palestinian South Hebron Hills, run by Adra's mother Kifah Adra.
“This brand represents my people's heritage and tradition,” Adra wrote on Instagram, also sharing a link to the brand's Kickstarter page for the launch of the shoes.
In addition, Adra and his No Other Land collaborators Hamdan Ballal, Basel Adra, Rachel Szor and Yuval Abraham posed with several Palestinians who appear in the film wearing the Palestinian flag and keffiyeh on the red carpet, including Farisa Abu Aram and Kifah Adara.
Adra was not the only attendee to support Palestine at the Oscars on Sunday. Australian actor Guy Pierce, nominated for his supporting performance in The Brutalist, wore a “Free Palestine” pin featuring a dove on his lapel.
Feminist grass roots organisation Codepink staged protests outside the event, with protesters chanting, “Hollywood you can't hide. We charge you with genocide.”
“We are outside the Oscars in LA in protest of Hollywood's repeated attempts to silence Palestinian voices and support for Palestinian liberation,” the organisation wrote on X.
“As Hollywood arrives to the Oscars in their limousines, we're sending them a message they cannot ignore: Palestine will be free!” the organisation added.
The X account RightNowViews shared a video of the events, saying that the protesters temporarily blocked the road to the Oscars “delaying guests from arriving,” but that the Los Angeles police quickly formed a line to prevent the disruption.
Unlike the previous ceremony, in which many attendees wore pins for the Artists4Ceasefire movement, this year's Oscar red carpet featured far less overt support for the Palestinian peace cause.
