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Some attendees of the Academy Awards on Sunday night plan to wear red pins calling for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war, a notable exception to an awards season in which many Hollywood stars have been reluctant to draw attention to the conflict.
The pins represent the attendees’ alignment with Artists4Ceasefire, a group of celebrities and members of the entertainment industry who signed an open letter urging President Biden to call for a cease-fire. The nearly 400 signatories include Bradley Cooper and America Ferrera, who are both Oscar nominees this year, as well as Cate Blanchett, Drake, Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez.
“The pin symbolizes collective support for an immediate and permanent cease-fire, the release of all of the hostages and for the urgent delivery of humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza,” Artists4Ceasefire said in a news release. “Compassion must prevail,” the release continued.
Ramy Youssef, a comedian and actor who is slated to present at the ceremony and who stars in one of its most-nominated films, “Poor Things,” said in an interview on Sunday that one of the red pins would be a part of his Oscar night attire.
“There’s a part of you that hopes it doesn’t have to get to pins,” he said. “There’s a part of us that hoped we would already be at a cease-fire, and we’re not.”
Mr. Youssef said he had been surprised by how few questions he had been asked about the war on red carpets earlier in the season. At the Golden Globe Awards in January, he pivoted a question about Jeremy Allen White’s steamy Calvin Klein ad into an opportunity to call for a cease-fire. “This isn’t about political strategy, this isn’t about going tit-for-tat,” he said on Sunday. “It’s about something really simple, which is just: Hey, let’s stop killing kids.”
