Academy disgraces itself by not coming to the defense of award-winning No Other Land co-director Hamdan Ballal

No Other Land, which reveals graphically the savagery of Zionist “ethnic cleansing” in the West Bank, has been denied widespread viewing in the US for political reasons.

Co-director of award-winning No Other Land attacked by Israeli fascist settlers and military

Only three weeks ago, Ballal was on the stage at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles to accept an Oscar.

American filmmaker David Lynch (1946-2025)

Lynch attracted so much attention and interest in part because he stood out as an expressive, undoubtedly unusual figure in the generally bleak cultural landscape of the Reagan-Bush-Clinton years.

In flagrant attack on free speech, Miami Beach mayor threatens cinema that showed award-winning documentary No Other Land

The US political and entertainment establishment have made it their business to suppress No Other Land, for fear of its impact on public opinion. 

Actor Gene Hackman (1930-2025): A great American realist

Hackman brought an acute, artistically informed urgency and honesty to his roles that often transcended the conceptions and methods of the filmmaker in question.

The success of No Other Land and I’m Still Here at the Academy Awards shows growing popular opposition and radicalization

Two of No Other Land’s co-directors, Palestinian Basel Adra and Israeli Yuval Abraham, decried the decades of injustice and the ongoing ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians.

The Brutalist: A Holocaust survivor reclaims his life

There are striking images and certain convincing performances, but on the whole the filmmakers seem very much out of their depth. The work is starved of genuine historical and social insight.

Trump, Musk and fascism, the film industry and the Academy Awards

Opposition is building to the Trump-Musk regime, but that resistance needs greater political clarity, depth and understanding. Artists must play a role in this.

Sean Baker’s Anora: Half a film

The film depicts the world of sex workers convincingly, before evolving into a type of dark “screwball comedy.”

An interview with Elijah Wald, author of Dylan Goes Electric!

Wald's Dylan Goes Electric is the work on which the recent film about Bob Dylan’s early days in music, A Complete Unknown (James Mangold), is loosely based.

No, rapper Kendrick Lamar did not “protest” Trump at the Super Bowl—he wallowed in backwardness

Lamar and much of the hip hop world represent the antithesis of opposition to big business and capitalism. Hip hop is big business.

Revive America’s revolutionary democratic traditions

The anti-immigrant ICE raids and the 1854 “Slave Catchers Riot” in Worcester, Massachusetts

In October 1854, a large crowd in Worcester, Massachusetts took action against the presence of "slave catcher" Asa O. Butman and expelled him from the city.

Donald Trump plans to become chairman of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts as part of his fascistic campaign against “degenerate art”

Trump’s attack is sinister and reactionary. He is again taking pages from Adolf Hitler’s playbook, attempting to whip up his fascist base with claims about “degenerate art.”

“To maintain my voice as an artist … I must decline this award”: Arab-American artist Fareed Armaly declines prestigious German art prize over censorship of pro-Palestinian voices

Armaly is an inter-disciplinary artist whose work includes the production of video, soundworks, architectural interventions, design, sculpture and large-scale installations.

2025 Academy Award nominations: What’s happening in Hollywood, what’s happening in the world

The nominations were largely weak and uninspiring, more than in recent years, reflective of a film industry in economic and artistic crisis

It Ends with Us: The film, the Lively-Baldoni feud and the Los Angeles fires

The film has done well at the global box office, but it has largely been overshadowed by events.

The political censorship of No Other Land in the US, the film exposing Israeli criminality and violence on the West Bank: “Americans have a responsibility”

To speak the truth about oppression in the West Bank is impermissible because it unavoidably points to the wider issue of Zionist crimes.

“Capitalism is a death cult. I hope this is the moment that radicalizes people.”

Los Angeles residents speak out on ongoing fire catastrophe

The World Socialist Web Site spoke to numerous workers and residents in the city, on the direct impact of the fire, as well as the connected social and political issues. We ask all our readers in the Los Angeles area to write to us about their experiences with the fires this week.

A conversation with Joseph McBride about his study of Hollywood film director George Cukor: “There are many flawed people in his films, but Cukor understands human imperfection”—Part 2

This is the second part of an interview with Joseph McBride, author of George Cukor’s People. The first part was posted January 8.