Vanity Fair reported on Thursday that Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s bid to appear virtually at the Academy Awards was rejected for the second year in a row.
According to the article, Mike Simpson, a high-powered Hollywood agent from the WME agency who also represents directors Quentin Tarantino and Bong Joon Ho, was sent in to try to seal the deal, but the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was not swayed. The Academy did not respond to Vanity Fair’s request for comment.
Last year, Zelensky’s request to appear at the Oscars was also denied, reportedly because the Academy wanted to “avoid anything political.” Will Packer, Oscars producer, allegedly complained that Hollywood was fawning over Zelensky because those affected by the conflict in Ukraine were white, while the many wars affecting non-white people around the world were largely ignored by the cultural elite.
Sean Penn, a vocal Zelensky supporter, called for a boycott of the awards show and even threatened to melt down his own Oscar statues if his friend was not allowed to speak, but his campaign received little traction at the time.
While Penn did not end up liquefying his awards, he did give one to Zelensky during a visit to Kiev and has not commented on the events of this year.
Since the start of Russia’s military offensive in Ukraine last year, the Ukrainian president has been a fixture at large-scale public events in the West, appearing via video link to plead for financial and moral support at the Cannes, Venice, and Berlin film festivals, the Grammy Awards, the Glastonbury music festival, and even the New York Stock Exchange, where he rang the opening bell “virtually” in September.
Americans, on the other hand, appear to be growing tired of the comedian-turned-routine, politician’s with polls showing that an increasing proportion of the electorate believes that too much of their money is being sent to Ukraine. According to a recent analysis by the German research firm Statista, President Joe Biden’s administration spent more money on military aid to Ukraine than the US spent on its own war in Afghanistan.
Last month, the Sanremo song festival in Italy canceled a planned Zelensky appearance due to widespread criticism, prompting one of the event’s participants to cancel his own live appearance in protest.
