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Why Did a Brilliant Jewish Director’s Film Get Snubbed by the Oscars?
To all the people complaining that Greta Gerwig should have gotten an Oscar nomination for Best Director, you are correct.
In terms of snubs, however, there is another film that should not be overlooked.
Ari Aster is one of the most brilliant directors in Hollywood. Unlike two films nominated for an Oscar that use a gimmick as a crutch, Aster uses the vehicle of his films being different and unexpected in a provocative way that makes you think about the world in a more profound way.
Aster’s inventive Beau Is Afraid is a challenging film to watch, not unlike Aster’s Hereditary and Midsommar, two horror films. Beau Is Afraid stars Joaquin Phoenix as Beau Wasserman, who is filled with anxiety and has problems with his strange and overprotective Jewish mother, who does something so evil to her son, that it’s borderline implausible.
The film digs deep into the psyche of the Jewish mother-son relationship in a way that is dark but also enlightening. Aster is fearless, but not pointless. There is a big difference.
The film is about a tortured man’s journey to find validation, the pain of not having a wife and children, loneliness, and in a twist, his mother tells him his father died having sex with her, and that he may die if he has sex.
Aster has great metaphors in the film, including one that sets all the problems in motion — Beau’s keys are stolen from him and he can’t go visit his mother for fear that someone will ransack his apartment. It’s a direct comment on the mother-son relationship. Phoenix’s performance is astounding as someone who is constantly nervous, but for good reason. In a way, he may suffer from PTSD and being without his father. The film contains one of the wildest plot twists that might gross out some, but if you think about it more deeply, it is astoundingly potent.
The movie is long and frightening in many ways, though not in the way of a typical horror film. You can’t really place this film in an exact genre. There are elements of horror, drama, and comedy. The excellent Richard Kind plays a Jewish man who is angry at Beau because he tells him that by not showing up to an event, he is making it difficult to adhere to a specific law relating to burial.
This is the ultimate Jewish guilt movie, and voters should feel guilty they did not nominate Beau Is Afraid. Two other films, The Zone of Interest and Anatomy of a Fall, use gimmicks to be different that don’t work. In The Zone of Interest, you see the Nazi who runs Auschwitz in his underwear and playing with his family but you don’t see carnage of Jews being murdered, or really any Jews at all. You are supposed to use your imagination as we see the Nazi family go about its regular life with no conflict. It’s a crutch for those not able to make a powerful film without doing it, as I’ve written about here.
Beau Is Afraid is a film that is mysterious, provocative, profound, and wildly original. So why didn’t it get any Oscar love? Horror films are looked down upon, as are scenes of violence if they’re not from a war. A scene in Aster’s Midsommar was hard to watch. Aster’s films seem to be in their own world, and he does not sugar coat his films with any silver lining — and it might just be that voters don’t have a taste for that.
The author is a writer based in New York.
The post Why Did a Brilliant Jewish Director’s Film Get Snubbed by the Oscars? first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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North London Synagogue, Nursery Targeted in Eighth Local Antisemitic Incident in Just Over a Week
Demonstrators against antisemitism in London on Sept. 8, 2025. Photo: Campaign Against Antisemitism
A synagogue and its nursery school in the Golders Green area of north London were targeted in an antisemitic attack on Thursday morning — the eighth such incident locally in just over a week amid a shocking surge of anti-Jewish hate crimes in the area.
The synagogue and Jewish nursery were smeared with excrement in an antisemitic outrage echoing a series of recent incidents targeting the local Jewish community.
“The desecration of another local synagogue and a children’s nursery with excrement is a vile, deliberate, and premeditated act of antisemitism,” Shomrim North West London, a Jewish organization that monitors antisemitism and also serves as a neighborhood watch group, said in a statement.
“This marks the eighth antisemitic incident locally in just over a week, to directly target the local Jewish community,” the statement read. “These repeated attacks have left our community anxious, hurt, and increasingly worried.”
Local law enforcement confirmed they are reviewing CCTV footage and collecting evidence to identify the suspect and bring them to justice.
This latest anti-Jewish hate crime came just days after tens of thousands of people marched through London in a demonstration against antisemitism, amid rising levels of antisemitic incidents across the United Kingdom since the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
In just over a week, seven Jewish premises in Barnet, the borough in which Golders Green is located, have been targeted in separate antisemitic incidents.
According to the Metropolitan Police, an investigation has been launched into the targeted attacks, all of which involved the use of bodily fluids.
During the incidents, a substance was smeared on four synagogues and a private residence, while a liquid was thrown at a school and over a car in two other attacks.
As the investigation continues, local police said they believe the same suspect is likely responsible for all seven offenses, which are being treated as religiously motivated criminal damage.
No arrests have been made so far, but law enforcement said it is actively engaging with the local Jewish community to provide reassurance and support.
The Community Security Trust (CST), a nonprofit charity that advises Britain’s Jewish community on security matters, condemned the recent wave of attacks and called on authorities to take immediate action.
“The extreme defilement of several Jewish locations in and around Golders Green is utterly abhorrent and deeply distressing,” CST said in a statement.
“CST is working closely with police and communal partners to support victims and help identify and apprehend the perpetrator,” it continued.
The Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) also denounced the attacks, calling for urgent measures to protect the Jewish community.
“These repeated incidents are leaving British Jews anxious and vulnerable in their own neighborhoods, not to mention disgusted,” CAA said in a statement.
Since the start of the war in Gaza, the United Kingdom has experienced a surge in antisemitic crimes and anti-Israel sentiment.
Last month, CST published a report showing there were 1,521 antisemitic incidents in the UK from January to June of this year. It marks the second-highest total of incidents ever recorded by CST in the first six months of any year, following the first half of 2024 in which 2,019 antisemitic incidents were recorded.
In total last year, CST recorded 3,528 antisemitic incidents for 2024, the country’s second worst year for antisemitism despite being an 18 percent drop from 2023’s record of 4,296.
In previous years, the numbers were significantly lower, with 1,662 incidents in 2022 and 2,261 hate crimes in 2021.
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Germany to Hold Off on Recognizing Palestinian State but Will Back UN Resolution for Two-State Solution
German national flag flutters on top of the Reichstag building, that seats the Germany’s lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, in Berlin, Germany, March 25, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Lisi Niesner
Germany will support a United Nations resolution for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict but does not believe the time has come to recognize a Palestinian state, a government spokesman told Reuters on Thursday.
“Germany will support such a resolution which simply describes the status quo in international law,” the spokesman said, adding that Berlin “has always advocated a two-state solution and is asking for that all the time.”
“The chancellor just mentioned two days ago again that Germany does not see that the time has come for the recognition of the Palestinian state,” the spokesman added.
Britain, France, Canada, Australia, and Belgium have all said they will recognize a Palestinian state at the United Nations General Assembly later this month, although London said it could hold back if Israel were to take steps to ease the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and commit to a long-term peace process.
The United States strongly opposes any move by its European allies to recognize Palestinian independence.
Last week, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the US has told other countries that recognition of a Palestinian state will cause more problems.
Those who see recognition as a largely symbolic gesture point to the negligible presence on the ground and limited influence in the conflict of countries such as China, India, Russia, and many Arab states that have recognized Palestinian independence for decades.
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UN Security Council, With US Support, Condemns Strikes on Qatar
Qatar’s Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani attends an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council, following an Israeli attack on Hamas leaders in Doha, Qatar, at UN headquarters in New York City, US, Sept. 11, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz
The United Nations Security Council on Thursday condemned recent strikes on Qatar’s capital Doha, but did not mention Israel in the statement agreed to by all 15 members, including Israel‘s ally the United States.
Israel attempted to kill the political leaders of Hamas with the attack on Tuesday, escalating its military action in what the United States described as a unilateral attack that does not advance US and Israeli interests.
The United States traditionally shields its ally Israel at the United Nations. US backing for the Security Council statement, which could only be approved by consensus, reflects President Donald Trump’s unhappiness with the attack ordered by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“Council members underscored the importance of de-escalation and expressed their solidarity with Qatar. They underlined their support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Qatar,” read the statement, drafted by Britain and France.
The Doha operation was especially sensitive because Qatar has been hosting and mediating negotiations aimed at securing a ceasefire in the Gaza war.
“Council members underscored that releasing the hostages, including those killed by Hamas, and ending the war and suffering in Gaza must remain our top priority,” the Security Council statement read.
The Security Council will meet later on Thursday to discuss the Israeli attack at a meeting due to be attended by Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani.