Why are celebs donning blue ribbons on the Oscars?

As celebrities strut down the Oscars purple carpet, awash within the glitz and glam of Hollywood, some will likely be sporting a extra delicate accent: blue ribbons representing solidarity with the world’s refugee inhabitants.

The taking part nominees and attendees are supporting the UN Refugee Company(Opens in a brand new tab) (UNHCR)’s #WithRefugees(Opens in a brand new tab) marketing campaign, a coalition(Opens in a brand new tab) of universities, foundations, faith-based organizations, youth teams, companies, and NGOs that present assist to refugees and asylum seekers and name for worldwide assist for these compelled to flee their properties. 

“The carrying of the blue #WithRefugees ribbon on the purple carpet sends a robust visible message that everybody has the precise to hunt security – whoever, wherever, every time they’re,” wrote the UNHCR in a press launch. 

Every ribbon was handcrafted by a workforce on the Knotty Tie Co.(Opens in a brand new tab), a U.S. attire firm that helps refugees(Opens in a brand new tab) resettled within the Denver, Colorado, space via employment, coaching, and training. 

Large names, like Finest Actress nominee Cate Blanchett, have joined in on the worldwide motion all through the awards season(Opens in a brand new tab). “What I like about movie is the way in which it attracts us into compelling human themes to uncover the connective tissue that binds us all,” she wrote in a press release to the press. “Each time I’ve met refugees — in locations akin to Lebanon, Jordan or Bangladesh, within the UK, or again residence in Australia — what has struck me has not been their ‘otherness’ however what number of issues we share in frequent.”

Different actors, like Triangle of Disappointment‘ Dolly De Leon, additionally expressed assist from the movie business. “At a time when there are such a lot of individuals struggling on the earth, displaying a bit of kindness and compassion to our fellow people shouldn’t be an enormous ask,” she wrote. 

The message is well timed, one 12 months after the Russian invasion of Ukraine despatched thousands and thousands of refugees the world over and as greater than 103 million forcibly displaced individuals(Opens in a brand new tab) search assist. 

On the nexus of movie and activism, lots of this 12 months’s award-nominated movies share frequent themes(Opens in a brand new tab) of trauma, loss, and displacement, together with Academy Award Finest Documentary nominee A Home Product of Splinters, which tells the story of an orphanage in Jap Ukraine. Santiago Mitre, the thoughts behind Finest Worldwide Characteristic Movie nominee Argentina, 1985, and Edward Berger, director of Finest Image nominee All Quiet on the Western Entrance, had been amongst these pledging their assist via the blue ribbons. 

They’re all bolstered by activist and UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Yusra Mardini, whose story of fleeing her residence throughout the Syrian civil battle is depicted within the BAFTA-nominated Netflix movie The Swimmers. Mardini grew to become a member of the primary Refugee Olympic Athletes Staff. Her older sister, human rights activist Sara Mardini, was arrested by Greek officers in 2018 for supporting immigrant rescue efforts within the Mediterranean. 

“As a former refugee, it’s actually unbelievable to see so many artists put on a blue ribbon tonight in solidarity with refugees and displaced individuals around the globe,” the youthful Mardini wrote. “My individuals – and so many others – are hurting. They want our assist. All of us want peace.”