VIDEO: Hacks star Hannah Einbinder shouts 'free Palestine' after win at Emmys

Hacks star Hannah Einbinder earned her first-ever Emmy on Sunday night at the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards, winning outstanding supporting actress in a comedy series. Her victory speech quickly stood out as one of the evening’s rare political moments. Wrapping up her remarks, Einbinder declared: “Go Birds, f**k ICE and free Palestine.”

Her statement came against the backdrop of a heated discussion in Hollywood, where nearly 4,000 actors, filmmakers, and industry professionals — including Einbinder herself — recently pledged to boycott Israeli film companies and institutions they view as complicit in “genocide and apartheid.” The campaign has sparked division, with Paramount, parent company of CBS (the Emmy broadcaster), publicly opposing the move and stressing it does not endorse “silencing creative artists based on nationality.”

Einbinder also took a lighter moment to poke fun at her long run of nominations without a win. “I was really attached to the idea that it was cooler to keep losing,” she joked. “But this is cool too — this is also punk rock.” She thanked Hacks creators Jen Statsky, Paul W. Downs, and Lucia Aniello for what she called life-changing support, and praised co-star Jean Smart, describing her as “like a sun” whose presence she gets to bask in.

Speaking with reporters backstage, Einbinder expanded on her remarks. “I wanted to bring up Palestine because it’s very close to my heart,” she said, noting she has friends working as doctors in Gaza. She explained that the boycott effort aims to hold institutions, not individuals, accountable: “Boycotting is an effective tool to create pressure on those in power. The boycott does not target people, only the organizations complicit in the genocide.”

She was not the only figure to use the Emmy platform politically. Actor Javier Bardem appeared on the red carpet wearing a keffiyeh and voiced his support for the Film Workers for Palestine campaign.

Einbinder stars as Ava Daniels in Hacks, which launched its fourth season earlier this year on HBO Max.