Behind the glory of my Oscar win, I was mired in a long battle against BBC antisemitism, says Lucie Kon

Instead, the licence fee payer-funded corporation appeared to remove her name in the credits from the film on which she had worked for years.

Now, speaking exclusively to the JC, Kon recalls: “I couldn’t believe it. I was just shocked. It felt incredibly painful.

“It was spiteful, and it was childish, and it was petty, and it was really nasty, and it was painful, and it felt like the final nail in the coffin.”

Last week, Kon was at last able to reveal what she had endured, as she told how the BBC had paid out £400,000, without accepting the allegations but still conceding there had been “shortcomings”.

The acclaimed producer recalls how the terrible events of October 7, 2023 had repercussions at the BBC, on the very day of the attacks in which 1,200 men, women and children in Israel were massacred.

She says how one colleague said: “Zionists are evil, like Hamas.”

Sadly, the shocking comment was only the first in a series of incidents that would follow in the ensuing months.

Kon was involved with the setting up of a support group for Jewish staff at the BBC, and had a meeting with the then-director general Tim Davie.

The request was made for the Hamas attack to be called an “act of terror”, but this was refused.

Kon recalls how after the meeting, the colleague who had spoken to her on October 7 now told her: “‘If Hamas were called terrorists, Israel must be too,’ and that I should ‘think about what drove Hamas to do what they did’.”

Amid the surge in antisemitism in the UK, then Prime Minister Rishi Sunak attended a Jewish school to show solidarity with Britain’s community.

As footage was shown on TV, Kon said the colleague accused the Conservative leader of “taking sides” and said his visit was “disgusting”.

Kon said she reported the comments to senior staff.

At first they insisted she was being “overly sensitive” and offered her therapy, until it was suggested she should lodge a formal grievance over the colleague’s behaviour.

She followed the advice, but as she looks back now, the result only worsened her situation: the BBC’s remedy towards the end of 2024 was to keep the two apart, because she says it was claimed to leave matters unchanged would be “unfair” to the colleague.

Kon recalls: “Being sidelined and unable to do my job for more than two years cost me my mental health.

“I developed anxiety I had never had before, and being honest about it became another stick to beat me with.”

Following medical advice, Kon said she needed to take sick leave and was called in for a meeting with human resources.

She expected the meeting to be about making arrangements for her upcoming absence. Instead, she was shocked to be told that she was at risk of being made redundant due to a “structural change”.

As far as Kon is concerned, she believed she was being “forced out”.

The coming months should have been among the best of Kon’s career.

First, Mr Nobody Against Putin was premiered to acclaim at the Sundance Film Festival.

Then, in the summer of 2025, the extraordinary film Kon had commissioned on October 7 and the Nova festival, We Will Dance Again, was awarded an Emmy.

A few months later, came a Bafta award for Mr Nobody Against Putin, followed by the Oscar.

But beyond the public glory, Kon was mired in the dispute with the BBC that had taken such a toll on her wellbeing she was hospitalised at one point.

The almost unimaginable stress marred even the Academy Award win. She said: “I was really excited that we won. It was amazing, and I was with an amazing group of people.

“But it was bittersweet, and it was painful, because I knew I was going to be out of a job three weeks later.

“Everyone was posting things and telling me I was on top of my game and how exciting it must be. And it was like, yeah, it’s exciting, but I couldn’t tell them. I couldn’t tell them what was going on.”

In April, the month after the Oscar win, Kon’s employment at the BBC ended, after decades working on Panorama and other flagship shows.

In her case against the BBC, Kon was being supported by Asserson, the law firm of Trevor Asserson, a litigation specialist who has also long campaigned against what he sees as the corporation’s editorial bias against Israel.

Asserson lawyer Shimon Goldwater has led the case. He told the JC: “It became clear to us that this was a very serious situation, not from a legal point of view but really because of the BBC’s reaction when Lucie complained about it. That’s what was unusual.

“The BBC treated it, from the management point of view, as a reason to segregate Lucie.

“It meant she couldn’t attend most of the meetings she needed to do her job.

“She couldn’t attend film festivals because this person would be there, and in their view it wouldn’t be fair.

“The BBC knew that Lucie had serious health issues that could be triggered by this kind of treatment. They were told while it was going on.

“Someone had a clear vulnerability, and the employer, going against all the mantras of HR about treating people properly, taking into account health conditions and vulnerabilities, they did all the worst things they could do to Lucie.”

Trevor Asserson himself took a particular interest in the case.

He told the JC: “Lucie felt persecuted. Everything she told me about her treatment sounded like persecution.

“She was very isolated, to my mind, and there was no one she came across at the BBC, at all levels of her complaint, that really understood what was going on, which was basically persecution.

“She’s been through hell and back. She needed huge emotional resilience to keep going.

“Everybody was blaming her, rather than dealing with the treatment.

“What I think is remarkable about the story is the number of managers that she spoke to at all levels within her own department and within her own group, and within the so-called HR complaints that were meant to deal with these issues.”

For Asserson, Lucie’s story was a stark reminder of his many years battling against bias at the BBC.

He said: “Someone who challenges it from the inside, like Lucie tried to do, will just get persecuted out of existence.”

The BBC ultimately agreed to a settlement of over £400,000 and restored Kon’s name back to the credits of the films she had produced (the BBC disputes that her name was ever formally removed).

Kon had asked for a meeting with Director General Matt Brittin and a formal apology from the broadcaster. Both requests were refused.

While Kon can begin to look to the future, she is concerned about what other members of staff may be experiencing.

She says: “The BBC ruined my life and I am worried about the Jewish colleagues I’ve left behind.

“I’ve had messages from Jewish colleagues who are struggling, who don’t want to talk about it because they need jobs.

“The BBC might investigate allegations of antisemitism, but they don’t understand antisemitism. I don’t know any instances there where anyone has complained about antisemitism and it’s been upheld.”

Kon is determined to provide support wherever she can.

She said: “I’ll help them in every way I can as well.”

But Kon also understands many will be unable to take matters as far she was able to: “They have to work and they need to keep their jobs.”

A BBC spokesperson said: “We take any and all allegations of antisemitism extremely seriously – there is no place for it at the BBC. We have introduced compulsory training for all our staff and we actively encourage colleagues to report any incidences or concerns they have.

“We are determined to ensure the BBC is a place where everyone can be themselves and feel accepted and we are grateful Ms Kon acknowledges the BBC is not institutionally antisemitic.

“The BBC processes did not uphold any of Ms Kon’s allegations of antisemitism. However, the outcome did acknowledge there were shortcomings, and the personal impact on Ms Kon.

“We would also like to acknowledge that Ms Kon was a valued member of staff with many years of dedicated service to the BBC.”