Javier Bardem, Tilda Swinton, Paul Laverty and Adam McKay, among the many 80 signatories of a letter towards the Berlinale for “its silence on Gaza” and “censorship of artists” | Cinema: premieres and opinions | EUROtoday

More than 80 contributors on this version of the Berlinale and filmmakers who’ve visited the German competition on earlier events have signed an open letter within the journal Variety and aimed on the competition condemning what, they describe, has been its “silence” on the subject of the battle in Gaza and the “censorship” of the artists who’ve spoken. “We are dismayed.”

Actors reminiscent of Tilda Swinton (Honorary Golden Bear in 2025), Javier Bardem, Ben Russell, Brian Cox, Adèle Haenel, Ariane Labed, Carice Van Houten, Charlie Shackleton, Tatiana Maslany, Peter Mullan and Tobias Menzies or administrators reminiscent of Mike Leigh, Nina Menkes, Camilo Restrepo, Lukas Dhont, Sepideh Farsi, Shirin Neshat, Nan Goldin, Fernando Meirelles, Hany Abu Assad, Miguel Gomes, Tyler Taormina and Adam McKay are among the many signatories of the letter, which reads: “We hope that the institutions of our industry reject complicity in the terrible violence that continues to be waged against Palestinians.”

The foremost one identified is Wim Wenders, and his controversial assertion final Thursday on the press convention to current the jury of the 76th version of the Berlinale, when a German blogger requested if Germany’s assist for Israel and its monetary assist for the Berlinale, an occasion financed primarily with public cash, compromised the competition’s freedom of expression. That is, is the competition being muzzled? Wenders replied: “We have to stay out of politics. We are the counterweight to politics, the opposite of politicians; we have to do the work of the people, not the politicians.” This clashed with the Berlinale’s fixed assist for the Ukrainian and Iranian peoples, and underlined the silence within the face of the invasion of Gaza by the Israeli military, a genocide whose condemnation already heated up spirits, final yr, among the many world filmmakers current in Berlin and the organizers of the competitors.

In the open letter, the signatories affirm their full disagreement with Wenders’ opinions on movie and politics. “You cannot separate one thing from the other,” they are saying, including that “the situation is changing in the world of international cinema,” citing the refusal of greater than 5,000 movie professionals to collaborate with “complicit Israeli film companies and institutions.”

Added to the controversy that erupted on-line with these and different statements was the cancellation of the go to of the Indian author Arundhati Roy, who was going to current the restoration of In Which Annie Give It Those Ones (1989), and who in an announcement justified the cancellation of his journey: “Hearing them say that art should not be political is amazing.” […]. “It’s a way to silence a conversation about a crime against humanity as it unfolds before us in real time, when artists, writers and filmmakers should be doing everything they can to stop it.”

The Berlinale responded to this with an announcement on Saturday evening “in defense of our filmmakers, and especially our jury and its president,” after what it described as a “media storm that has devastated the festival” throughout its first two days; and one other textual content by the competition director, Tricia Tuttle, a protracted “reflection” titled About talking, cinema and politics, during which he insisted: “Artists should not be expected to comment on all broader debates.”

Some victims sure and others no

The letter from the 80 signatories notes that the Berlinale has made “clear statements” up to now about “atrocities” dedicated towards individuals in Iran and Ukraine. “As the Palestinian Film Institute has stated, the festival has been ‘monitoring the filmmakers, as well as maintaining a commitment to collaborating with the Federal Police in their investigations.’ Last year, filmmakers who spoke out in favor of Palestinian life and freedom from the Berlinale stage reported being severely reprimanded by the festival’s main programmers.”

Therefore, the open letter continues, “we urge the Berlinale to fulfill its moral duty and clearly state its opposition to Israel’s genocide, its crimes against humanity and its war crimes against the Palestinians, and to completely end its involvement in shielding Israel from criticism and calls for accountability.”