More than 80 movie trade figures together with Oscar-winning actors Javier Bardem and Tilda Swinton issued an announcement on Tuesday slamming the Berlin Film Festival’s “silence” on Gaza.
The signatories to the open letter, despatched to AFP, mentioned they had been “appalled” by the pageant’s “institutional silence” and “dismayed” at its “involvement in censoring artists who oppose Israel’s ongoing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza”.
Their assertion got here after the Berlinale’s jury president, German director Wim Wenders, answered a query on Gaza final week by saying: “We cannot really enter the field of politics.”
Prominent administrators who signed Tuesday’s letter, coordinated by the Film Workers for Palestine collective, embrace British filmmaker Mike Leigh and the American Adam McKay.
The signatories embrace many artists who’ve offered work on the Berlin Film Festival. Swinton was herself final yr awarded its prestigious Honorary Golden Bear award.
They mentioned they “fervently disagree” with Wenders’ feedback, arguing that filmmaking and politics can’t be separated.
“Just as the festival has made clear statements in the past about atrocities carried out against people in Iran and Ukraine, we call on the Berlinale to fulfil its moral duty and clearly state its opposition to Israel’s genocide,” the letter provides.
The signatories took exception not solely to the Berlinale’s stance on Gaza, but in addition “the German state’s key role in enabling” Israel’s actions.
The pageant has been hit by controversy over Gaza a number of instances lately.
When requested about Germany’s assist for Israel at a press convention on Thursday, Wenders mentioned filmmakers had “to stay out of politics”.
“We have to do the work of people, not the work of politicians,” he mentioned.
Fellow jury member Ewa Puszczynska mentioned it was a “little bit unfair” to anticipate the jury to take a direct stance on the difficulty.
Their feedback had already sparked a backlash. Award-winning Indian novelist Arundhati Roy cancelled a deliberate look on the pageant, saying she was “shocked and disgusted” on the jury members’ feedback.
On Saturday, the Berlinale put out an announcement defending Wenders from the “media storm”, indicating that his remarks had been taken out of context.
Festival director Tricia Tuttle mentioned that artists “are free to exercise their right of free speech in whatever way they choose” and shouldn’t “be expected to speak on every political issue raised to them unless they want to”.
In 2024, the pageant’s documentary award went to “No Other Land”, which follows the dispossession of Palestinian communities within the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
German authorities officers criticized “one-sided” remarks about Gaza by the administrators of that movie and others at that yr’s awards ceremony.
The conflict in Gaza was sparked by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 assault on Israel, which resulted within the deaths of 1,221 individuals, in accordance with an AFP tally primarily based on official Israeli figures.
Israel’s retaliation has left no less than 71,000 individuals lifeless in Gaza, in accordance with the well being ministry within the Hamas-run territory, whose figures the United Nations considers dependable.
© 2026 AFP