1,300 Global Actors and Filmmakers Pledge to Boycott Israeli Film Institutions “Implicated in Gaza Genocide”
Gaza (Quds News Network)- Over 1,300 internationally renowned actors, directors and film professionals have pledged not to work with Israeli film institutions “implicated in genocide and apartheid against the Palestinian people.”
They have signed a petition published Monday, reading: “As filmmakers, actors, industry workers, and institutions, we recognize cinema’s power to shape perceptions. In this urgent crisis, where many governments enable the carnage in Gaza, we must address complicity in this unrelenting horror.”
It notes that the International Criminal Court has determined a plausible risk of genocide in Gaza and that Israel’s occupation and apartheid policies against Palestinians are unlawful. The organizers, Film Workers for Palestine, emphasized the need to speak out against oppression.
“We answer the call of Palestinian filmmakers, who urge the international film industry to refuse silence, racism and dehumanization and to ‘do everything humanly possible’ to end complicity in their oppression,” the petition says.
Signatories include actors Mark Ruffalo, Olivia Colman, Tilda Swinton, Ayo Edebiri, Javier Bardem and Aimee Lou Wood, and directors Yorgos Lanthimos, Ava DuVernay, Emma Seligman, Asif Kapadia, Boots Riley, Adam McKay and Joshua Oppenheimer.
Referring to Filmmakers United Against Apartheid, which was founded in 1987 by filmmakers including Jonathan Demme and Martin Scorsese to oppose the distribution of US films in apartheid South Africa, the signatories stated that they “pledge not to screen films, appear at, or work with Israeli film institutions – including festivals, cinemas, broadcasters, and production companies – that are implicated in genocide and apartheid against the Palestinian people.”
Several coordinated boycotts across cultural, economic, logistical, and academic sectors have emerged, signaling a powerful response to the ongoing assault in Gaza since the war began in 2023.
Earlier this summer, hundreds of actors and film-makers, including Joaquin Phoenix, Pedro Pascal, Ralph Fiennes and director Guillermo del Toro, signed an open letter condemning what they described as the film industry’s silence over Israel’s deadly assault in Gaza which has killed more than 63,000 Palestinians.
