Over 1,300 film industry figures pledge to boycott Israeli institutions

More than 1,300 artists, including Yorgos Lanthimos, Tilda Swinton, Javier Bardem, and Olivia Colman, have called for a boycott, announcing that directors and producers do not want to work with Israeli film institutions that support the war in Gaza.

Figures from the world of cinema and television have signed a declaration pledging not to work with Israeli institutions and companies that are “implementing genocide and apartheid against the Palestinian people.”

According to the organizers, over 1,300 industry professionals had signed the document as of Monday.

Among them are well-known figures who have won awards at ceremonies and festivals. In the field of directing, for example, Yorgos Lanthimos, Ava DuVernay, Adam McKay, Mike Leigh, Asif Kapadia, Aki Kaurismäki, and Ken Loach are among the initial signatories.

Actresses such as Olivia Colman, Ayo Edebiri, Beatrice Dalle, Hannah Einbinder, Tilda Swinton, Aimee Lou Wood, and Cynthia Nixon, as well as actors like Javier Bardem, Éric Cantona, Gael García Bernal, and Mark Ruffalo, have also declared their support for the initiative, named “Film Workers for Palestine.”

The declaration states, “As filmmakers, actors, film industry workers, and institutions, we are aware of the power of cinema to shape perceptions. In this moment of urgent crisis, when many of our governments are supporting the massacre in Gaza, we must do everything in our power to prevent complicity in this brutal horror.”

The signatories pledge not to screen their films at, appear in, or otherwise collaborate with institutions considered “complicit,” including festivals, cinemas, broadcasters, and production companies.

“We are responding to the call from Palestinian filmmakers who have urged the international film industry to reject silence, racism, and dehumanization, and to ‘do everything humanly possible’ to end complicity in oppression,” the statement reads.

The text of the pledge follows a call from Palestinian filmmakers for the international film industry to reject “silence, racism, and dehumanization.”

The text defines partnership with the Israeli government and the “whitewashing and legitimization” of its actions as the “complicity” of Israeli institutions.

Among other examples, the major Israeli film festivals in Jerusalem and Haifa are cited as events to be boycotted.

A “frequently asked questions” section accompanying the text points out that the vast majority of film production and distribution companies, sales agents, cinemas, and other film institutions in Israel have never fully supported the internationally recognized rights of the Palestinian people.

The pledge notes that there are “a few non-complicit Israeli film organizations” and recommends following the “guidelines set by Palestinian civil society.”

The organizers view their declaration as part of a historical tradition: in 1987, prominent directors such as Woody Allen, Jonathan Demme, Spike Lee, Martin Scorsese, and Susan Seidelman asked then-US President Ronald Reagan to boycott South Africa.

At that time, the “United Film Makers Against Apartheid” also demanded that the film industry stop showing its works in the apartheid state.

Screenwriter David Farr, one of the signatories, said in a statement, “As the grandson of Holocaust survivors, I am saddened and angered by the actions of the Israeli state, which for decades has imposed a system of apartheid on the Palestinian people in the land they took from them, and is now committing genocide and ethnic cleansing in Gaza. In this context, I cannot support my work being broadcast or exhibited in Israel. The cultural boycott played an important role in South Africa. It will be important this time as well, and I believe it should be supported by all artists of conscience.”