Olivia Colman, Mark Ruffalo, and more stars join Israeli film boycott over Gaza genocide
More than 1,500 film industry figures have vowed to boycott Israeli movie institutions they said were “implicated in genocide” in Gaza.
London, UK – More than 1,500 film industry figures, including actors Olivia Colman and Mark Ruffalo, vowed to boycott Israeli movie institutions they said were “implicated in genocide” in Gaza, in an open letter published Monday.
“We pledge not to screen films, appear at or otherwise work with Israeli film institutions – including festivals, cinemas, broadcasters and production companies – that are implicated in genocide and apartheid against the Palestinian people,” read the letter published in The Guardian newspaper.
The signatories included British stars Aimee Lou Wood, Josh O’Connor, and Tilda Swinton, American actors Ayo Edebiri and Cynthia Nixon, and filmmakers Ken Loach and Yorgos Lanthimos.
The letter, organized by the group Film Workers for Palestine, said it was inspired by filmmakers who had refused to screen their work in apartheid South Africa.
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“In this urgent moment of crisis, where many of our governments are enabling the carnage in Gaza, we must do everything we can to address complicity in that unrelenting horror,” the letter read.
The institutions to be boycotted would include any involved in “whitewashing or justifying genocide and apartheid”, or those that partnered with the Israeli government.
The group behind the letter cited the Jerusalem Film Festival and the Docaviv documentary film festival, which “continue to partner with the Israeli government”.
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“The vast majority of Israeli film production and distribution companies, sales agents, cinemas and other film institutions have never endorsed the full, internationally recognised rights of the Palestinian people,” according to a FAQ document accompanying the letter.
The pledge does not specifically target Israeli individuals. Instead, the document said the “refusal takes aim at institutional complicity, not identity”, adding that “a few Israeli film entities are not complicit”.
Several open letters signed by prominent figures from the worlds of movies, music, and literature have been published as pressure grows on the Israeli government to end the devastating, nearly two-year war in Gaza and urgently address the humanitarian crisis.
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An Italian filmmakers’ collective, Venice4Palestine, urged the city’s film festival in August to take a stand, with their letter gathering 2,000 signatures, including Oscar-winning director Guillermo del Toro.
Militant group Hamas’s deadly attack on October 7, 2023 resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official data.
Israel’s relentless offensive in retaliation has killed at least 64,522 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, and has been classified as a genocide by numerous human rights experts and organizations.
Cover photo: Collage: CHARLY TRIBALLEAU / AFP & Roy Rochlin / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP
