Major Israeli documentary institutions—including the Docaviv Film Festival, the CoPro Market, and the Kan public broadcaster—have been barred from participating in the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), one of the world’s most prominent documentary events.
According to a report Monday in Variety, the move comes after the festival adopted a policy aligned with a cultural boycott of Israel’s film industry, citing partial state funding as grounds for exclusion.
IDFA’s new director, Isabel Arata Fernández, implemented a policy prohibiting participation by Israeli organizations that receive government funding, following a boycott call last month from the group Film Workers for Palestine. Nearly 4,000 film professionals, including actors Emma Stone and Joaquin Phoenix, signed the petition, pledging to boycott Israeli film institutions allegedly “complicit in war crimes” in Gaza.
Michal Weits, an acclaimed filmmaker and producer who became Docaviv’s artistic director last year, told Variety that she and her colleagues at CoPro and Kan received rejection letters from IDFA stating they would not be approved because they are “partners in genocide”—a claim she rejected.
Weits emphasized that Docaviv operates independently and, while roughly a quarter of its budget comes from public funds, it screens films critical of the Israeli government, the war, and the occupation, aiming “to build bridges between Israelis and Palestinians.” She added that the government does not interfere with the festival’s content. “We are still a democracy, not like Russia,” she said.
Weits also noted that her home was destroyed by a missile during Iran’s attack on Israel in June. Although she was personally invited to attend IDFA, she declined, saying she did not want to set a precedent that legitimizes what she called an unfair policy.
In a statement to Variety, Arata Fernández confirmed that IDFA decided this year not to accredit organizations receiving Israeli government support but said the decision would be reviewed next year. She stressed that the festival evaluates each case individually, noting that works or institutions directly funded by governments responsible for serious human rights violations are excluded. She added that similar restrictions have been applied in the past to films from Iran, Russia, and other countries, though exceptions were sometimes made—for instance, two Israeli films critical of the government were screened last year despite state funding.
Weits highlighted that Docaviv has long featured provocative and politically charged works, including Advocate (2019), about attorney Lea Tsemel, who represents Palestinian clients, and To Remember and to Forget: 1948 by Neta Shoshani, which dealt with the capture of a Palestinian village during Israel’s War of Independence.
She also mentioned last year’s Ophir Award winner for Best Film, The Sea, an Arabic-language drama about a Palestinian boy from the West Bank who risks his life to reach the beach in Tel Aviv. The win sparked backlash from Culture Minister Miki Zohar, who threatened to cut the Israeli Film Academy’s budget and vowed to create a “state-run Israeli Oscars.”
Weits said her mission is to showcase films depicting life in Gaza, the West Bank, Iran, and Lebanon. “I want Israeli audiences to see people on the other side of the fence,” she said, “but no one will give me those films anymore just because I’m Israeli.” Since the boycott began, she added, international collaborations and co-production opportunities have dwindled. “Everyone is afraid to work with Israel, and it’s become much harder to find foreign partners.”
“Culture and cinema are our only way to communicate with each other,” Weits concluded. “But the boycott wants us to disappear. Still, I believe our voice matters.”