{"id":309440,"date":"2026-03-02T13:39:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T13:39:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/309440\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T13:39:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T13:39:07","slug":"cmat-hits-out-at-berlinale-distancing-themselves-from-politics-its-cowardice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/309440\/","title":{"rendered":"CMAT hits out at Berlinale distancing themselves from politics: “It’s cowardice”"},"content":{"rendered":"

CMAT<\/a> has hit out at the Berlin Film Festival after heightened scrutiny saw them suggest artist should not be expected to give political commentary to journalists.<\/p>\n

Read More:\u00a0CMAT \u2013 \u2018Euro-Country\u2019 review: she\u2019s been giving icon, now she is one<\/a><\/p>\n

The singer \u2013 real name Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson \u2013 was nominated for International Artist of the Year at this year\u2019s BRITs<\/a> ceremony in Manchester, and on the red carpet, said she was \u201cnot a big fan of anyone trying to argue that art is not a political place\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything is politics. But more than ever, art is politics because you don\u2019t get to make art in a fascist state. Fascism is on the rise in every single country in the world. It\u2019s showing its ugly head in Ireland, it\u2019s showing its ugly head all over the UK and don\u2019t even get me started on America.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking to the Guardian<\/a>, she criticised\u00a0veteran arthouse director Wim Wenders, who was the Jury President at the Berlin International Film Festival this month<\/a>, and\u00a0made the divisive suggestion that cinema should \u201cstay out of politics\u201d.<\/p>\n

Following significant backlash, festival head Tricia Tuttle issued a statement defending its jury, saying that artists should not be \u201cexpected to speak on every political issue\u201d<\/a> put to them.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s cowardice,\u201d CMAT said of the attempted pivot away from political statements. \u201cAnd I think it is showing that these people are extremely separate from how normal people live their everyday lives.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, they\u2019ve become successful artists. Become successful musicians, film-makers, and so they have wiped their hands clean of having to do anything with the working classes or having to do anything with anyone who is oppressed in any nation because they have the luxury of doing that. And I don\u2019t think that\u2019s fair.\u201d<\/p>\n

The festival has dominated headlines in recent weeks, and\u00a0an open letter was signed by 81 of its alumni<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 among them Tilda Swinton, Javier Bardem, Mark Ruffalo, and Brian Cox \u2013 who accused the festival of \u201ccensoring artists who oppose Israel\u2019s ongoing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and the German state\u2019s key role in enabling it.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for CMAT, her latest record landed at Number Four on\u00a0NME\u2019s list of the Best Albums of 2025<\/a>, with the entry saying she \u201ccemented herself as a generational talent \u2013 one capable of investigating deep-seated Irish trauma and concocting a capitalist metaphor about Jamie Oliver within the same 50-minutes.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt turns hilarious, devastating, rageful and proud, \u2018Euro-Country\u2019\u2019s\u00a0complexity and breadth showed the magic that can happen when an artist is given space to\u00a0wholly be\u00a0themselves. It helps, of course, when the artist in question is as\u00a0smart\u00a0a songwriter as Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Take A Sexy Picture\u00a0Of\u00a0Me\u2019 also landed at Number Three on the Songs\u00a0Of\u00a0The\u00a0Year list \u2013 check that out\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

2026 is set to be a big year for the singer, with a run of UK and Ireland dates set to be her \u201cbiggest shows ever\u201d<\/a> when they kick off this month. See all of those dates here<\/a>\u00a0and find any remaining tickets\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

She will also be playing a swathe of festival shows throughout the summer, including\u00a0Bilbao BBK<\/a>,\u00a0Mad Cool<\/a>,\u00a0Bearded Theory<\/a>,\u00a0TRNSMT<\/a>,\u00a0End Of The Road<\/a>,\u00a0\u00d8ya<\/a>,\u00a0LIDO<\/a>,\u00a0Electric Picnic\u00a0<\/a>and\u00a0Truck Festival<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A planned UK tour for October\u00a0had to be cancelled due to a tooth infection that required surgery<\/a>. She told\u00a0NME\u00a0at the Mercury Prize that month that\u00a0the rescheduled dates will feature \u201cthe best music of all time played by the best-looking people of all time\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CMAT has hit out at the Berlin Film Festival after heightened scrutiny saw them suggest artist should not…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":309441,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[79147,2841,156,157,111,139,69,4913],"class_list":{"0":"post-309440","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-brit-awards","9":"tag-country","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-music","12":"tag-new-zealand","13":"tag-newzealand","14":"tag-nz","15":"tag-pop"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=309440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309440\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/309441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=309440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=309440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=309440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}