including several major Hollywood names<\/a>, to work with \u201ccomplicit Israeli film companies and institutions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\tThe letter notes that the Berlinale has made \u201cclear statements\u201d in the past about \u201catrocities\u201d carried out against people in Iran and Ukraine. <\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cWe call on the Berlinale to fulfil its moral duty and clearly state its opposition to Israel\u2019s genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes against Palestinians, and completely end its involvement in shielding Israel from criticism and calls for accountability,\u201d it concludes. <\/p>\n
\n\tSee the full letter and list of signatories below.<\/p>\n
\n\tOpen Letter to the Berlinale \u2014\u00a0Feb. 17, 2026<\/p>\n
\n\tWe write as film workers, all of us past and current Berlinale participants, who expect the institutions in our industry to refuse complicity in the terrible violence that continues to be waged against Palestinians. We are dismayed at the Berlinale\u2019s involvement in censoring artists who oppose Israel\u2019s ongoing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and the German state\u2019s key role in enabling it. As the Palestine Film Institute has stated, the festival has been \u201cpolicing filmmakers alongside a continued commitment to collaborate with Federal Police on their investigations\u201d.<\/p>\n
\n\tLast year, filmmakers who spoke out for Palestinian life and liberty from the Berlinale stage reported being aggressively reprimanded by senior festival programmers. One filmmaker was reported \u200bt\u200bo have been investigated by police, and Berlinale leadership falsely implied that \u200bt\u200bhe filmmaker\u2019s moving speech \u2013 rooted in international law and solidarity \u2013 was \u201cdiscriminatory\u201d. As another filmmaker told Film Workers for Palestine\u200b about last year\u2019s festival: \u201cthere was a feeling of paranoia in the air, of not being protected and of being persecuted, which I had never felt before at a film festival\u201d. We stand with our colleagues in rejecting this institutional repression and anti-Palestinian racism.<\/p>\n
\n\tWe fervently disagree with \u200bthe statement made by Berlinale\u200b 2026 jury president Wim Wenders\u200b that filmmaking is \u201cthe opposite of politics\u201d\u200b. You cannot separate one from the other. We are deeply concerned that the German state-funded Berlinale is helping put into practice what Irene Khan, the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression and Opinion recently condemned as Germany\u2019s misuse of draconian legislation \u201cto restrict advocacy for Palestinian rights, chilling public participation and shrinking discourse in academia and the arts\u201d\u200b. This is also what Ai Weiwei recently described\u200b as Germany \u201cdoing what they did in the 1930s\u201d\u200b (agreeing with his interviewer who suggested to him that \u201cit\u2019s the same fascist impulse, just a different target\u200b\u201d). All of this at a time when we are learning horrifying new details about the 2,842 Palestinians \u201cevaporated\u201d by Israeli forces using internationally prohibited, U.S.-made thermal and thermobaric weapons. Despite abundant evidence of Israel\u2019s genocidal intent, systematic atrocity crimes and ethnic cleansing, Germany continues to supply Israel with weapons used to exterminate Palestinians in Gaza.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe tide is changing across the international film world. Many international film festivals have endorsed the cultural boycott of apartheid Israel, including the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam, the world\u2019s biggest, as well as BlackStar Film Festival in the U.S., and Film Fest Gent, Belgium\u2019s largest. More than 5,000 film workers, including leading Hollywood and international figures, have also announced their refusal to work with complicit Israeli film companies and institutions.<\/p>\n
\n\tYet Berlinale has so far not even met the demands of its community to issue a statement that affirms the Palestinian right to life, dignity, and freedom; condemns the ongoing Israeli genocide of Palestinians; and commits to uphold the right of artists to speak without constraint in support of Palestinian human rights. This is the least it can \u2013 and should \u2013 do.<\/p>\n
\n\tAs the Palestine Film Institute has said, \u201cwe are appalled by Berlinale\u2019s institutional silence on the genocide of Palestinians, and its unwillingness to defend the freedoms of speech and expression of filmmakers\u201d. Just as \u200bt\u200bhe festival has \u200bm\u200bade clear statements \u200bin the past about atrocities \u200bcarried out against\u200b people in Iran and Ukrain\u200be, we call on the Berlinale to fulfil its moral duty and clearly state its opposition to Israel\u2019s genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes against Palestinians, and completely end its involvement in shielding Israel from criticism and calls for accountability.<\/p>\n
\n\tSigned by<\/p>\n
Adam McKay<\/p>\n
Ad\u00e8le Haenel<\/p>\n
Alan O\u2019Gorman<\/p>\n
Alexandra Juhasz<\/p>\n
Alexandre Koberidze<\/p>\n
Alia Shawkat<\/p>\n
Alison Oliver<\/p>\n
Alkis Papastathopoulos<\/p>\n
Ana Naomi de Sousa<\/p>\n
Angeliki Papoulia<\/p>\n
Antigoni Rota<\/p>\n
Ariane Labed<\/p>\n
Artemis Anastasiadou<\/p>\n
Ashley McKenzie<\/p>\n
Avi Mograbi<\/p>\n
Bahija Essoussi<\/p>\n
Ben Russell<\/p>\n
Bingham Bryant<\/p>\n
Blake Williams<\/p>\n
Blanche Gardin<\/p>\n
Brett Story<\/p>\n
Brian Cox<\/p>\n
Camilo Restrepo<\/p>\n
Carice Van Houten<\/p>\n
Charlie Shackleton<\/p>\n
Cherien Dabis<\/p>\n
Christopher Young<\/p>\n
Dali Benssalah<\/p>\n
David Osit<\/p>\n
Deragh Campbell<\/p>\n
Dustin Defa<\/p>\n
Eleni Alexandrakis<\/p>\n
Elhum Shakerifar<\/p>\n
Emilie Deleuze<\/p>\n
Eyal Sivan<\/p>\n
Fernando Meirelles<\/p>\n
Fil Ieropoulos<\/p>\n
Geoff Arbourne<\/p>\n
Hany Abu Assad<\/p>\n
Hind Meddeb<\/p>\n
James Benning<\/p>\n
Javier Bardem<\/p>\n
John Greyson<\/p>\n
Jon Jost<\/p>\n
Khalid Abdalla<\/p>\n
Leah Borromeo<\/p>\n
Lukas Dhont<\/p>\n
Mahdi Fleifel<\/p>\n
Mai Masri<\/p>\n
Malika Zouhali-Worrall<\/p>\n
Manuel Embalse<\/p>\n
Marina Gioti<\/p>\n
Marion Schmidt<\/p>\n
Merawi Gerima<\/p>\n
Miguel Gomes<\/p>\n
Mike Leigh<\/p>\n
Miranda Pennell<\/p>\n
Namir Abdel Messeeh<\/p>\n
Nan Goldin<\/p>\n
Narimane Mari<\/p>\n
Nina Menkes<\/p>\n
Pascale Ramonda<\/p>\n
Patricia Mazuy<\/p>\n
Paul Laverty<\/p>\n
Pedro Pimenta<\/p>\n
Peter Mullan<\/p>\n
Phaedra Vokali<\/p>\n
Robert Greene<\/p>\n
Saeed Taji Farouky<\/p>\n
Saleh Bakri<\/p>\n
Samaher Alqadi<\/p>\n
Sarah Friedland<\/p>\n
Sepideh Farsi<\/p>\n
Shirin Neshat<\/p>\n
Smaro Papaevangelou<\/p>\n
Sofia Georgovassili<\/p>\n
Tatiana Maslany<\/p>\n
Thodoris Dimitropoulos<\/p>\n
Tilda Swinton<\/p>\n
Tobias Menzies<\/p>\n
Tyler Taormina<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than 80 current and former participants of the Berlinale have signed an open letter to the festival…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":431403,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[146588,96,59,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-431402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-berlin-film-festival","tag-entertainment","tag-gb","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=431402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431402\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/431403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=431402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=431402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=431402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}