{"id":483072,"date":"2026-02-22T02:54:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T02:54:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/483072\/"},"modified":"2026-02-22T02:54:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T02:54:09","slug":"berlinale-winners-criticize-israel-america-at-charged-ceremony","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/483072\/","title":{"rendered":"Berlinale Winners Criticize Israel, America At Charged Ceremony"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tA highly charged Berlinale<\/a> closing ceremony saw multiple winners condemn Israel\u2019s actions in Gaza, describing it as \u201cgenocide\u201d.<\/p>\n

\n\tOne winner, Abdallah Al-Khatib, who picked up the evening\u2019s Best Feature Debut prize for his film Chronicles From the Siege, also criticized the German government for what he described as its \u201ccomplicity\u201d in Israel\u2019s actions.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019m happy to be here to get this prize, but I\u2019m Palestinian, so I have to use this moment to speak about Palestine,\u201d said Al-Khatib. \u201cI was under a lot of pressure to participate in the Berlinale for one reason only, to stand here and say that Palestinians will be free and one day, we will have a great film festival in the middle of Gaza, in the middle of other Palestinian cities.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cOur festival will stand in solidarity with the people living under siege, under occupation and under dictatorships around the world. We will speak about politics before cinema. We will speak about resistance before art, about freedom before beauty, and about a human being before culture, the long awaited day is coming.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe speech saw the ceremony\u2019s host D\u00e9sir\u00e9e Nosbusch become emotional and get into back-and-forth with audience members who called out in support of the criticism of Israel and the German government. She reminded the audience and TV viewers that artists\u2019 personal views don\u2019t necessarily reflect those of the publicly-backed Berlinale. She also called on those heckling in the crowd to remain respectful.<\/p>\n

\n\tEarlier in the night, winner Marie-Rose Osta also called out \u201ca genocide empowered by veto powers and the collapse of international law\u201d: \u201cIn reality children in Gaza, in all of Palestine, and in my Lebanon do not have superpowers to protect them from Israeli bombs [\u2026] No child should need superpowers to survive a genocide empowered by veto powers and the collapse of international law.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tTom Courtenay, during his speech for best supporting actor, lamented what he described as \u201cAmerica seemingly turning its back on Europe\u201d.<\/p>\n

\n\tSilver Bear winner Emin Alper, director of Salvation, spotlighted those in Palestine, Turkey and Iran, saying \u201cthey are not alone\u201d. <\/p>\n

\n\tRose actress Sandra H\u00fcller, winner of the best lead performance award, thanked the night\u2019s winners and other speakers on stage for \u201cspeaking truth\u201d.<\/p>\n

\n\tFestival chief Tricia Tuttle closed the ceremony by saying that the festival embraced \u201ccomplexity\u201d and free speech.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe evening kicked off with a speech from a \u201cteary\u201d Tuttle in which she acknowledged the \u201cemotionally charged\u201d edition, and a considered speech from jury president Wim Wenders in which he discussed the need for dialogue, compassion and respect. Wenders thanked Tuttle and acknowledged that they \u201chad been through a storm together\u201d.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis year\u2019s Berlinale has been dominated by political discourse and back-and-forth between filmmakers, journalists and the festival. Tuttle described the edition during her speech this evening as \u201cemotionally charged\u201d and a \u201cchallenge\u201d.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe turbulence started after a backlash over comments by jury president\u00a0Wim Wenders<\/a>\u00a0in the opening press conference nine days ago in which he appeared to say that filmmakers should stay out of politics, although the meaning of his words is still up for debate.<\/p>\n

\n\tThat beginning set off ten days of actors and filmmakers being asked at press conferences for their stances on global political issues, and social media angst over those responses. More than 100 actors and filmmakers, including A-listers Tilda Swinton and Javier Bardem, wrote an open letter criticising the festival\u2019s position on the Israel Gaza conflict.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe festival sought to quieten frustration by issuing a lengthy statement in the middle of the edition. Tuttle also defended the festival and its jury in multiple interviews.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A highly charged Berlinale closing ceremony saw multiple winners condemn Israel\u2019s actions in Gaza, describing it as \u201cgenocide\u201d.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":483073,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[8198,191249,200165,88],"class_list":["post-483072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-berlin","tag-berlin-film-festival","tag-berlinale","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=483072"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483072\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/483073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=483072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=483072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=483072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}