Ava DuVernay, Yorgos Lanthimos, and more pledge to boycott "Israeli film institutions"
Over 1,300 artists have reportedly signed the pledge, including Ayo Edebiri, Ilana Glazer, Javier Bardem, Josh O’Connor, and Mark Ruffalo.
Photo: Michael Baker/The Academy; Mike Coppola/Getty Images; Trae Patton/@A.M.P.A.S
Over 1,300 filmmakers, actors, and other industry professionals have pledged to boycott Israeli film institutions that are “implicated in genocide and apartheid against the Palestinian people.” That figure comes from the advocacy group Film Workers for Palestine, which shared the pledge on Instagram today alongside an open letter elaborating on its aim to “‘do everything humanly possible’ to end our complicity in Israel’s genocide in Gaza.” Many high profile names have signed on, including Ava DuVernay, Ayo Edebiri, Boots Riley, Brian Cox, Gael García Bernal, Hannah Einbinder, Javier Bardem, Josh O’Connor, Joshua Oppenheimer, Mark Ruffalo, Melissa Barrera, Olivia Colman, Riz Ahmed, Susan Sarandon, Tilda Swinton, and Yorgos Lanthimos. You can check out the full list of signatories here.
In a press release, Film Workers for Palestine explained that the pledge was inspired by Filmmakers United Against Apartheid, a 1987 movement kicked off by Jonathan Demme, Martin Scorsese, and “100 other prominent filmmakers” to demand that the U.S. refuse to distribute films in apartheid South Africa. “As filmmakers, actors, film industry workers, and institutions, we recognize the power of cinema to shape perceptions. 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 states. “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.” The letter further clarifies that “examples of complicity” include “whitewashing or justifying genocide and apartheid, and/or partnering with the government committing them.”
This movement is the latest in a string of pledges and other boycotts from the film industry and beyond. Earlier this year, more than 300 filmmakers and actors (including many of the same artists that signed this week’s pledge) published an open letter condemning the industry’s “silence” in regard to the “horror of reality and the oppression suffered by our sisters and brothers” in Gaza. Many of these signatories also added their name to a mass call on SAG-AFTRA to instate protections for actors speaking out in support of Palestine last year.
Other signatories include Adam McKay, Aimee Lou Wood, Benedict Wong, Brian Eno, Cynthia Nixon, Debra Winger, Emma Seligman, Ilana Glazer, Lukas Dhont, Morgan Spector, and Paapa Essiedu. You can read the full text of Film Workers for Palestine’s open letter below:
