It’s truthful to say that the opening days of this 12 months’s Berlinale haven’t precisely gone in response to plan. The competition’s first week has been marred by a lot of incidents during which everybody from its competitors jury to the celebs of varied movies have been requested questions in regards to the place of politics in movie to their very own beliefs in regards to the present state of the world. Lots of their solutions have gone viral, and never within the good means. (You may compensate for the earlier occasions proper right here.)
This weekend, the fervor was excessive sufficient that competition head Tricia Tuttle issued a prolonged assertion during which she each defended the place of free speech on the competition and appeared to admonish those that would ask such questions of varied movie world luminaries. That letter doesn’t appear to have finished a lot to stem the rising ailing will.
Now, Selection has shared an open letter from greater than 80 present and former individuals of the Berlinale, condemning what the letter calls the festivals‘s “silence” in terms of the battle in Gaza and the “censoring” of the artists who’ve tried to talk out.
Signatories embody actors Tilda Swinton, Javier Bardem, Angeliki Papoulia, Saleh Bakri, Tatiana Maslany, Peter Mullan and Tobias Menzies, in addition to administrators Mike Leigh, Lukas Dhont, Nan Goldin, Miguel Gomes, Adam McKay and Avi Mograbi.
The letter particularly notes that the “Berlinale has to this point not even met the calls for of its neighborhood to concern a press release that affirms the Palestinian proper to life, dignity, and freedom; condemns the continuing Israeli genocide of Palestinians; and commits to uphold the best of artists to talk with out constraint in help of Palestinian human rights. That is the least it might – and may – do.”
You may learn the total contents of the letter and see the present record of signatories beneath:
Open Letter to the Berlinale — Feb. 17, 2026
We write as movie staff, all of us previous and present Berlinale individuals, who count on the establishments in our business to refuse complicity within the horrible violence that continues to be waged in opposition to Palestinians. We’re dismayed on the Berlinale’s involvement in censoring artists who oppose Israel’s ongoing genocide in opposition to Palestinians in Gaza and the German state’s key position in enabling it. Because the Palestine Movie Institute has said, the competition has been “policing filmmakers alongside a continued dedication to collaborate with Federal Police on their investigations”.
Final 12 months, filmmakers who spoke out for Palestinian life and liberty from the Berlinale stage reported being aggressively reprimanded by senior competition programmers. One filmmaker was reported to have been investigated by police, and Berlinale management falsely implied that the filmmaker’s shifting speech – rooted in worldwide regulation and solidarity – was “discriminatory”. As one other filmmaker advised Movie Staff for Palestine about final 12 months’s competition: “there was a sense of paranoia within the air, of not being protected and of being persecuted, which I had by no means felt earlier than at a movie competition”. We stand with our colleagues in rejecting this institutional repression and anti-Palestinian racism.
We fervently disagree with the assertion made by Berlinale 2026 jury president Wim Wenders that filmmaking is “the other of politics”. You can’t separate one from the opposite. We’re deeply involved that the German state-funded Berlinale helps put into apply what Irene Khan, the UN Particular Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression and Opinion not too long ago condemned as Germany’s misuse of draconian laws “to limit advocacy for Palestinian rights, chilling public participation and shrinking discourse in academia and the humanities”. That is additionally what Ai Weiwei not too long ago described as Germany “doing what they did within the Nineteen Thirties” (agreeing along with his interviewer who advised to him that “it’s the identical fascist impulse, only a completely different goal”). All of this at a time once we are studying horrifying new particulars in regards to the 2,842 Palestinians “evaporated” by Israeli forces utilizing internationally prohibited, U.S.-made thermal and thermobaric weapons. Regardless of plentiful proof of Israel’s genocidal intent, systematic atrocity crimes and ethnic cleaning, Germany continues to produce Israel with weapons used to exterminate Palestinians in Gaza.
The tide is altering throughout the worldwide movie world. Many worldwide movie festivals have endorsed the cultural boycott of apartheid Israel, together with the Worldwide Documentary Competition Amsterdam, the world’s largest, in addition to BlackStar Movie Competition within the U.S., and Movie Fest Gent, Belgium’s largest. Greater than 5,000 movie staff, together with main Hollywood and worldwide figures, have additionally introduced their refusal to work with complicit Israeli movie firms and establishments.
But Berlinale has to this point not even met the calls for of its neighborhood to concern a press release that affirms the Palestinian proper to life, dignity, and freedom; condemns the continuing Israeli genocide of Palestinians; and commits to uphold the best of artists to talk with out constraint in help of Palestinian human rights. That is the least it might – and may – do.
Because the Palestine Movie Institute has mentioned, “we’re appalled by Berlinale’s institutional silence on the genocide of Palestinians, and its unwillingness to defend the freedoms of speech and expression of filmmakers”. Simply as the competition has made clear statements previously about atrocities carried out in opposition to individuals in Iran and Ukraine, we name on the Berlinale to fulfil its ethical responsibility and clearly state its opposition to Israel’s genocide, crimes in opposition to humanity and battle crimes in opposition to Palestinians, and fully finish its involvement in shielding Israel from criticism and requires accountability.
Signed by
Adam McKay
Adele Haenel
Alan O’Gorman
Alexandra Juhasz
Alexandre Koberidze
Alia Shawkat
Alison Oliver
Alkis Papastathopoulos
Ana Naomi de Sousa
Angeliki Papoulia
Antigonus Rota
Ariane Labed
Artemis Anastasiadou
Ashley McKenzie
Avi Mograbi
Bahija Essoussi
Ben Russell
Bingham Bryant
Blake Williams
Blanche Gardin
Brett Story
Brian Cox
Camilo Restrepo
Carice Van Houten
Charlie Shackleton
Cherien Dabis
Christopher Younger
Dali Benslah
David Osit
Deragh Campbell
Dustin Defa
Eleni Alexandrakis
Elhum Shakerifar
Emilie Deleuze
Eyal Sivan
Fernando Meirelles
Fil Ieropoulos
Geoff Arbourne
Solely Abu Assad
Hind Med
James Benning
Javier Bardem
John Greyson
Jon Jost
Khalid Abdulla
Leah Borromeo
Lukas Dhont
Mahdi Fleifel
By no means Masri
Malika Zouhali-Worrall
Manuel Embalse
Marina Giotti
Marion Schmidt
Merawi Gerima
Michael Gomes
Mike Leigh
Miranda Pennell
Namir Abdel Messeeh
Nan Goldin
Narimane Mari
Nina Minister of Well being
Pascale Ramonda
Patricia Mazuy
Paul Laverty
Pedro Pimenta
Peter Mullan
Phaedra Vokali
Robert Greene
Saeed Taji Farouky
Saleh Bakri
Samaher Alqadi
Sarah Friedland
Sepideh Farsi
Shirin Neshat
Smaro Papaevangelou
Sofia Georgovassili
Tatiana Maslany
Thodoris Dimitropoulos
Tilda Swinton
Tobias Menzies
Tyler Taormina