UPDATE (September 18, 2025):
"Israeli Film Boycott: Paramount, under its new owner, David Ellison, has become the first major Hollywood studio to condemn a boycott of Israeli film institutions that more than 4,000 actors and directors now support."
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/08/movies/hollywood-israel-boycott.html
Hollywood Actors and Directors Pledge to Boycott Israeli Film Institutions
In an open letter, Javier Bardem, Olivia Colman and other stars pledged not to work with Israeli film companies that, in their view, “are implicated in genocide.”
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The promise by many Hollywood figures not to work with certain Israeli film companies comes after protests against Israel’s military campaign in Gaza at the Venice Film Festival last week. Credit: Andreas Rentz/Getty Images
by Derrick Bryson Taylor
September 8, 2025
New York Times
More than 1,000 filmmakers, actors and industry professionals, including prominent Hollywood figures like Olivia Colman, Ava DuVernay and Tilda Swinton, have signed a pledge not to work with certain Israeli film institutions.
The pledge was made in an open letter published on Monday by Film Workers for Palestine, a group that campaigns for the end of the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.
“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 read.
The signatories, which also include the director Adam McKay, the actor Mark Ruffalo and the actress Ayo Edebiri, pledged not to screen films, appear at or otherwise work with Israeli cinemas, broadcasters and production companies that, in their view, “are implicated in genocide and apartheid against the Palestinian people
The group said it had been inspired by Filmmakers United Against Apartheid, a movement that in the 1980s worked to end apartheid in South Africa.
Last month, a group of academic experts known as the International Association of Genocide Scholars declared that Israel’s actions in Gaza had met the legal definition of genocide. According to Gaza health officials, more than 60,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war, which began when Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people. Experts in food security have found famine in parts of the Gaza Strip, an assertion rejected by Israel.
In a statement last week, a spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry called the conclusion by the International Association of Genocide Scholars “an embarrassment to the legal profession and to any academic standard,” and said it was “entirely based on Hamas’s campaign of lies and the laundering of those lies by others.”
Film Workers for Palestine said its pledge did not prohibit working with Israeli individuals. “The call is for film workers to refuse to work with Israeli institutions that are complicit in Israel’s human rights abuses against the Palestinian people,” it said on its website. “This refusal takes aim at institutional complicity, not identity.”
The organization said that while a few Israeli film entities “are not complicit,” a vast majority of the country’s “film production and distribution companies, sales agents, cinemas and other film institutions have never endorsed the full, internationally recognized rights of the Palestinian people.”
The group added that Israel’s major film festivals, including the Jerusalem Film Festival, continue to partner with the Israeli government.
Other signatories of the pledge include the actress Cynthia Nixon and Yorgos Lanthimos, the director of the upcoming film “Bugonia.” Javier Bardem, Susan Sarandon and Indya Moore partnered with Film Workers for Palestine on Instagram to share a post explaining the pledge.
The pledge comes after a recent pro-Palestinian demonstration at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival drew thousands of participants.
That protest gained momentum after Venice4Palestine, a group of Italian and international film professionals, released an open letter demanding that the festival condemn the destruction and suffering caused by Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.
September 8, 2025
New York Times
More than 1,000 filmmakers, actors and industry professionals, including prominent Hollywood figures like Olivia Colman, Ava DuVernay and Tilda Swinton, have signed a pledge not to work with certain Israeli film institutions.
The pledge was made in an open letter published on Monday by Film Workers for Palestine, a group that campaigns for the end of the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.
“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 read.
The signatories, which also include the director Adam McKay, the actor Mark Ruffalo and the actress Ayo Edebiri, pledged not to screen films, appear at or otherwise work with Israeli cinemas, broadcasters and production companies that, in their view, “are implicated in genocide and apartheid against the Palestinian people
The group said it had been inspired by Filmmakers United Against Apartheid, a movement that in the 1980s worked to end apartheid in South Africa.
Last month, a group of academic experts known as the International Association of Genocide Scholars declared that Israel’s actions in Gaza had met the legal definition of genocide. According to Gaza health officials, more than 60,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war, which began when Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people. Experts in food security have found famine in parts of the Gaza Strip, an assertion rejected by Israel.
In a statement last week, a spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry called the conclusion by the International Association of Genocide Scholars “an embarrassment to the legal profession and to any academic standard,” and said it was “entirely based on Hamas’s campaign of lies and the laundering of those lies by others.”
Film Workers for Palestine said its pledge did not prohibit working with Israeli individuals. “The call is for film workers to refuse to work with Israeli institutions that are complicit in Israel’s human rights abuses against the Palestinian people,” it said on its website. “This refusal takes aim at institutional complicity, not identity.”
The organization said that while a few Israeli film entities “are not complicit,” a vast majority of the country’s “film production and distribution companies, sales agents, cinemas and other film institutions have never endorsed the full, internationally recognized rights of the Palestinian people.”
The group added that Israel’s major film festivals, including the Jerusalem Film Festival, continue to partner with the Israeli government.
Other signatories of the pledge include the actress Cynthia Nixon and Yorgos Lanthimos, the director of the upcoming film “Bugonia.” Javier Bardem, Susan Sarandon and Indya Moore partnered with Film Workers for Palestine on Instagram to share a post explaining the pledge.
The pledge comes after a recent pro-Palestinian demonstration at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival drew thousands of participants.
That protest gained momentum after Venice4Palestine, a group of Italian and international film professionals, released an open letter demanding that the festival condemn the destruction and suffering caused by Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Derrick Bryson Taylor is a Times reporter covering breaking news in culture and the arts.
A version of this article appears in print on Sept. 10, 2025, Section C, Page 5 of the New York edition with the headline: Cinema Figures to Boycott Some Israeli Film Institutions. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe
See more on: The Israel-Hamas War
More on the Middle East Crisis
- Rifts in Israeli Leadership: Israel’s advance on Gaza City is not only dividing the Israeli public but also showcasing extraordinary discord between top military officials and the elected government at a time of crisis.
- Diplomatic Resolution to War?: A negotiated settlement to end the fighting remains distant, in part because of the maximalist positions of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and of Hamas.
- U.N. Reports Genocide: A United Nations commission investigating the war said that Israel was committing genocide against Palestinians. In earlier reports, the commission stopped short of calling it genocide.
- Effects of Malnutrition: Young Palestinians, particularly those under age 5, are especially vulnerable in the Gaza Strip, where Israel has imposed restrictions on the entry of aid throughout the war, at times shutting crossings entirely. This is what happens to a malnourished body.
- Israeli Film Awards: Israel’s minister of culture announced plans to cancel the funding for the country’s top film award ceremony after a drama about a Palestinian boy won best feature. The ceremony, known as the Ophir Awards, is Israel’s version of the Oscars.
