It’s fair to say that the opening days of this year’s Berlinale did not go according to plan. The first week of the festival was marred by a number of events in which everyone, from the competition jury to the stars of the various films, were asked questions about the place of politics in film and their own beliefs about the current state of the world. Many of their answers have gone viral, not in good road. (You can follow previous events here.)
This weekend, enthusiasm was high enough that festival president Tricia Tuttle issued a lengthy statement in which she defended the place of free speech at the festival, and appeared to castigate those who would ask such questions of various stars of world cinema. This letter does not appear to have done much to stop the growing ill will.
Now, Variety has published an open letter from more than 80 current and former Berlinale participants, condemning what the letter calls the festivals’ “silence” when it comes to the conflict in Gaza and the “censorship” of artists who have tried to speak out.
Signatories include actors Tilda Swinton, Javier Bardem, Angeliki Papulia, Salih Bakri, Tatiana Maslany, Peter Mullan, and Tobias Menzies, as well as directors Mike Leigh, Lukas Dhont, Nan Goldin, Miguel Gomez, Adam McKay, and Avi Mograbi.
The letter specifically notes that “the Berlinale has not yet met its community’s demands to issue a statement that affirms the right of Palestinians to life, dignity, and freedom; condemns the ongoing Israeli genocide of Palestinians; and commits to supporting the right of artists to speak without restrictions in support of Palestinian human rights. This is the least it can – and should – do.”
You can read the full contents of the letter and see the current list of signatories below:
Open letter to the Berlinale – February 17, 2026
We write as film professionals, all former and current Berlinale participants, and we expect institutions in our industry to refuse to be complicit in the horrific violence that continues to be waged against Palestinians. We are appalled by Berlin’s involvement in censoring artists who oppose Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, and the key role the German state plays in enabling this genocide. As the Palestine Film Institute stated, the festival was “working to monitor filmmakers along with an ongoing commitment to cooperate with the Federal Police in their investigations.”
Last year, filmmakers who spoke about Palestinian lives and freedom from the Berlinale stage reported being severely rebuked by the festival’s senior programmers. One director was reported to have been investigated by police, and the Berlinale leadership falsely suggested that the director’s poignant rhetoric – rooted in international law and solidarity – was “discriminatory.” As another director told Film Workers for Palestine about last year’s festival: “There was a feeling of paranoia in the air, of unprotection and persecution, which I had never felt before at any film festival.” We stand with our colleagues in rejecting this institutional oppression and anti-Palestinian racism.
We strongly disagree with the statement made by the president of the Berlinale 2026 jury, Wim Wenders, that filmmaking is “the opposite of politics.” You cannot separate one from the other. We are deeply concerned that the German state-funded Berlin Festival is helping to implement what Irene Kahn, the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression and opinion, recently condemned as Germany’s misuse of strict legislation to “restrict the defense of Palestinian rights, discourage public participation and curtail discourse in academic and artistic circles.” This is also what Ai Weiwei recently described as Germany “doing what it did in the 1930s” (agreeing with his interviewer who suggested that “it’s the same fascist motive, just a different goal”). All this at a time when we are learning horrifying new details about 2,842 Palestinians who were “evaporated” by Israeli forces using internationally banned American-made thermal and thermal weapons. Despite abundant evidence of Israel’s intent to commit genocide, systematic atrocities and ethnic cleansing, Germany continues to supply Israel with weapons used to exterminate Palestinians in Gaza.
The tide is changing in the international film world. Many international film festivals have endorsed the cultural boycott of apartheid Israel, including the Amsterdam International Documentary Film Festival, the largest in the world, as well as the Black Star Film Festival in the United States, and the Ghent Film Festival, the largest in Belgium. More than 5,000 film workers, including prominent Hollywood and international figures, also announced their refusal to work with complicit Israeli film companies and institutions.
However, the Berlinale has not yet met its community’s demands to issue a statement affirming the right of Palestinians to life, dignity and freedom; Condemns the ongoing Israeli genocide of Palestinians; It is committed to supporting the right of artists to speak without restrictions in support of Palestinian human rights. This is the least he can – and should – do.
As the Palestine Film Foundation said: “We are appalled by the Berlinale’s institutional silence on the genocide of Palestinians, and its unwillingness to defend filmmakers’ freedoms of speech and expression.” Just as the Festival has issued clear statements in the past about atrocities committed against people in Iran and Ukraine, we call on the Berlin Festival to fulfill its moral duty and clearly declare its opposition to Israeli genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes against Palestinians, and to fully end its involvement in protecting Israel from criticism and calls for accountability.
Signed by
Adam McKay
Adele Haenel
Alan O’Gorman
Alexandra Juhasz
Alexander Kopridze
Alia Shawkat
Alison Oliver
Alex Papastathopoulos
Anna Naomi D’Souza
Angeliki Papulia
Antigonus Ruta
Ariane Lapid
Artemis Anastasiadou
Ashley McKenzie
Avi is Moroccan
Bahija Al-Asousi
Ben Russell
Bingham Bryant
Blake Williams
Blanche Jardine
Brett’s story
Brian Cox
Camilo Restrepo
Carice van Houten
Charlie Shackleton
Sherine Daibes
Christopher Young
Daly Ben Saleh
David Osset
Dheeraj Campbell
Dustin Deva
Eleni Alexandrakis
Inspired Chakrivar
Emily Deleuze
Eyal Sivan
Fernando Meirelles
Phil Aerobulus
Jeff Arburn
Abu Asad only
Hind Med
James Benning
Javier Bardem
John Grayson
John Jost
Khalid Abdulla
Leah Borromeo
Lucas dont
Mahdi Fleifel
Never Egyptian
Malika Zuhali Worrall
Manuel Embalsi
Marina Jyoti
Marion Schmidt
Mirawi Grima
Michael Gomez
Mike Lee
Miranda Bennell
Namir Abdel Messeeh
Nan Goldin
Nariman Mary
Nina, Minister of Health
Pascal Ramonda
Patricia Mazoy
Paul Lafferty
Pedro Pimienta
Peter Mullan
Phaedra Focale
Robert Green
Saeed Taji Farouky
Saleh Bakri
Samaher Al-Qadi
Sarah Friedland
Sepideh Persian
Sherine Nashat
Samaro Papaevangelo
Sofia Georgovasili
Tatiana Maslany
Todoris Demetropoulos
Tilda Swinton
Tobias Menzies
Tyler Taormina
