Thousands of film workers vow to boycott Israeli film institutions ‘implicated in genocide’
Olivia Coleman who has signed the pledge
Middle East Eye reports on 11 September 2025:
Thousands of actors and film industry professionals have refused collaboration with Israeli film institutions they say are “implicated in genocide and apartheid against the Palestinian people”.
Over 3,900 film-makers and actors, including Yorgos Lanthimos, Ava DuVernay, Asif Kapadia, Olivia Colman, Emma Stone, Tilda Swinton, Rooney Mara and Julie Christie signed a pledge committing to not screen films by, or work with, what it termed complicit institutions.
These include festivals, cinema, broadcasters and production companies responsible for “whitewashing or justifying genocide and apartheid, and/or partnering with the government committing them”.
The statement, which was published by the group Film Workers for Palestine, said that: “As film-makers, actors, film industry workers, and institutions, we recognise 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.”
Invoking the cultural boycott that contributed to ending apartheid in South Africa, the film-makers said they were answering a call by Palestinian artists urging the international film industry to “do everything humanly possible’ to end “complicity in their oppressions”.
An FAQ accompanying the pledge stated that “the vast majority of Israeli film production and distribution companies, sales agents, cinemas and other film institutions have never endorsed the full, internationally recognised rights of the Palestinian people”, while acknowledging that “a few Israeli film entities that are not complicit”.