Stars Speak Out: 350 Filmmakers Condemn Gaza ‘Genocide’ as Cannes Opens

More than 350 actors, directors, and producers marked the opening day of the Cannes Film Festival by signing a powerful open letter denouncing the killing of Fatma Hassona, the 25-year-old Palestinian photojournalist and central figure in the documentary Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk. Hassona was killed in an Israeli airstrike on her family home in northern Gaza, just one day after her film was selected for Cannes’ ACID section.

The signatories include cinema heavyweights such as Pedro Almodóvar, Ruben Östlund, Guy Pierce, Ralph Fiennes, Melissa Barrera, Yórgos Lánthimos, Susan Sarandon, Alfonso Cuarón, and David Cronenberg. Their joint message, published in Libération and Variety, denounces the ongoing violence in Gaza and criticizes the film industry’s silence:

“We cannot remain silent while genocide is taking place in Gaza... We are ashamed of such passivity.”

The letter urges cinema to stand up for oppressed voices and use its storytelling power to reflect reality and fight injustice:

“What is the point of our professions if not to draw lessons from history, to make films that are committed?”

Other high-profile signatories include Mark Ruffalo, Viggo Mortensen, Javier Bardem, Leïla Bekhti, Costa-Gavras, Brian Cox, Radu Jude, Asif Kapadia, Aki Kaurismäki, Alex Gibney, Julie Delpy, Virginie Efira, Adèle Exarchopoulos, Judith Godrèche, Sandra Hüller, and Laura Poitras.

French Culture Minister Rachida Dati, responding at the Cultural Council in Brussels, welcomed the activism:

“It is their role to engage and to have a commitment… Culture, I was going to say, saves the world.”

Cannes opened with a Ukraine-focused “Ukraine Day” screening three documentaries about Russia’s war, including two featuring President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. In contrast, there are no similar events for Gaza, though the film featuring Hassona is being presented in her honor.

Here is the full letter:

Fatma Hassona was 25 years old.
She was a Palestinian freelance photojournalist. She was targeted by the Israeli army on 16 April 2025, the day after it was announced that Sepideh Farsi’s film “Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk,” in which she was the star, had been selected in the ACID section of the Cannes Film Festival.
She was about to get married.
Ten of her relatives, including her pregnant sister, were killed by the same Israeli strike.
Since the terrible massacres of 7 October 2023, no foreign journalist has been authorised to enter the Gaza Strip. The Israeli army is targeting civilians. More than 200 journalists have been deliberately killed. Writers, film-makers and artists are being brutally murdered.
At the end of March, Palestinian filmmaker Hamdan Ballal, who won an Oscar for his film “No Other Land,” was brutally attacked by Israeli settlers and then kidnapped by the army, before being released under international pressure. The Oscar Academy’s lack of support for Hamdan Ballal sparked outrage among its own members and it had to publicly apologize for its inaction.
We are ashamed of such passivity.
Why is it that cinema, a breeding ground for socially committed works, seems to be so indifferent to the horror of reality and the oppression suffered by our sisters and brothers?
As artists and cultural players, we cannot remain silent while genocide is taking place in Gaza and this unspeakable news is hitting our communities hard.
What is the point of our professions if not to draw lessons from history, to make films that are committed, if we are not present to protect oppressed voices?
Why this silence?
The far right, fascism, colonialism, anti-trans and anti-LGBTQIA+, sexist, racist, islamophobic and antisemitic movements are waging their battle on the battlefield of ideas, attacking publishing, cinema and universities, and that’s why we have a duty to fight.
Let’s refuse to let our art be an accomplice to the worst.
Let us rise up.
Let us name reality.
Let us collectively dare to look at it with the precision of our sensitive hearts, so that it can no longer be silenced and covered up.
Let us reject the propaganda that constantly colonizes our imaginations and makes us lose our sense of humanity.
For Fatma, for all those who die in indifference.
Cinema has a duty to carry their messages, to reflect our societies.
Let’s act before it’s too late.