New Delhi: Actors Tilda Swinton and Javier Bardem are in a list of 81 film personalities who have signed an open letter to the Berlinale, condemning its silence on Gaza, where Israel has conducted sustained attacks, killing over 70,000 in the last two years.In the letter, published first and exclusively on Variety, the signatories write that they “fervently disagree” with the statement made by Berlinale 2026 jury president Wim Wenders, who said that filmmaking is “the opposite of politics” when asked a question by journalist Tilo Jung on the festival’s selective solidarity with some victims of global conflict but ignoring Gaza.Wenders and the jury’s statement had made ripples. In the aftermath author and activist Arundhati Roy announced that she will not attend the festival either.The full letter, as published in Variety, is below.We write as film workers, all of us past and current Berlinale participants, who expect the institutions in our industry to refuse complicity in the terrible violence that continues to be waged against Palestinians. We are dismayed at the Berlinale’s involvement in censoring artists who oppose Israel’s ongoing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and the German state’s key role in enabling it. As the Palestine Film Institute has stated, the festival has been “policing filmmakers alongside a continued commitment to collaborate with Federal Police on their investigations”.Last year, filmmakers who spoke out for Palestinian life and liberty from the Berlinale stage reported being aggressively reprimanded by senior festival programmers. One filmmaker was reported to have been investigated by police, and Berlinale leadership falsely implied that the filmmaker’s moving speech – rooted in international law and solidarity – was “discriminatory”. As another filmmaker told Film Workers for Palestine about last year’s festival: “there was a feeling of paranoia in the air, of not being protected and of being persecuted, which I had never felt before at a film festival”. We stand with our colleagues in rejecting this institutional repression and anti-Palestinian racism.We fervently disagree with the statement made by Berlinale 2026 jury president 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 Berlinale is helping put into practice what Irene Khan, the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression and Opinion recently condemned as Germany’s misuse of draconian legislation “to restrict advocacy for Palestinian rights, chilling public participation and shrinking discourse in academia and the arts”. This is also what Ai Weiwei recently described as Germany “doing what they did in the 1930s” (agreeing with his interviewer who suggested to him that “it’s the same fascist impulse, just a different target”). All of this at a time when we are learning horrifying new details about the 2,842 Palestinians “evaporated” by Israeli forces using internationally prohibited, U.S.-made thermal and thermobaric weapons. Despite abundant evidence of Israel’s genocidal intent, systematic atrocity crimes and ethnic cleansing, Germany continues to supply Israel with weapons used to exterminate Palestinians in Gaza.The tide is changing across the international film world. Many international film festivals have endorsed the cultural boycott of apartheid Israel, including the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam, the world’s biggest, as well as BlackStar Film Festival in the U.S., and Film Fest Gent, Belgium’s largest. More than 5,000 film workers, including leading Hollywood and international figures, have also announced their refusal to work with complicit Israeli film companies and institutions.Yet Berlinale has so far not even met the demands of its community to issue a statement that affirms the Palestinian right to life, dignity, and freedom; condemns the ongoing Israeli genocide of Palestinians; and commits to uphold the right of artists to speak without constraint in support of Palestinian human rights. This is the least it can – and should – do.As the Palestine Film Institute has said, “we are appalled by Berlinale’s institutional silence on the genocide of Palestinians, and its unwillingness to defend the freedoms of speech and expression of filmmakers”. Just as the festival has made clear statements in the past about atrocities carried out against people in Iran and Ukraine, we call on the Berlinale to fulfil its moral duty and clearly state its opposition to Israel’s genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes against Palestinians, and completely end its involvement in shielding Israel from criticism and calls for accountability.The letter is signed by:Adam McKayAdèle HaenelAlan O’GormanAlexandra JuhaszAlexandre KoberidzeAlia ShawkatAlison OliverAlkis PapastathopoulosAna Naomi de SousaAngeliki PapouliaAntigoni RotaAriane LabedArtemis AnastasiadouAshley McKenzieAvi MograbiBahija EssoussiBen RussellBingham BryantBlake WilliamsBlanche GardinBrett StoryBrian CoxCamilo RestrepoCarice Van HoutenCharlie ShackletonCherien DabisChristopher YoungDali BenssalahDavid OsitDeragh CampbellDustin DefaEleni AlexandrakisElhum ShakerifarEmilie DeleuzeEyal SivanFernando MeirellesFil IeropoulosGeoff ArbourneHany Abu AssadHind MeddebJames BenningJavier BardemJohn GreysonJon JostKhalid AbdallaLeah BorromeoLukas DhontMahdi FleifelMai MasriMalika Zouhali-WorrallManuel EmbalseMarina GiotiMarion SchmidtMerawi GerimaMiguel GomesMike LeighMiranda PennellNamir Abdel MesseehNan GoldinNarimane MariNina MenkesPascale RamondaPatricia MazuyPaul LavertyPedro PimentaPeter MullanPhaedra VokaliRobert GreeneSaeed Taji FaroukySaleh BakriSamaher AlqadiSarah FriedlandSepideh FarsiShirin NeshatSmaro PapaevangelouSofia GeorgovassiliTatiana MaslanyThodoris DimitropoulosTilda SwintonTobias MenziesTyler Taormina