350+ Hollywood actors condemn Gaza genocide ahead of Cannes Festival
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Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon, and Pedro Almodóvar are among the stars who condemned the genocide in Gaza in an open letter released ahead of the Cannes Film Festival.
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Crew members install the red carpet at the Palais des Festivals ahead of the opening ceremony of the 78th International Film Festival Cannes, southern France, on May 13, 2025. (AP)
More than 350 figures from the global film industry, including Hollywood actors Richard Gere and Susan Sarandon, have publicly condemned the genocide in Gaza in an open letter released Monday, just ahead of the Cannes Film Festival.
"We cannot remain silent while genocide is taking place in Gaza," the letter states. It was initiated by several pro-Palestinian activist groups and published in both the French newspaper Libération and the US entertainment magazine Variety.
Among the signatories are acclaimed Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar and Ruben Östlund, the Swedish director and two-time Palme d'Or winner at Cannes. The letter specifically mourns the death of Gaza photojournalist Fatima Hassouna, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike.
Hassouna, 25, is the subject of a new documentary titled Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk, directed by Iranian filmmaker Sepideh Farsi. The film is set to premiere at Cannes on Thursday.
Hassouna and ten relatives were killed in an Israeli air raid on her family home in northern Gaza last month, only one day after the documentary was revealed as part of the ACID Cannes selection.
Farsi welcomed the impact of her film but urged Cannes Festival organisers to condemn "Israel's" continuous assault on Gaza.
Cannes in the crosshairs of politics
"There needs to be a real statement," she told AFP, adding, "Saying 'the festival isn't political' makes no sense."
Other prominent signatories of the open letter include Jonathan Glazer, the British director of Jewish origin who won an Oscar for his 2023 Holocaust drama The Zone of Interest, as well as American actor Mark Ruffalo and Spanish star Javier Bardem.
The Cannes Film Festival officially opens Tuesday on the French Riviera, with an opening ceremony featuring Robert De Niro and a spotlight on films depicting the war in Ukraine.
No 'Gaza Day' program
Three films will be shown as part of a special “Ukraine Day” program: two documentaries featuring Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and a third shot on the brutal frontlines of what is considered the largest war in Europe in 80 years.
While no similar tribute has been organized for the war in Gaza, the documentary on Fatima Hassouna is expected to "honour her memory," according to the festival’s organizers.
Arab and Tarzan Nasser, filmmakers from Gaza, will also present their fiction feature set in 2007 in the Palestinian territories in one of the festival's secondary categories.
On Tuesday evening, the opening picture is Leave One Day by newbie French filmmaker Amelie Bonnin, followed by an honorary Palme d'Or to Hollywood heavyweight De Niro.
