Dozens of internationally acclaimed artists, including Riz Ahmed, Joaquin Phoenix, Juliette Binoche, Pedro Pascal, and Guillermo del Toro, have joined a growing list of signatories to an open letter denouncing what they call a genocide in Gaza. The letter was released on the eve of the Cannes Film Festival by pro-Palestinian activist groups and was published in Libération and Variety.
The statement highlights the death of 25-year-old Palestinian photojournalist Fatma Hassona, who was killed along with ten relatives in an Israeli airstrike last month. Hassona was the central figure in Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk, a documentary by Iranian filmmaker Sepideh Farsi, which premiered Thursday in Cannes under the festival’s ACID section.
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The letter also drew attention to the alleged assault and brief detention of Oscar-winning Palestinian director Hamdan Ballal by Israeli settlers and the army. Ballal’s film No Other Land received global acclaim, but the Academy’s delayed response to his arrest reportedly sparked internal backlash and a public apology.
Originally signed by 370 artists including Mark Ruffalo, Yorgos Lanthimos, and Alfonso Cuarón, the list has now grown by 59 new names. The signatories criticised the film industry’s silence and urged fellow creatives to speak up against oppression.
They called on cinema to reflect reality and resist becoming complicit in silence, warning that art must not be used to mask suffering. The letter concluded with a call to action: to tell the truth, honour victims like Fatma, and use storytelling to defend humanity before it’s too late.
