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Israeli Creatives Discuss Being Boycotted, ‘Systematically Canceled’ by Film Festivals Over Gaza War
Ticket holders at the Tribeca Festival, formerly the Tribeca Film Festival, at the SVA Theatre in Chelsea in New York on Saturday, June 8, 2024. Photo: Levine-Roberts/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect
Israeli filmmakers, television producers, and other creatives in the entertainment industry opened up to Variety in an interview published on Thursday about being backlisted from prestigious film festivals and losing collaborators, jobs, and funding since the start of the Israel-Hams war last year.
Directors, producers, and actors discussed with Variety how their projects have been intentionally excluded from film festivals, which would prefer not to stir controversy and incite anti-Israel protesters by featuring Israeli films. Israeli filmmaker Shoval Tshuva told the publication that her short film “Funky,” which is about her personal experience facing sexual assault, was dropped from multiple festivals following the Hamas-led Palestinian terrorist attack in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
“I made a film about the most dehumanizing experience that I ever had to go through. And in a way, I was so focused on being a woman and telling a female story that I forgot that I’m Israeli and Jewish and that that comes with a whole other sort of discrimination,” Tshuva explained. “The fact is Israeli filmmakers are getting systematically canceled.”
The Toronto Film Festival in September only included one Israeli project – Shemi Zarhin’s relationship drama “Bliss” — which was included last-minute and not part of the initial lineup, according to Variety. The film festival did, however, include four films from Palestinian directors.
“During my participation at the Jerusalem Film Festival in July, filmmakers and producers shared with me that they are being told by programmers for the major festivals, including Sundance and Toronto, that they are not comfortable taking Israeli films or documentaries at this point in time,” said veteran Hollywood attorney Craig Emanuel, who counsels Ryan Murphy Productions and has advised the Sundance Film Festival in the past. “Programmers are saying they are concerned about pushback and demonstrations regardless of whether [a film] is political or not. That’s just not a healthy thing for us as an industry or a society.”
Sundance last year rejected “Come Closer,” a drama by Israeli director Tom Nesher that in September became Israel’s submission for the 97th Academy Awards in the category of best international feature film. The same film, about a young woman struggling with the sudden death of her brother, was initially rejected by the Tribeca Film Festival earlier this year before later being approved by a senior programming team after Tribeca Enterprises CEO Jane Rosenthal intervened, Variety revealed. “Come Closer” ultimately won the Viewpoints Award at Tribeca. The film also screened last month at the Thessaloniki Film Festival.
Variety also reported on an email that “Fauda” producer Liat Benasuly wrote in mid-October about a “significant number” of investors and partners pausing their working relationships with Israeli creatives since the Oct. 7 massacre in Israel. Benasuly encouraged supporters to donate to a newly formed organization called the Friends of Israeli Film & TV Producers Association.
The post Israeli Creatives Discuss Being Boycotted, ‘Systematically Canceled’ by Film Festivals Over Gaza War first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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UN Security Council Meets on Iran as Russia, China Push for a Ceasefire
Members of the Security Council cast a vote during a United Nations Security Council meeting on the 3rd anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at UN headquarters in New York, US, Feb. 24, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/David Dee Delgado
The U.N. Security Council met on Sunday to discuss US strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites as Russia, China and Pakistan proposed the 15-member body adopt a resolution calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in the Middle East.
It was not immediately clear when it could be put to a vote. The three countries circulated the draft text, said diplomats, and asked members to share their comments by Monday evening. A resolution needs at least nine votes in favor and no vetoes by the United States, France, Britain, Russia or China to pass.
The US is likely to oppose the draft resolution, seen by Reuters, which also condemns attacks on Iran’s nuclear sites and facilities. The text does not name the United States or Israel.
“The bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities by the United States marks a perilous turn in a region that is already reeling,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the Security Council on Sunday. “We now risk descending into a rathole of retaliation after retaliation.”
“We must act – immediately and decisively – to halt the fighting and return to serious, sustained negotiations on the Iran nuclear program,” Guterres said.
The world awaited Iran’s response on Sunday after President Donald Trump said the US had “obliterated” Tehran’s key nuclear sites, joining Israel in the biggest Western military action against the Islamic Republic since its 1979 revolution.
U.N. nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi told the Security Council that while craters were visible at Iran’s enrichment site buried into a mountain at Fordow, “no one – including the IAEA – is in a position to assess the underground damage.”
Grossi said entrances to tunnels used for the storage of enriched material appear to have been hit at Iran’s sprawling Isfahan nuclear complex, while the fuel enrichment plant at Natanz has been struck again.
“Iran has informed the IAEA there has been no increase in off-site radiation levels at all three sites,” said Grossi, who heads the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Iran requested the U.N. Security Council meeting, calling on the 15-member body “to address this blatant and unlawful act of aggression, to condemn it in the strongest possible terms.”
Israel‘s U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon said in a statement on Sunday that the U.S. and Israel “do not deserve any condemnation, but rather an expression of appreciation and gratitude for making the world a safer place.”
Danon told reporters before the council meeting that it was still early when it came to assessing the impact of the U.S. strikes. When asked if Israel was pursuing regime change in Iran, Danon said: “That’s for the Iranian people to decide, not for us.”
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Israel Rejects Critical EU Report Ahead of Ministers’ Meeting
FILE PHOTO: Smoke rises from Gaza after an explosion, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, June 11, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen/File Photo
Israel has rejected a European Union report saying it may be breaching human rights obligations in Gaza and the West Bank as a “moral and methodological failure,” according to a document seen by Reuters on Sunday.
The note, sent to EU officials ahead of a foreign ministers’ meeting on Monday, said the report by the bloc’s diplomatic service failed to consider Israel’s challenges and was based on inaccurate information.
“The Foreign Ministry of the State of Israel rejects the document … and finds it to be a complete moral and methodological failure,” the note said, adding that it should be dismissed entirely.
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Pope Leo Urges International Diplomacy to Prevent ‘Irreparable Abyss’
FILE PHOTO: Pope Leo XIV holds a Jubilee audience on the occasion of the Jubilee of Sport, at St. Peter’s Basilica, at the Vatican June 14, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Yara Nardi/File Photo
Pope Leo on Sunday said the international community must strive to avoid war that risks opening an “irreparable abyss,” and that diplomacy should take the place of conflict.
US forces struck Iran’s three main nuclear sites overnight, joining an Israeli assault in a major new escalation of conflict in the Middle East as Tehran vowed to defend itself.
“Every member of the international community has a moral responsibility: to stop the tragedy of war before it becomes an irreparable abyss,” Pope Leo said during his weekly prayer with pilgrims.
“No armed victory can compensate for the pain of mothers, the fear of children, the stolen future. Let diplomacy silence the weapons, let nations chart their future with peace efforts, not with violence and bloody conflicts,” he added.
“In this dramatic scenario, which includes Israel and Palestine, the daily suffering of the population, especially in Gaza and other territories, risks being forgotten, where the need for adequate humanitarian support is becoming increasingly urgent,” Pope Leo said.
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