Last week, around 4,000 entertainment industry names, including Hollywood stars such as Emma Stone and Joaquin Phoenix, signed a petition calling for a boycott of Gaza’s Israeli film agency. At the Emmy Awards last night, Javier Bardem called for “commercial and diplomatic lockdowns and sanctions on Israel.” However, many of the country’s left-leaning film and television industry members support peace and are responsible for the Israeli government.
On Tuesday, the Israeli Film and Television Academy brings together nearly 1,100 filmmakers, producers and actors – is expected to submit “The Sea,” a heartbreaking drama about a Palestinian boy who risks his life to go to the beach for the first time in Tel Aviv, for the Oscars’ international film race. “The Sea” is one of the fierce anti-war films of the finalists, along with “Yes” by Nadav Lapid and “Oxygen” supported by the Israel Film Fund.
The institution, which stands as the main source of funding in the nation of Israeli and Palestinian cinema, is threatened by boycotts because it is public funding despite operating independently from the government. There is a long legacy of supporting films from liberal voices, including Ali Forman’s “Waltz with Bashir,” Samuel Maos’s “Lebanon,” and more recently “Yes,” which premiered in two weeks by Cannes and described by variety critic Guy Lodge as “a ferocious attack on Israeli nationalism.”
A spokesman for Palestinian film workers disputed that the Israeli Film Fund is running independently from the government, “In statements of joint Israeli film institutions like the Israeli Film Fund, which partners with Israeli Far Right Culture and Sports Breast Foundation, and the Israeli Film Fund, which has partnered with several organizations involved in ethnic cleansing that it continues to exist in Jerusalem, in a statement of joint Israeli Film Fund, which has partnered with several organizations involved in ethnic cleansing that will continue to exist in Jerusalem. Pledgers, their choice is clear. End the Israeli Genocide and apartheid accomplices and support the full rights of Palestinians under international law, in line with guidelines of Palestinian civil society.”
“Festivals and funds are facing political pressure,” says Eriran Elijah, an Israeli filmmaker who chairs Israel’s Director’s Guild. “However, they maintained an impressive creative independence and continued to support works that were critical of the facility.”
Under local film laws voted more than 25 years ago, grants from the Israel Film Fund will be allocated to filmmakers based on the artistic merit of the project, without interference from government officials. Unlike France, the chief of the National Film Committee was appointed by the French government, and the current NOA Regev, who is now head of the Israeli Film Fund, is voted by an independent select committee.
“If you look at the harvest of films coming out of Israel a few years later, they are the most critical of Israeli society and look deeply into the conflict,” says Eitan Mansuri, the leading producer who produced the Bannerspiro films, which recently produced the series No Man’s Land.
Local festivals are also taking risks to make government officials show off offensive films. The Jerusalem Film Festival, which is directly threatened by boycotts, recently showed “yes” despite pushbacks from local politicians.
“A few days before the screening, the organizers of the Jerusalem Festival received letters from two government ministers who demanded that Israeli patriotism and heroism, all sorts of nonsense beloved, respected, respected, or salute, or salute, or salute, or salute, or salute, or salute, or salute, or any kind of nonsense. The Jerusalem Festival may have pulled my film at that time and denounced the politicians, but they took the risks knowing that it could lead to the festival’s closure.”
Elijah lamented that “Israeli filmmakers are already facing restrictions,” and said, “a threat of censorship as funds are released. And on top of that, overseas industries are boycotting Israel’s creators.”
“We hit both from inside and outside,” adds Elijah, who previously directed the film “Rainbow,” about his own experience as an IDF soldier. “My goal was to show the difficult outcomes of war. For me, art is aimed at opening conversations. It’s a way of bridging and finding solutions to the crisis, not to make it worse.”
Mansuri, who began protesting against the Israeli government before the war began, understands the need to make strong statements from the international community, but says that it is “harming the only people who are the voices of democracy, the voices of liberalism, the voices of peace.”
There are also many bridges between Israeli creatives and Palestinian artists. “The biggest collaborations take place at the arts level in film and television,” says Mansuri. It cites projects such as “Paradise Now”, “Ajami”, “Tzimaon”, “Our Boy”, “Tel Aviv on Fire”, and “In inter”.
When hurt by boycotts, Mansuri argues that “the people who are fighting to tell the stories of this conflict, those who have brought those stories to the world for years.”
Technically, Rapid’s films could face boycotts from distributors and festivals as they received funding from the Israel Film Fund. Having lived in Paris for years, Rapid is probably ironic as he is one of the most vocal enemies of the Israeli government. The reality is that despite previously winning awards for Berlin’s Golden Bear for “synonymous” and for “Aard’s Knee” in Cannes, Rapid struggled to raise funds for his latest film, “Yes,” and in 2022 he submitted his script to the Israel Film Fund to pull the project off the ground. Working with French producer Judith Lowe Levy, he had raised almost 60% of his non-Israel funds when the war in Gaza broke out, most of which collapsed overnight. Ultimately, the second French producer, Chi-Fou-Mi’s Hugo Selignac, stepped in during the post-production, bringing in $1 million to complete the funding.
“After October 7th, everything has been closed and blocked. It’s a real risk-taking movie, so everything has become unaccessible,” says Rapid. “People didn’t want to deal with it. It wasn’t because of ideological position, it was because of fear. It was like someone who looked at the mouse and climbed into a chair and screamed.”
Rapid is not the only one who has experienced a rejection since October 7th. Israeli directors and producers are increasingly dependent on local funding sources as international partners are gaining cold feet. Mansuri fears that he will damage his image or lose money even if his refusal to work with Israel is politically motivated. He says the backlash against Israel has reached the point that it may even be impossible to attract co-producers and fundraising from overseas.
“No one has said that out loud, but it’s happening underground,” says Mansuri. “But I got it. I was the head of the Finnish Film Fund. “OK, this Israeli co-production is great, but what is I saying about me and the Film Fund, and if I work with Israel, what kind of heat would I bring?
He was able to suffer the boycott, but Rapid says he “really praises” the petition’s initiative. But like other Israeli creatives, he fears having a “zero effect” on the war. “The Israelites don’t care what Emma Stone is thinking,” and “they don’t care about the fate of the Israeli film industry, except for a few very popular comedies that they don’t intend to go abroad.”
Rapid hopes Israeli filmmakers will be treated the same way as Russian and Iranian directors, claiming that filmmakers are seen as complicit in war crimes due to the grey realm that stems from “the lack of political sanctions on Israel.”
“I think Israel should have been approved just as Russia was approved, and it should not be done by Emma Stone, not by Emmanuel Macron,” he said, suggesting that if Israel is approved, international partners and local filmmakers seeking festival slots will be perceived differently.
“What’s happening in Israeli cinema is the result of the immunity that Israel enjoyed on a political level,” he says. “European political leaders have done nothing, so Israeli festival directors and fund directors get caught up in between a sense that they have to do something and pressure from a particular audience.”
Mikal Abiram, who lives in Portugal and is one of the writers of the global hit series “Fauda,” says the boycott call can segregate local film and television communities, which are already marginalized by the Israeli government. “We need international help to stop the war,” she says.
“The people who signed the petition don’t understand that they are playing in the hands of the Israeli government. The Israeli government continues to try and take funds from all of those foundations, and wants to close the Dokabib and the Jerusalem Festival as they are criticised by the government and expressed the suffering of the ‘enemy’,” adds Abiram.
Just a few days ago, local newspaper Hareetz broke news that Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs had frozen its international cooperation and public relations budget. The cut is harmful to Israel’s cultural sector, which is trying to build a bridge alongside the international film community, says a senior Israeli industry figure who prefers to remain anonymous in fear of retaliation.
“This shows how we are being taken away from both sides and how the Israeli government will have the opportunity to further segregate us,” the source says.
He said it was quoted in Khalits, a senior official from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He said budget cuts were “like suicide.” Because it limits contact with a very small number of people who are still willing to cooperate with Israel. “You’re even closing the door to people who are willing to work with us,” he told a local outlet.
Silence of Israeli artists and filmmakers could also lead to more intolerance and prejudice within Israeli society, Abhilam suggests.
“In Israel, if you don’t want to see what’s going on in Gaza, you won’t,” she says. “You don’t see it in mainstream media. So the work of artists is essential and it’s important to keep us out and communicate with the people of Israel. We need to work together.”
