(Photo by Maharepa via Wikimedia Commons/CC BY 2.0)
Film festivals are more than just venues for screening films. At the heart of many global film festivals lies a commitment to creating spaces for critical dialogue on a wide range of pressing social issues and amplifying marginalized voices.
Indeed, film festivals allow audiences to experience films they might never otherwise encounter or even know about outside the festivals. All of this is important in breaking down barriers in an already competitive film industry and providing emerging filmmakers from diverse backgrounds the opportunity to share their unique stories with a wider audience.
Major film festivals like the Festival de Cannes, Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale), and Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) have long positioned themselves as “progressive” institutions, beacons of political consciousness, freedom of expression, and democracy. As Cannes even states on its website, the festival invites filmmakers from around the world to “bear witness to their times.”
While these film festivals “with a conscience” claim to spark critical conversations through cinema, their response to the ongoing genocide in Palestine exposes a glaring hypocrisy. When it comes to Palestine, their commitment to human rights becomes conditional.
The Limits of Festival Advocacy
When a political cause aligns with dominant Western interests or global consensus, major film festivals such as Cannes, Berlinale, and TIFF are quick to issue statements, curate special programming, and frame themselves as morally engaged institutions. Cannes proudly dedicated a “Ukraine Day” of screenings and panels to express solidarity with Ukrainian filmmakers after Russia’s invasion, explicitly framing cinema as a tool of resistance. Berlinale also followed suit, taking an explicit position against Russia and removing all Russian films from its programs.
TIFF has likewise built a reputation for its visible support of queer filmmakers and stories, often positioning itself as a progressive space for queer representation in cinema. In 2023, TIFF explicitly celebrated and amplified the works of Indigenous and 2SLGBTQ+ filmmakers through its Pride and Indigenous History Month programming. Beyond its curated screenings, TIFF has also partnered up with advocacy organizations such as GLAAD to expand the visibility of queer narratives and representation on and off screen.
However, this apparent moral clarity fades when it comes to Palestine. The same institutions that celebrate artistic defiance in Ukraine or Indigenous voices have chosen silence, or at best, some half-hearted statement on Israel’s ongoing assault on Gaza.
Festival de Cannes: From Political Vanguard to Cautious Spectator
Founded in 1939 as an explicitly political act of cultural resistance against the fascist influence on the Venice Film Festival, Cannes was created in defiance of authoritarianism and artistic censorship. Its origins are deeply rooted in the political. Yet, as the 78th edition of the festival unfolded, Cannes leadership continued to invoke the phrase “cinema over polemics,” a convenient rhetoric that, critics argue, shields the institution from taking a moral stance on Palestine.
Last year, renowned Palestinian director Rashid Masharawi submitted his latest project, From Ground Zero, a collection of 22 short features and documentaries by Palestinian filmmakers in Gaza. The festival initially accepted the work, only to later inform Masharawi that the project would not be screened. This decision reflects a broader pattern of avoidance disguised as neutrality.
General delegate Thierry Frémaux has repeatedly said that the festival wants to avoid “controversies” and that it’s cinema, not the “polemics” that concern them. Yet this is the same platform that only two years ago declared itself a threat to autocrats and fascists, now hiding behind an apolitical façade of cinematic neutrality. The festival may argue its mandate is cinematic, not overt political activism. But their neutrality—or worse, their complicity—betrays their professed values of justice and artistic free expression.
Cannes’ selective engagement illustrates what many see as a larger truth: cinema is inherently political. The choice to avoid “polemics” is itself a political act, one that privileges the appearance of neutrality over the realities of oppression. Cannes likes to see itself as a global “conscience” for cinema, but that conscience quickly turns away when justice is no longer convenient for them.
Berlin International Film Festival: A Case of Performative Allyship
Similar to Cannes, Berlinale’s position on the genocide in Gaza has remained clear: minimized, distant, and not their problem. The festival leadership issued a press release expressing sympathy for “all the victims of the humanitarian crises in the Middle East and elsewhere,” emphasizing the festival’s role in promoting empathy and understanding through film and dialogue, without giving any specifics.
From the start, the festival avoided the topic, selecting just one Palestinian film. Last year’s festival even relegated any discussion on Palestine to the enclosed (and laughable) “TinyHouse project” space, where people could sit together and “debate” about the “Middle East.” As Film Critic and festival attendant Cici Peng writes, the TinyHouse project “reveals a dubious and distancing political stance in response to an ongoing genocide.”
Despite its history of promoting humanitarian values and artistic freedom, the festival faced accusations of silencing pro-Palestinian voices. Meanwhile, members of the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), widely described as a racist and anti-immigrant political party, were invited to attend.
During last year’s festival, after two co-directors of the documentary No Other Land gave short speeches calling for Germany to “stop sending weapons to Israel,” Berlin Police opened a criminal investigation. The mayor of Berlin, Kai Wegner, berated the winners for their “intolerable relativisation” and branded their speeches “antisemitic”. He demanded the incoming Berlinale management, headed by American programmer Tricia Tuttle, “ensure that such incidents do not happen again,” stressing that “Berlin is firmly on Israel’s side.”
In response, filmmakers around the world issued a boycott of Berlinale, accusing the festival of “artwashing” Germany’s support of Israel’s destruction of Gaza. Festival workers also issued an open letter calling on the Berlinale leadership to provide a stronger public stance in support of a ceasefire.
As much as Berlinale wants to be seen as progressive, it is easier for the festival to present diversity as a carefully curated product than to engage with the messy, sometimes uncomfortable work of genuine justice. Berlinale reveals that it is more committed to preserving its institutional safety than advancing genuine human rights.
Toronto International Film Festival: Advocacy Only When It’s Safe
As global solidarity with Palestine grows louder, many cultural organizations have also consciously chosen to refuse showcasing films connected to Israeli state funding or propaganda. TIFF’s decision to screen an Israeli propagandist film sends a message that it is unwilling, or perhaps reluctant, to take a clear stance.
At the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), the premiere of the film The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue sparked protests from Palestinian activists and Jewish groups critical of the Israeli government. Protesters argued that Israeli-funded films at TIFF serve to legitimize state violence and suppress critical voices. Despite these concerns, TIFF proceeded with the screening, offering only a brief statement acknowledging the protests but failing to engage in meaningful dialogue or take further action.
This is not TIFF’s first controversial programming decision. In September 2024, TIFF faced backlash when the documentary Russians at War was included in the program. The Ukrainian Canadian Congress and other advocates called on TIFF to cancel the film, which they accused of being Russian propaganda. TIFF cancelled festival screenings after it was “made aware of significant threats to festival operations and public safety,” but this still did not stop them from showing the film at the TIFF Lightbox Theatre after the film festival ended.
So, it is clearly a recurring pattern. TIFF’s approach reflects a wider trend among major cultural institutions that grapple uneasily with contentious topics. And, end up opting for a cautious middle ground, fearing backlash or controversy. But in a moment when Palestinian voices are being silenced globally, festivals like TIFF hold the power—and the responsibility—to amplify them.
Pattern of Conditional Support
The reluctance of all three of these film festivals to take a clear stance on Palestine is not an isolated decision; it reflects an ongoing refusal by major film festivals to extend solidarity when it risks political backlash. When festival organizations apply their values selectively, it shapes how we, as audiences, understand justice and when it is deemed “acceptable” to show support, especially when it comes to the underrepresented voices they claim to uphold. Ultimately, these cultural institutions can’t be neutral if they claim moral ground elsewhere.
Many major film festivals wield immense power over which stories are seen and which remain invisible. If TIFF, Cannes, or Berlinale genuinely uphold their stated commitments to justice, equity, and artistic freedom, they must move beyond surface-level branding to confront the uncomfortable truths they often prefer to ignore. Anything less is a betrayal of their mission and a disservice to the very artists they claim to support.
Reimagining Solidarity Beyond Major Film Festivals
Perhaps it is time to move away from seeing major film festivals as the center of solidarity and artistic legitimacy. As scholar Hamid Dabashi writes, “Venice, Berlin, Cannes, Toronto, and Hollywood are all fine places to raise awareness about Palestine. But they are not where the real truth—and the cinema that is committed to it—takes place.”
This is not to deny their influence. These festivals are culturally significant, and their global visibility can shape public discourse. Film is also a crucial medium for sharing Palestinian stories. But their prominence comes with responsibility. As a moviegoer and supporter of the arts, I expect more from these cultural institutions.
Groups like Film Workers for Palestine have taken proactive steps to hold cultural institutions accountable. When MUBI, a prominent streaming platform, accepted a $100 million investment from Sequoia Capital, a firm tied to Israeli defence tech companies, the collective, along with other artists, criticized the move as unethical. Their collective pressure led MUBI to reconsider its investment.
Rather than invoking neutrality, Cannes, Berlinale, and TIFF could use their platforms to challenge censorship, uplift Palestinian perspectives, and provide tangible resources for artists working under conditions of occupation and erasure. Smaller, community-driven festivals have already begun to model what this solidarity can look like. Many groups have formed their own film festivals, bringing more diversity and visibility through alternative routes. Several festivals have taken up this important work, such as:
- The Toronto Palestine Film Festival: a volunteer-run, non-profit organization that has built a space where Palestinian filmmakers and audiences can connect through cinema, preserving cultural memory and political identity.
- MENA Film Festival: foregrounds films from the Middle East and North Africa that share new and diverse perspectives not widely expressed, and which differ from the largely homogeneous images of the region as one of conflict.
- Queer Cinema for Palestine: a solidarity initiative dedicated to film programming as an explicit act of cultural boycott against institutions complicit in Israeli apartheid.
- Calgary Justice Film Festival: a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing justice-focused films from around the world to Calgary.
- The DC Palestinian Film + Arts Festival (DCPFAF): champions the work of Palestinian artists and filmmakers in Palestine and in diaspora, showcasing the range and complexity of Palestinian identities and narratives.
Supporting festivals like these through attendance is essential to sustaining independent cinematic spaces that genuinely foreground Palestinian voices. I encourage you to check if your city is hosting any film festivals dedicated to showcasing Palestinian cinema or that have demonstrated true solidarity (more on this later). For any readers in Vancouver, the 2026 MENA film festival will be held soon from January 15 to 23!
Edited by Atena Abbaspourbenis
