More than 380 actors, directors and filmmakers have accused Israel of committing "genocide" in Gaza.
"We cannot remain silent while genocide is taking place in Gaza," an open letter published on Tuesday read. The letter was initiated by pro-Palestinian activist groups and published in the US magazine Variety and the French newspaper Liberation.
The signatories included Hollywood stars Ralph Fiennes, Richard Gere and Susan Sarandon, the acclaimed Spanish director Pedro Almodovar and former Cannes winner Ruben Ostlund.
The open letter paid tribute to Palestinian photojournalist Fatima Hassouna, the star of a documentary that will be premiered at Cannes, who was killed in an Israeli air strike. Hassouna, 25, was killed along with 10 relatives, including her pregnant sister, in a strike on her family home in northern Gaza
“She was a Palestinian freelance photojournalist. She was targeted by the Israeli army on 16 April 2025, the day after it was announced that Sepideh Farsi’s film Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk, in which she was the star, had been selected in the Acid [Association for the Diffusion of Independent Cinema] section of the Cannes Film Festival,” the letter stated.
The letter, which urged the film community to "rise up" and "name reality", also criticised the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for not immediately defending Oscar-winning Palestinian filmmaker Hamdan Ballal after he was attacked by Israeli settlers this year.
“We are ashamed of such passivity. Why is it that cinema, a breeding ground for socially committed works, seems to be so indifferent to the horror of reality and the oppression suffered by our sisters and brothers?” they asked.
This year's Cannes jury president Juliette Binoche was initially said by organisers to have signed the petition, but her spokeswoman said that she had not endorsed it and her name was not published by Liberation.
Binoche took to the stage at the opening ceremony on Tuesday to honour Hassouna, condemning violence and referencing the "hostages of October 7", though she never mentioned Israel by name and did not use the word "genocide".
Binoche said: “On the 16th of last April, at dawn in Gaza, at the age of 25, the photojournalist Fatma Hassouna and 10 of her relatives were killed by a missile that struck their house. She had written: ‘My death went through me / the bullet of the assailant went through me / and I became an angel / in the eyes of a city / immense, bigger than my dreams / bigger than this city. / I became a saintly poet in the eyes of a forest / making myself a hermit / and taking a cypress as an offering.’
“The night before her death, she learnt that the film in which she appeared was selected here at Cannes. Fatma should have been among us tonight. Art remains. It’s the powerful testimony of our lives, our dreams, and we the viewers, we embrace it. May Cannes, where everything can change, contribute to that.”
Other signatories include British director Jonathan Glazer, American star Mark Ruffalo and Spanish actor Javier Bardem. Glazer stirred controversy last year when, while accepting an Oscar for his Auschwitz drama The Zone of Interest, he said the Holocaust had been "hijacked" by Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories.
His remarks drew sharp criticism from Jewish groups and supporters of Israel, who accused him of distorting history. The director later clarified that his comments were meant to highlight civilian suffering in Gaza but he stood by his criticism of Israeli policies.
The Voice of Hind Rajab
Starring: Saja Kilani, Clara Khoury, Motaz Malhees
Director: Kaouther Ben Hania
Rating: 4/5
Wicked: For Good
Director: Jon M Chu
Starring: Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo, Jonathan Bailey, Jeff Goldblum, Michelle Yeoh, Ethan Slater
Rating: 4/5
The Two Popes
Director: Fernando Meirelles
Stars: Anthony Hopkins, Jonathan Pryce
Four out of five stars
New UK refugee system
- A new “core protection” for refugees moving from permanent to a more basic, temporary protection
- Shortened leave to remain - refugees will receive 30 months instead of five years
- A longer path to settlement with no indefinite settled status until a refugee has spent 20 years in Britain
- To encourage refugees to integrate the government will encourage them to out of the core protection route wherever possible.
- Under core protection there will be no automatic right to family reunion
- Refugees will have a reduced right to public funds
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
The biog
Favourite film: Motorcycle Dairies, Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday, Kagemusha
Favourite book: One Hundred Years of Solitude
Holiday destination: Sri Lanka
First car: VW Golf
Proudest achievement: Building Robotics Labs at Khalifa University and King’s College London, Daughters
Driverless cars or drones: Driverless Cars
European arms
Known EU weapons transfers to Ukraine since the war began: Germany 1,000 anti-tank weapons and 500 Stinger surface-to-air missiles. Luxembourg 100 NLAW anti-tank weapons, jeeps and 15 military tents as well as air transport capacity. Belgium 2,000 machine guns, 3,800 tons of fuel. Netherlands 200 Stinger missiles. Poland 100 mortars, 8 drones, Javelin anti-tank weapons, Grot assault rifles, munitions. Slovakia 12,000 pieces of artillery ammunition, 10 million litres of fuel, 2.4 million litres of aviation fuel and 2 Bozena de-mining systems. Estonia Javelin anti-tank weapons. Latvia Stinger surface to air missiles. Czech Republic machine guns, assault rifles, other light weapons and ammunition worth $8.57 million.
Groom and Two Brides
Director: Elie Semaan
Starring: Abdullah Boushehri, Laila Abdallah, Lulwa Almulla
Rating: 3/5
Afro%20salons
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EFor%20women%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3Cbr%3ESisu%20Hair%20Salon%2C%20Jumeirah%201%2C%20Dubai%3Cbr%3EBoho%20Salon%2C%20Al%20Barsha%20South%2C%20Dubai%3Cbr%3EMoonlight%2C%20Al%20Falah%20Street%2C%20Abu%20Dhabi%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFor%20men%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3Cbr%3EMK%20Barbershop%2C%20Dar%20Al%20Wasl%20Mall%2C%20Dubai%3Cbr%3ERegency%20Saloon%2C%20Al%20Zahiyah%2C%20Abu%20Dhabi%3Cbr%3EUptown%20Barbershop%2C%20Al%20Nasseriya%2C%20Sharjah%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Our legal consultant
Name: Dr Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
