On the eve of the opening of the 62nd New York Film Festival, dozens of filmmakers have published an open letter calling on the festival to end its partnership with Contributing Partner Bloomberg Philanthropies, which they write is “directly implicated in facilitating settlement infrastructure in the West Bank and denying Palestinians their basic rights.” Among the signers are over three dozen filmmakers with films in the current 2024 edition, including Mike Leigh (Hard Truths), Julia Loktev (My Undesirable Friends: Part I – Last Air in Moscow), Neo Sora (Happyend), Basel Adra, Hamdam Ballal and Yuval Abraham (No Other Land), Truong Minh Quý (Viet and Nam) and Carson Lund (Eephus).

Signers whose films have played previous editions of the festival include Apitchapong Weerasethakul (Memoria), Arthur Harari (Anatomy of a Fall), Aki Kaurasmaki (Fallen Leaves), actors Ariane Labed (The Lobster) and Deragh Campell, and longtime producer, screenwriter and director James Schamus.

In a letter first published at Screen Slate, the filmmakers critique specifically Bloomberg Philanthropies’s partnership in the Bloomberg-Sagol Center for City Leadership, which, this past year, the signers write, “trained mayors and city officials from Modi’in Illit and Mateh Binyamin Regional Council representing more than 40 West Bank settlements, which were found illegal by the International Court of Justice in July 2024. Facilitating settlement infrastructure is not philanthropy; it is aiding and abetting a war crime. These illegal settlements are part of Israel’s broader campaign of ethnic cleansing and displacement, which Amnesty International has designated as apartheid against the Palestinian people.”

In addition to calling on the NYFF’s board and directors to take “urgent action to end their relationship with Bloomberg Philanthropies,” they also call for similar action to be taken with regards to “any other funders lending material support to war crimes.”

The letter concludes:

We call upon leaders at this and other cultural institutions to take a clear stance against artwashing genocide and apartheid, while upholding the rights of artists, activists, and staff who advocate for Palestine.

We further urge the New York Film Festival to call for a permanent ceasefire and an end to the siege in Gaza, without which Israel’s genocide will continue, as famine and disease takes hold across besieged and occupied Gaza.

The publication of the letter follows last week’s NYFF press and industry screening of the Berlinale-winning documentary No Other Land and the announcement by one of its four directors, Palestinian filmmaker Basel Adra, that his father’s Masafer Yatta home was “invaded by Israeli soldiers and his father kidnapped, bound, blindfolded and held at a settlement outpost.”

The complete text of the letter follows:

We are filmmakers and film workers who are participating in the 62nd New York Film Festival or who have participated in past editions of the NYFF. For almost a year, many of us have been acting collectively towards ending the complicity of our institutions as Israel has subjected the Palestinians of Gaza to a brutal onslaught of killing, maiming, displacement and the devastating destruction of homes, hospitals, universities, schools, roads, and food and water infrastructure.

We are, therefore, deeply troubled by NYFF’s partnership with Bloomberg Philanthropies, an institution that is directly implicated in facilitating settlement infrastructure in the West Bank and denying Palestinians their basic rights.

Bloomberg Philanthropies partners with the Sagol Family to run the Bloomberg-Sagol Center for City Leadership. This past year, the program trained mayors and city officials from Modi’in Illit and Mateh Binyamin Regional Council representing more than 40 West Bank settlements, which were found illegal by the International Court of Justice in July 2024.

Facilitating settlement infrastructure is not philanthropy; it is aiding and abetting a war crime. These illegal settlements are part of Israel’s broader campaign of ethnic cleansing and displacement, which Amnesty International has designatedas apartheid against the Palestinian people.

The organization’s namesake, Michael Bloomberg, has also made shameful remarks in support of Israel’s cruel and unlawful strategy of bombing Palestinian hospitals and schools in Gaza.

On the day No Other Land had its press screening at NYFF, Palestinian director Basel Adra’s home in the West Bank was invaded by Israeli soldiers and his father kidnapped, bound, blindfolded and held at a settlement outpost.

As filmmakers and cultural workers, our creative expression should not be used to launder war crimes, particularly when many of our films shown in this year’s festival shed light on and demand justice in the face of state violence.

In January of this year the International Court of Justice (ICJ) recognized the plausible risk of genocide in Gaza. In July the ICJ ordered Israel to leave the Occupied Palestinian West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza “as rapidly as possible,” condemned its regime of racial segregation and apartheid, and declared the transfer and maintenance of settlers to the West Bank and East Jerusalem unlawful.

In light of the gravity of the charges against the Israeli state and the scale of suffering inflicted on millions of Palestinians in Gaza, as well as those in the West Bank who are subject to settler and military violence, we call on the board and directors of the NYFF to review its financial ties and take urgent action to end their relationship with Bloomberg Philanthropies and any other funders lending material support to war crimes.

We call upon leaders at this and other cultural institutions to take a clear stance against artwashing genocide and apartheid, while upholding the rights of artists, activists, and staff who advocate for Palestine.

We further urge the New York Film Festival to call for a permanent ceasefire and an end to the siege in Gaza, without which Israel’s genocide will continue, as famine and disease takes hold across besieged and occupied Gaza.

Visit Screen Slate to see the updated list of all signers.