This is a statement written by filmmakers in NYFF62.
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 designated as 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 take hold across besieged and occupied Gaza.
If you are a filmmaker or film worker (staff, press, or industry) with a connection to NYFF, you can join this open letter here.
103 signatories, last updated September 26, 6:30p.m. ET (others still being added):
NYFF 62:
Rhayne Vermette, A Black Screen Too, Artist, Exovedate Productions LTD
Abby Sun, An All-Around Feel Good, Producer
Jordan Lord, An All-Around Feel Good, Director
Malena Szlam, Archipelago of Earthen Bones — To Bunya, Filmmaker
John Smith, Being John Smith, Filmmaker
Adam Piron, Black Glass, Filmmaker, COUSIN
Ben Russell, DIRECT ACTION, Co-director
Guillaume Cailleau, DIRECT ACTION, Co-director
Amber A’Lee Frost, Eephus, Producer, ColdFeet Films
Carson Lund, Eephus, Writer/Director, Omnes Films
Chris Wade, Eephus, Producer, ColdFeet Films
Erik Lund, Eephus, Production Design / Composer, Omnes Films
Michael Basta, Eephus, Writer, Producer, Omnes Films
Nate Fisher, Eephus, Writer/actor
Will Menaker, Eephus, Producer, ColdFeet Films
Tyler Taormina, Eephus, Producer, Omnes films
Morgan Quaintance, Efforts of Nature, Filmmaker
Aiko Masubuchi, Happyend, Producer
Bill Kirstein, Happyend, Cinematographer
Lia Ouyang Rusli, Happyend, Composer
Neo Sora, Happyend, writer, director
Albert Tholen, Happyend, Producer and Editor
Mike Leigh, Hard Truths, Director
Athina Rachel Tsangari, Harvest, Director and Co-writer
Rebecca O'Brien, Harvest, Producer, Sixteen Films
Alberto Balázs, Hemel, Cinematographer
Danielle Dean, Hemel, Director/Artist, Danielle Dean Studios & LONO
Luke W. Moody, Hemel, Producer, LONO
G. Anthony Svatek, Little, Big, and Far, Associate Producer
Jem Cohen, Little, Big, and Far, Director, Gravity Hill
Miranda Pennell, Man number 4, Writer Director
Julia Loktev, My Undesirable Friends: Part I — Last Air in Moscow, Director
Basel Adra, No Other Land, Filmmaker
Hamdan Balall, No Other Land, Filmmaker
Yuval Abraham, No Other Land, Filmmaker
Robert Greene, Pavements, Producer, Editor
Maryam Tafakory, Razeh-del, filmmaker
Simon Liu, Refuse Room, Filmmaker
Zachary Epcar, Sinking Feeling, Filmmaker
Rosalind Nashashibi, The Invisible Worm, Filmmaker
Blair McClendon, Union, Editor
Brett Story, Union, Director
Malika Zouhali-Worrall, Union, Editor
Mars Verrone, Union, Producer
Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe, Union, Composer
Samantha Curley, Union, Producer, Level Ground Productions
Steve Maing, Union, Filmmaker
Louisa Schabas, Universal Language, Production Designer
Matthew Rankin, Universal Language, Director, co-writer
Pirouz Nemati, Universal Language, Executive Producer, Actor & Writer
Sylvain Corbeil, Universal Language, Producer, Metafilms
Ila Firouzabadi, Universal language, Co-writer, executive producer
Pablo Marín, Vibrant Matter, Director
Truong Minh Quy, Viet and Nam, Filmmaker
Filmmakers and film workers from prior editions:
Adam Khalil, Filmmaker, New Red Order
Aki Kaurismäki, Filmmaker
Alena Lodkina, Filmmaker
Alexandre Larose, Filmmaker
Ana Vaz, Filmmaker
Andrew Norman Wilson, Filmmaker
Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Filmmaker
Aria Dean, Filmmaker
Ariane Labed, Actor, director
Arthur Harari, Filmmaker
Beatrice Gibson, Filmmaker
Ben Rivers, Filmmaker
Bingham Bryant, Filmmaker
Carl Elsaesser, Filmmaker
Christopher Harris, Filmmaker
Dani ReStack, Filmmaker
Daniel Chew, Filmmaker
Deborah Stratman, Filmmaker
Deragh Campbell
Elisabeth Subrin, Filmmaker
Faraz Anoushahpour, Filmmaker
Genevieve Yue, Critic, Screener for Currents 2023
Jackson Polys, Artist, New Red Order
James Schamus, Producer
James Wilson, Producer, The Zone of Interest
Joanna Arnow, Director, Writer, Actor, Editor, The Feeling That…
Joshua Gen Solondz, Filmmaker
L. Castaing-Taylor, Filmmaker, Harvard University
Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Private Ear, Earshot.ngo
Leonardo Pirondi, Filmmaker
Mackie Mallison, Filmmaker
Mary Helena Clark, Filmmaker
Meriem Bennani, Filmmaker, Life on the CAPS
Micaela Durand, Filmmaker
Michael Robinson, Filmmaker
Mike Crane, Filmmaker
Nazli Dincel, Filmmaker
Parastoo Anoushahpour, Filmmaker
Peggy Ahwesh, filmmaker
Ross Meckfessel, Filmmaker
Sarah Friedland, Filmmaker
Sky Hopinka, Filmmaker
Suneil Sanzgiri, Filmmaker
Tiffany Sia, Artist and filmmaker
Verena Paravel
Yoni Golijov, Producer
Zazie Ray-Trapido, Filmmaker
Zia Anger, Filmmaker, My Last Film
