The organizers informed AFP on Friday that Catherine Deneuve of France has joined more than 900 other movie professionals in signing an open letter condemning the alleged “genocide” in Gaza and the film industry’s silence on the issue.
When the Cannes film festival started on May 13, the petition, which started to circulate in the lead-up to the event, had gathered over 380 names, including “Schindler’s List” star Ralph Fiennes.
Deneuve, Swedish actor Gustaf Skarsgard, and British director Danny Boyle were among the more than 900 names listed in an update sent by the organizers on Friday.
The initiative, called “Artists for Fatem”, was sparked by the killing of Palestinian photojournalist Fatima (“Fatem”) Hassouna, who was the subject of a documentary that premiered at Cannes week.
Hassouna, 25, was killed in an Israeli air strike along with 10 relatives in her family home in northern Gaza last month, the day after the documentary was announced as part of the ACID Cannes selection.
“As artists and cultural players, we cannot remain silent while genocide is taking place in Gaza and this unspeakable news is hitting our communities hard,” the open letter says.
Juliette Binoche, who is chairing the Cannes jury, Rooney Mara, Jonathan Glazer, US independent filmmaker Jim Jarmusch, “Lupin” star Omar Sy, Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon, Pedro Almodovar, and Mark Ruffalo are among the other signatories.
The letter was also signed by Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, who is in Cannes to promote a documentary about his life, organizers announced Friday.
On Tuesday, he held a T-shirt with the names of the children who were slain in Gaza as he posed for photographers.
Since Israel launched its bombings on March 18, at least 3,613 people have died in Gaza, according to the health ministry on Thursday, bringing the total number of deaths from the conflict to 53,762, the majority of whom were civilians.
Hamas’s October 2023 attack that triggered the war resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
