After a week of social media backlash, open letters and press conference flare-ups, the Berlin Film Festival director talks censorship claims, government funding and trying to keep the focus on film.
Analysis & Context
After a week of social media backlash, open letters and press conference flare-ups, the Berlin Film Festival director talks censorship claims, government funding and trying to keep the focus on film. Berlinale Chief Tricia Tuttle on Free Speech, Politics and a Festival Under Pressure: “Taken a Life of Its Own”. Stay informed with the latest developments and expert analysis on this important story.
After a week of social media backlash, open letters and press conference flare-ups, the Berlin Film Festival director talks censorship claims, government funding and trying to keep the focus on film.
Tricia Tuttle © Udall Evans Share on Facebook Share on X Google Preferred Share to Flipboard Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Send an Email Print the Article Post a Comment Tricia Tuttle has had a rough week. The Berlin Film Festival director has spent the past seven days, since the start of the 76th Berlinale on Feb. 12, in permanent crisis mode, forced to respond to one social media uproar after another. The rage cycle began on day one, at the first Berlinale press conference, after a comment by jury president Wim Wenders that filmmakers “have to stay out of politics” triggering an online backlash. That set the tone for press conference after press conference, with filmmakers being asked targeted political questions, often with little or no connection to the movies being discussed. Related Stories Movies 'Tutu' Review: Sam Pollard's Powerful and Deeply Personal Doc Portrait of South African Leader Desmond Tutu Movies 'The Blood Countess' Review: Isabelle Huppert Sinks Her Teeth Into a Juicy Slice of Vampire Camp That Looks Ravishing but Wears Thin Things came to a head on Tuesday, when 81 former Berlinale alumni, including Tilda Swinton, Javier Bardem, Tatiana Maslany, and Adam McKay, signed an open letter calling out the Berlin International Film Festival for “censoring artists who oppose Israel’s ongoing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and the German state’s key role in enabling it.” Berlin has been here before. In 2024, pro-Palestinian activists called out the festival for failing to take a public stance against Israeli military action in Gaza. They also accused the festival of censoring pro-Palestinian voices, similar allegations to those made in the most recent open letter. Last year’s festival, the first under Tuttle’s leadership, was largely free of such controversies. But they have returned with a vengeance this year. Despite a broadly positive reception for the films on display — The Hollywood Reporter has given raves for competition titles A Prayer for the Dying and Queen at Sea — its controversy, not cinema, that has dominated the conversation. In a conversation with The Hollywood Reporter, Tuttle responded to the allegations in the letter, dismissed claims of censorship, and expressed her worries that a “campaign of half-truths” is threatening the future of the festival. I spoke with our chief reviewer yesterday and he said this was one of the strongest Berlins in years, in terms of the quality of the films in competition. But all the talk this week has been about the “political controversies” involving statements by Wim Wenders and others at the Berlin press conferences. Honestly I want to cry, because we went into this knowing how special all these films were, and we just haven’t been able to talk about that. This whole thing has taken a life of its own. The stress Wim Wenders and the jury have been under is so sad to me, because these films are really, really, strong, and people should be talking about them. Independent cinema needs us to elevate these films into some kind of consciousness for the market, so that distributors take some risks and release the films. It’s so very sad. Because whatever we say about the controversy and the politics surrounding the festival, what we’re really trying to do, is to cut-through, to celebrate strong, bold cinema that risk-taking distributors can get behind and take out to audiences so that these films can have a life. Did you expect the controversy? I didn’t expect what happened in the way that it happened. Of course, I know that there’s a real tension, a campaign of people who really want the whole world to speak out for Palestinians continuing to be the victims of violence and intimidation, and that is a real urgency amongst many people. Then there are other people who want more complexity to the conversation. There isn’t a lot of space in a film festival to have a complex discussion about what is probably the most urgent political issue of our time. There are other really urgent political issues, but this is such an urgent political issue, and it’s so polarized that it’s very difficult to have that conversation at a film festival. We expected that discussion to be part of the festival, but there has also been, for two years, a campaign that takes truths, or half-truths, about the Berlinale and weaponizes these half-truths to try to make a point and provoke conversation and statements. We’ve seen that before at the festival. [But] I really thought last year we affirmed our position, that we want to create a platform at the Berlinale for free speech, that we want to defend people’s right to speak. We didn’t necessarily want the festival to always be the one talking, but we were trying, in
