350+ Filmmakers Condemn Lapid Boycott at FID Marseille

More than 350 film industry figures, including actors Natalie Portman and directors Justine Triet, Jacques Audiard, and Claire Denis, have signed open letters condemning a cultural boycott that forced Israeli filmmaker Nadav Lapid to withdraw from the FID Marseille international film festival. The festival is scheduled to run from July 7 to 12 in the southern French city.

Lapid, a prominent critic of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government who has lived in France since 2021, was initially invited to serve on the festival's jury. According to festival director Tsveta Dobreva, pressure mounted from a group of filmmakers and activists demanding his disinvitation as part of a broader cultural boycott of Israel. The objections centered on Lapid's 2025 film "Yes," which received partial funding from the Israel Film Fund, a body critics associated with the Israeli state.

In response to the campaign, approximately ten filmmakers withdrew their films from the festival's selection in mid-May. Lapid subsequently stepped down from the jury in late May. The festival then proposed he simply present his 2011 film "Policeman," but Lapid ultimately withdrew from the event entirely...