{"id":10822,"date":"2026-02-12T15:53:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T15:53:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/10822\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T15:53:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T15:53:14","slug":"berlin-opening-conference-live-feed-cuts-following-palestine-question","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/10822\/","title":{"rendered":"Berlin Opening Conference Live Feed Cuts Following Palestine Question"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tUpdated at 6.22 am PT with release of full conference stream\u2026 The live feed for the opening jury press conference of the Berlin<\/a> Film Festival went down on Thursday as a journalist in the room asked a contentious question on the Israel-Palestine<\/a> conflict.<\/p>\n

\n\tQuestioned by Deadline on whether the broadcast of the question had been censored, a spokesperson said the cut in the broadcast had been due to technical issues, and that the entire press conference would be posted on its website, which has happened since.<\/p>\n

\n\tJury president Wim Wenders was joined on stage by jury members Nepalese director Min Bahadur Bham<\/a>, Korean actor Bae Doona<\/a>, Indian archivist Shivendra Singh Dungarpur<\/a>, U.S. director Reinaldo Marcus Green<\/a>, Japanese HIKARI<\/a> and Polish producer Ewa Puszczy\u0144ska.<\/p>\n

\n\tThey were given a fairly easy ride at the beginning of the press conference kicking off the Berlinale\u2019s 76th edition, with Festival Director Tricia Tuttle getting the ball rolling with a question on what \u201cexcited them about film\u201d.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe atmosphere in the room tensed, however, when a German journalist asked a question implying the Berlinale had shown support for people in Iran and Ukraine, \u201cbut never for Palestine\u201d and the implications for the festival given it was funded by a German government he said had supported Israel\u2019s military campaign in Gaza.<\/p>\n

\n\tHe framed the question in response to an earlier comment by Puszczy\u0144ska on how cinema can change the world.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMy question is, in light of the German government\u2019s support of the genocide in Gaza and its role as the main funder of the Berlinale do you as a member of the jury\u2026,\u201d he said. The feed went down, cutting the live broadcast of the whole question: \u201cDo you as a member of the jury support this selective treatment of human rights?\u201d.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe feed remained offline for the entirety of the answers given by Puszczy\u0144ska and Wenders. <\/p>\n

\n\tIn response to a question sent by Deadline when the conference went offline on whether the segment had been censored, the festival replied: \u201cWe are having technical problems with the signal. No censorship. We will have the recording of the whole press conference online later today.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBack in the room, Tuttle, Puszczy\u0144ska and Wenders pushed back against the question.<\/p>\n

\n\tTuttle suggested that the jury was at the press conference to talk rather about films, before Puszczy\u0144ska waded in nonetheless. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAsking us this question is a little bit unfair\u2026 we use the word \u2018change the world\u2019, but we are trying to talk to people, every single viewer, and to make them think, but we cannot be responsible for what their decision would be to support Israel\u2026 to support Palestine,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe can talk about Senegal and all the other wars, you know, you just pointed [to] the most, the biggest, but there are many other wars where genocide is committed and we do not talk about that. So this is very complicated questions. And I think, as I said, it\u2019s a bit unfair asking us what we think, how we support, or not support, or are talking to our governments or not.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019m speaking for myself I go to elections. I go, I vote using my right as a citizen of Poland, as a citizen of Europe, of the world. I go to marches, I support causes which I think I should support. But all of us here may have other things and take other decisions. So I think asking us these questions and expecting the general kind of answer is not fair\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWenders also attempted to shut the question down saying: \u201cWe cannot really enter the field of politics. We have to stay out of politics because if we made movies that are dedicatedly political, we enter the field of politics\u2026 We are the counterweight of politics, the opposite of politics, we have to do the work of people \u2014 not the work of politicians.\u201d.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Berlinale has been caught repeatedly in the crosshairs of the fierce global debate around the Israel-Gaza War, sparked by the October 7, 2023 Hamas terror attacks on southern Israel, which killed 1,200, and resulted in the taking of 251 hostages.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe subsequent Israeli military campaign razed Gaza to the ground, killed at least \u00a073,600 people and has left 1.5 million people, three-quarters of its population. living in tents. Israel has said accusations that its actions are tantamount to genocide are \u201cbaseless\u201d because the country is not acting with \u201cintent.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn 2024, there were calls for a boycott of the Berlinale over its lack of a public denouncement of Israel\u2019s military campaign in Gaza, and many Arab filmmakers avoided submitting their films.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe situation exploded when Palestinian Israeli production No Other Land, documenting settler violence in the West Bank,\u00a0won the 2024 Berlinale Documentary Award\u00a0and Israeli co-director Yuval Abraham accused his country of apartheid in his acceptance speech.<\/p>\n

\n\tTuttle, who took up the director\u2019s baton for the 2025 edition, has worked hard to calm the waters and to ensure that the festival is an open, safe and respectful place for all filmmakers and views.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn 2025, she spearheaded the publication of a Q&A on the festival website<\/a> laying out the festivals position on freedom of speech, freedom of expression, antisemitism.<\/p>\n

\n\tA few days later, however, Hong Kong filmmaker Jun Li was arrested over a pro-Palestinian speech<\/a> he made at a screening of his film Queerpanorama, which prompted a police investigation and calls from one prominent politician for the festival to be defunded.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThis year, the mood around the conflict felt more muted going into the festival but following Thursday\u2019s opening conference question, it is clear there are still strong feelings on all sides.<\/p>\n

\n\tWatch the full Berlinale Press opening press conference below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Updated at 6.22 am PT with release of full conference stream\u2026 The live feed for the opening jury…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10823,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[99],"tags":[8551,112,190,8552,8553,8554,8555,8556],"class_list":["post-10822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-berlin","tag-bae-doona","tag-berlin","tag-germany","tag-hikari","tag-israel-palestine","tag-min-bahadur-bham","tag-reinaldo-marcus-green","tag-shivendra-singh-dungarpur"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10822"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10822\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}