{"id":373257,"date":"2025-08-25T21:05:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-25T21:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/373257\/"},"modified":"2025-08-25T21:05:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T21:05:11","slug":"woody-allens-virtual-appearance-at-russian-film-festival-condemned-by-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/373257\/","title":{"rendered":"Woody Allen’s virtual appearance at Russian film festival condemned by Ukraine"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry on Monday condemned Woody Allen<\/a> for speaking virtually at a Russian film festival over the weekend, calling his participation in the event \u201ca disgrace and an insult\u201d to the victims of Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.<\/a><\/p>\n

According to Russian media, Allen spoke Sunday at the Moscow International Film Week via video conference. The appearance put him at odds with the Hollywood establishment, which has embraced the Ukraine cause during Russia\u2019s 3 1\/2-year war, with prominent actors signing on to the United24<\/a> crowdfunding initiative and Ukraine\u2019s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy making virtual appearances at past Golden Globes<\/a> and Grammys ceremonies.<\/a><\/p>\n

Footage aired by Russian state TV showed the filmmaker addressing a tightly packed movie theater from a massive screen, with pro-Kremlin film director Fyodor Bondarchuk moderating the session. Russian media reports quoted Allen as saying that he has always liked Russian cinema, recounting his past trips to Russia and the Soviet Union, and talking about what he would do if he were to receive a proposal to direct a movie in the country. <\/p>\n

Ukraine\u2019s Foreign Ministry in an online statement on Monday said that it \u201cstrongly condemns\u201d Allen\u2019s participation in the festival, which \u201cbrings together supporters and mouthpieces of Putin.\u201d The ministry called it \u201ca disgrace and an insult to the victims among Ukrainian actors and filmmakers who have been killed or wounded by Russian war criminals,\u201d adding that Allen \u201cis deliberately turning a blind eye to the atrocities that Russia has been committing in Ukraine.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Actor<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

In a statement to The Associated Press on Monday, Allen criticized Putin and denounced the invasion but called for cultural exchange to continue.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it comes to the conflict in Ukraine, I believe strongly that Vladimir Putin is totally in the wrong. The war he has caused is appalling,\u201d Allen said. \u201cBut, whatever politicians have done, I don\u2019t feel cutting off artistic conversations is ever a good way to help.\u201d<\/p>\n

The website of the festival, which runs through Wednesday, billed Allen as one of its headliners, along with Serbian film director Emir Kusturica and American actor Mark Dacascos. Moscow International Film Week is a relatively new festival, first held in the Russian capital in August 2024. It is separate from the decades-old Moscow International Film Festival, which in 2022 was stripped of its International Federation of Film Producers Associations accreditation following the invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Kusturica has been open about his support for Russian President Vladimir Putin, including after the invasion. He received an award from Putin and attended a military parade in Moscow earlier this year. <\/p>\n

Allen has long had an affinity for Russian literature and history. His 1975 comedy \u201cLove and Death\u201d spoofs the fiction of Tolstoy and other 19th century Russian novelists. The title of his 1989 release, \u201cCrimes and Misdemeanors,\u201d<\/a> echoes Dostoevsky\u2019s \u201cCrime and Punishment\u201d and also broods over the themes of wrongdoing, justice and guilt. <\/a><\/p>\n

In the 1972 essay, \u201cA Brief Guide to Civil Disobedience,\u201d Allen jokes about the Russian Revolution, writing that the serfs rebelled when they \u201cfinally realized that the Czar and the Tsar were the same person.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press journalist Illia Novikov contributed to this report from Kyiv. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry on Monday condemned Woody Allen for speaking virtually at a Russian film festival over…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":373258,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7655],"tags":[130596,77,88793,130599,4179,130597,3943,4447,8501,332,7661,130598,7143,657,333,2275,263],"class_list":{"0":"post-373257","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-russia","8":"tag-emir-kusturica","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-fairs-and-festivals","11":"tag-fyodor-bondarchuk","12":"tag-general-news","13":"tag-mark-dacascos","14":"tag-movies","15":"tag-new-york","16":"tag-new-york-city","17":"tag-russia","18":"tag-russia-ukraine-war","19":"tag-s-craig-zahler","20":"tag-u-s-news","21":"tag-ukraine","22":"tag-vladimir-putin","23":"tag-woody-allen","24":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115091441281423492","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=373257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373257\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/373258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}