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Berlin Film Festival Rejects Accusation of Censorship on Gaza

Berlinale Festival Director Tricia Tuttle speaks during the Berlinale Camera award ceremony honoring British composer Max Richter during the 76th Berlin International Film Festival, in Berlin, Germany, 18 February 2026. (EPA)
Berlinale Festival Director Tricia Tuttle speaks during the Berlinale Camera award ceremony honoring British composer Max Richter during the 76th Berlin International Film Festival, in Berlin, Germany, 18 February 2026. (EPA)
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Berlin Film Festival Rejects Accusation of Censorship on Gaza

Berlinale Festival Director Tricia Tuttle speaks during the Berlinale Camera award ceremony honoring British composer Max Richter during the 76th Berlin International Film Festival, in Berlin, Germany, 18 February 2026. (EPA)
Berlinale Festival Director Tricia Tuttle speaks during the Berlinale Camera award ceremony honoring British composer Max Richter during the 76th Berlin International Film Festival, in Berlin, Germany, 18 February 2026. (EPA)

The director of the Berlin Film Festival on Wednesday rejected accusations from more than 80 film industry figures that the festival had helped censor artists who oppose Israel's actions in Gaza.

In an open letter published on Tuesday, Oscar-winning actors Javier Bardem and Tilda Swinton were among dozens who criticized the Berlinale's "silence" on the issue and said they were "dismayed" at its "involvement in censoring artists who oppose Israel's ongoing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza".

In an interview with Screen Daily, the Berlinale's director, Tricia Tuttle, said the festival backs "free speech within the bounds of German law".

She said she recognized that the letter came from "the depth of anger and frustration about the suffering of people in Gaza".

However, she rejected accusations of censorship, saying that the letter contained "misinformation" and "inaccurate claims about the Berlinale" made without evidence or anonymously.

The row over Gaza has dogged this year's edition of the festival since jury president Wim Wenders answered a question on the conflict by saying: "We cannot really enter the field of politics."

The comments prompted award-winning novelist Arundhati Roy, who had been due to present a restored version of a film she wrote, to withdraw from the festival.

Tuttle said the festival represents "lots of people who have different views, including lots of people who live in Germany who want a more complex understanding of Israel's positionality than maybe the rest of the world has right now".

German politicians have been largely supportive of Israel as Germany seeks to atone for the legacy of the Holocaust.

However, German public opinion has been more critical of Israeli actions in Gaza.

Commenting on the row to the Welt TV channel, German Culture Minister Wolfram Weimer defended Wenders and Tuttle from criticism, saying they were running the festival "in a very balanced way, very sensitively".

"Artists should not be told what to do when it comes to politics. The Berlinale is not an NGO with a camera and directors," Weimer said.

Gaza has frequently been a topic of controversy at the Berlinale in recent years.

In 2024, the festival's documentary award went to "No Other Land", which follows the dispossession of Palestinian communities in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

German government officials criticized "one-sided" remarks about Gaza by the directors of that film and others at that year's awards ceremony.

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Entertainment

Louvre Heist to Be Turned into Film

The Louvre Museum seen in Paris, France, November 17, 2025. (Reuters)
The Louvre Museum seen in Paris, France, November 17, 2025. (Reuters)
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Louvre Heist to Be Turned into Film

The Louvre Museum seen in Paris, France, November 17, 2025. (Reuters)
The Louvre Museum seen in Paris, France, November 17, 2025. (Reuters)

Last year's brazen robbery of the Louvre -- when thieves made off with jewellery worth some $100 million -- is set to become a movie, a publisher said on Tuesday.

French director Romain Gavras -- whose work includes 2025 Hollywood film "Sacrifice" starring Anya Taylor-Joy and music videos including most recently a hypnotic schoolboy choreography for GENER8ION -- will draw inspiration from the investigative book "Main basse sur le Louvre" (literally "A grab at the Louvre").

Film rights to the book about the October 19, 2025 heist had been sold to the production company Iconoclast, the Flammarion publishing house said.

The book, written by three journalists, from French dailies Le Parisien and Le Monde, and weekly glossy magazine Paris Match, is to hit bookstores on Wednesday.

According to trade magazine Le Film Francais, the movie project is in development, though neither the title nor the cast has been announced.

The Louvre heist sent shockwaves around the world and sparked a security crisis within the world-famous museum that ultimately led to the replacement of its director, Laurence des Cars.

After seven months of investigation, and despite the arrests of the main suspects, the jewels have still not been found.

The authors said their apparent disappearance "has become a dense mystery, a puzzle that has plunged investigators into deep confusion".

The heist illustrates how "the theft of artworks has become a business like any other for many criminals", they say. "The criminal underworld has found a new cash cow."

Entertainment

'Spider-Noir' Brings a Mature Superhero to the Small Screen

Nicolas Cage stars in the new series "Spider-Noir". Michael loccisano / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP
Nicolas Cage stars in the new series "Spider-Noir". Michael loccisano / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP
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'Spider-Noir' Brings a Mature Superhero to the Small Screen

Nicolas Cage stars in the new series "Spider-Noir". Michael loccisano / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP
Nicolas Cage stars in the new series "Spider-Noir". Michael loccisano / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP

While stars of the Spider-Man franchise have trended younger over the years -- from Tobey Maguire to Andrew Garfield to Tom Holland -- the new series "Spider-Noir" starring Nicolas Cage explores a more mature version of the web-slinging superhero.

Premiering on Amazon's streaming platform this week, the series follows Ben Reilly (Cage), a private investigator struggling to make ends meet in New York during the Great Depression, said AFP.

This marks the first time the superhero, whom Cage voiced in the first Spider-Verse film, has appeared on screen in live-action.

Karen Rodriguez, who plays Janet, Riley's loyal secretary, said that what sets "Spider-Noir" apart from other versions of the superhero is the era in which it is set.

"Normally, it's a coming-of-age story, and we're meeting Peter Parker in a youthful setting," she told AFP. "But what happens when you've done it and life has happened to you and you suffered loss?"

Reilly, a World War I veteran who can't even afford to pay his secretary, is burdened by personal tragedy.

"He's lost the love of his life. He's smack dab in the middle of the Great Depression. There's a lot of suffering," Rodriguez added.

For the actress, whose character maintains a constant push and pull with Reilly, working with Cage "was like a dream come true."

Rodriguez said she learned a lot from the 62-year-old Oscar-winning actor, who has over a hundred films to his credit.

"It's the type of job that you dream about because you want jobs that are going to make you better," said Rodriguez, who describes her character as a strong-willed woman who doesn't mince words.

"Spider-Noir," produced by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, among others, can be seen in color or black and white, in a nod to the film noir genre of the 1940s.

"It's a wholly unique perspective," said Rodriguez, who sees the style as an "exciting" alternative for telling a superhero story.

The genre is related to "what kind of danger is looking around the corner," she said. "And even the visual elements of noir, I think are so evocative, the way that the camera is framed."

"You understand that the world you're never really safe, and we really see it in the black and white, because we're seeing people in shadow or in light, and the shadow is always there."

"Spider-Noir" also features performances by Lamorne Morris, Li Jun Li and Brendan Gleeson, who plays a mobster villain.

Entertainment

Disney’s New ‘Star Wars’ Film Opens with an Estimated $165 Million Worldwide

Cast member Pedro Pascal attends a premiere for the film “Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu” at TCL Chinese theatre in Los Angeles, California, US, May 14, 2026. (Reuters)
Cast member Pedro Pascal attends a premiere for the film “Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu” at TCL Chinese theatre in Los Angeles, California, US, May 14, 2026. (Reuters)
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Disney’s New ‘Star Wars’ Film Opens with an Estimated $165 Million Worldwide

Cast member Pedro Pascal attends a premiere for the film “Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu” at TCL Chinese theatre in Los Angeles, California, US, May 14, 2026. (Reuters)
Cast member Pedro Pascal attends a premiere for the film “Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu” at TCL Chinese theatre in Los Angeles, California, US, May 14, 2026. (Reuters)

New "Star Wars" film "The Mandalorian and Grogu" is expected to end the US Memorial Day weekend with roughly $165 million in worldwide ticket sales, distributor Walt Disney said ‌on Sunday.

About $102 ‌million of that ‌total ⁠will come from ⁠the United States and Canada, Disney said. The domestic total exceeds pre-weekend forecasts but is the lowest opening for any "Star Wars" ⁠movie released by Disney.

The ‌first "Star ‌Wars" movie in seven years ‌tells the story of a ‌helmeted bounty hunter and his sidekick, nicknamed Baby Yoda by fans. The duo debuted ‌on the small screen in the Disney+ streaming series "The ⁠Mandalorian" ⁠in 2019.

Disney's lowest-grossing "Star Wars" film, "Solo: A Star Wars Story," brought in $103 million over Memorial Day weekend in 2018 and was considered a flop. The "Grogu" movie, however, had a smaller budget than most other "Star Wars" movies, of about $165 million.