Overview
- Nadav Lapid stepped down from jury duty after a group of pro-Palestinian filmmakers threatened to withdraw their films from the Marseille FID festival if he served.
- Festival director Tsveta Dobreva said the festival supports Lapid but removed him from the jury to avoid disruption at the event.
- Pro-boycott filmmakers pointed to Lapid’s 2025 film receiving partial financing from the Israel Film Fund as their reason for protest, arguing institutional funding links artists to state structures.
- More than 350 industry figures published an open letter in Le Monde condemning the boycott and defending invitations to dissenting artists, with signatories including Natalie Portman, Justine Triet and Jacques Audiard.
- The dispute remains unresolved ahead of the July 7–12 festival and is likely to shape how European festivals handle pressure over funding, identity and self-censorship in programming.