Paramount, under its new owner, David Ellison, has become the first major Hollywood studio to condemn a boycott of Israeli film institutions that more than 4,000 actors and directors now support.
In a statement on Friday, the studio said it believed in “the power of storytelling to connect and inspire people, promote mutual understanding and preserve the moments, ideas and events that shape the world we share,” adding that it disagreed “with recent efforts to boycott Israeli filmmakers.”
The boycott, brought this week by Film Workers for Palestine, a group that campaigns for the end of the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, was initially signed by more than 1,000 filmmakers and industry professionals. Olivia Colman, Ava DuVernay, Mark Ruffalo, Ayo Edebiri and others pledged not to work with Israeli film institutions that they believe are complicit in the crisis. Support for the movement has since quadrupled.
“Silencing individual creative artists based on their nationality does not promote better understanding or advance the cause of peace,” Paramount said in its statement. “We need more engagement and communication — not less.”
Film Workers for Palestine pushed back against Paramount in a statement on Friday, saying it hoped the studio was not “intentionally misrepresenting the pledge in an attempt to silence our colleagues in the film industry.” The group has argued that its boycott targets film institutions and companies, not individual artists.
A vast majority of Israel’s “film production and distribution companies, sales agents, cinemas and other film institutions,” the group has said, “have never endorsed the full, internationally recognized rights of the Palestinian people.”
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The post Paramount Criticizes Celebrity-Endorsed Israeli Film Boycott appeared first on New York Times.
