Natalie Portman and Leading French Filmmakers Denounce Boycott of Director Nadav Lapid

Natalie Portman, alongside acclaimed French directors Justine Triet (Anatomy of a Fall) and Jacques Audiard (Emilia Perez), have signed an open letter condemning the cultural boycott of Israeli director Nadav Lapid.

Lapid was scheduled to serve on the jury for the Marseille International Film Festival in July. However, he withdrew from the role following pressure from pro-Palestinian filmmakers, who threatened to pull their entries from the festival if he remained involved.

A resident of France since 2021, Lapid is a prominent critic of Benjamin Netanyahu’s administration. His most recent feature, Yes, serves as a biting satire regarding the radicalization of Israeli society and the role of the artistic community in the conflicts within Gaza and the West Bank. Despite his critical stance, some activists have called for a boycott of Lapid and his work, citing the fact that his film received partial funding from the Israeli Film Fund.

On Monday, more than 350 influential figures within the French cinema industry—including producers Saïd Ben Saïd (Elle) and Judith Lou Lévy (Dahomey), and directors Stéphane Demoustier (The Great Arch) and Mati Diop (Atlantics, Dahomey)—published an open letter in the newspaper The World, describing the boycott as “an intellectual failure.”

“That Israel’s greatest dissident artist [who] tirelessly denounces the fascist and colonialist tendencies of his government and its criminal moral failings in films that have won awards worldwide, should be forced to withdraw from a French festival should alarm us and mobilize us beyond this absurdity,” the letter states. “It should alert us to the obvious truth: whatever crimes their state may commit, no one can be reduced to a passport.”

The signatories contend that Lapid, similar to dissident filmmakers from Russia or Iran, should not be held responsible for the actions of governments he frequently criticizes. They argue that maintaining a platform for such artists exerts more effective political pressure on authoritarian regimes than isolation. As an example, they cited Russian director Andrey Zvyagintsev, who utilized his Grand Prix win at Cannes for Minotaur to call on Vladimir Putin to end the violence in Ukraine.

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