Exiled in France and a figure in contemporary Israeli cinema, director Nadav Lapid withdrew his participation in the Marseille International Film Festival after calls for a boycott. A decision which caused great controversy in the world of cinema.
Invited as a member of the jury, with the screening of his film The Policeman and a public meeting planned, Nadav Lapid was to have a highlight at the Marseille International Film Festival (FID) which is to take place from July 7 to 12. But under growing pressure from internal calls for a boycott, the filmmaker finally announced his withdrawal. In a context of war in Gaza, this invitation aroused tensions, even though the director is an outspoken critic of the Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu. The departure of Nadav Lapid led to a wave of reactions and revived the debate on the freedom of festival programming.
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A withdrawal under pressuren
Born in 1975, Nadav Lapid grew up in an artistic environment before training between Tel Aviv and Paris. Back in Israel, he joined the Sam Spiegel Film School and quickly established himself as a strong voice in Israeli cinema. His first feature film The Policeman (2011) is noticed in Locarno. In 2019, he received the Golden Bear at the Berlinale for Synonymsthen the Jury Prize at Cannes in 2021 for Ahed’s Knee. Exiled in France since 2021, he increased his positions against the policies of Benjamin Netanyahu and signed a column calling for a ceasefire in Gaza after October 7, 2023. His latest film Oui (2025) continues this criticism of Israeli society.
But as the festival in Marseille approached, directors selected by the FID refused the presence of Nadav Lapid on the jury, launching an internal call for a boycott. The festival management tried to adjust the programming by limiting his participation, but the protests continued, even targeting the screening of his film. In this tense climate, around ten works were also withdrawn from the program. The filmmaker ended up giving up, denouncing in Télérama an absurd situation: “Who can seriously believe that what will save Palestine is that I do not participate in the FID? HAS”.
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Contested accusations
The boycott would notably target the director’s participation in a film partly financed by an Israeli fund. An accusation that he disputes, just like his producer Judith Lou Lévy, who mentions independent public aid representing only 12% of the budget. “The Israeli subsidy from which the film benefited comes from a public fund and not a government one and it is typically the kind of independent organization that is attacked by the Netanyahu government,” she told theAFP.
Far from stopping at the simple festival, the controversy took on an international dimension. More than 350 professionals signed a forum in The World denouncing the pressures suffered by the director and defending creative freedom. A second column, supported in particular by Jacques Audiard, Michel Hazanavicius, Natalie Portman and Justine Triet, describes the boycott as “intellectual bankruptcy”, recalling that “no one can be reduced to a passport”. A debate which continues to deeply divide the cultural community.
