Israeli team at Cannes Film Festival brace for ‘Eurovision repeat’ of pro-Palestine protests

‘We are here for films, culture and open for dialogue,’ one team member said

The Israeli team at Cannes Film Festival have said they fear protests against them will break out along the French Riviera.

Their concern comes after thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators took to the streets of Malmö to protest against Israel’s participation in the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest last week.

One member of the Israeli team at Cannes, who are attending the festival to promote Israeli film, said they were “saddened” by the demonstrations and “fear a Eurovision repeat” in France.

Speaking to The Telegraph, the leader of the Israeli team, Osnat Bukofzer, said she had been going to the festival for over 40 years but now had concerns about attending.

“We are here for films, culture, and open for dialogue. We hope that it will be the only action here in Cannes,” she said.

Bukofzer’s team is based in the main festival building in Cannes for the duration of the festival, where security measures have been drastically increased.

“This year, we’ve had 15 security briefings compared with only four or five last year, so I can tell you it’s a very serious matter,” said Cannes’ general secretary Francois Desrousseaux at a press conference ahead of the festival’s opening night.

Israel’s Eurovision performance jeered by pro-Palestinian protesters in Malmo fanzone (AP)

“We also have AI-powered cameras around the Palais for the first time, and we’ve also starting using new AI safety gates.”

Mayor of Cannes, David Lisnard, has also placed a ban on demonstrations along the beach side stretch where the festival’s main events take place.

Meanwhile, festival chief Thierry Frémaux made clear the focus of the festival should be on the films included in the programme.

“This year we decided to host a festival without polemics, to make sure that the main interest for us all to be here is cinema,” he said. “So, if there are other polemics it doesn’t concern us.”

However, jury member Omar Sy posted on Instagram that “there is nothing that justifies the killing of children in Gaza. or anywhere” as the festival opened.

Meanwhile, the Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof, was sentenced to eight years in prison by the Islamic Revolutionary court just days before his film The Seed of the Sacred Fig was set to debut at the festival. The film remains on Cannes’ schedule.

Speaking on Monday (13 May), Fremaux lamented an increased focus in recent years on political and social issues in the movie industry, which he said came at the expense of the actual films.

Cannes Film Festival president Thierry Fremaux attends the Opening Ceremony Official Gala Dinner (Getty)

“In the past, people only talked about the cinema. We as organisers only had one anxiety - the films: Will people like them, will people hate them?” he said at a news conference.

Fremaux made the comment in response to a question about a report in French newspaper Le Figaro last week, which said Cannes had hired a crisis management team to deal with possible fallout from a list that could be published of 10 film industry figures who have been accused of sexual abuse.

He added that it felt important to show at the festival the new short film Moi Aussi (Me Too) by Judith Godreche, a French actor who has been a major voice in the country’s #MeToo movement.