Berlinale Crisis: International Festival Directors Including Cannes Head Thierry Frémaux Publish Statement In Support Of Tricia Tuttle 

A diverse group of film festival directors, including longtime Cannes head Thierry Frémaux, has published a letter in support of Berlinale chief Tricia Tuttle following reports in the German press that her job was under threat. Read the letter in full below. 

Signatories of the note include Frémaux, TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey, Rotterdam head Vanja Kaludjercic, San Sebastian director José Luis Rebordinos, and Locarno director Giona A. Nazzaro. 

“As film festival directors and leaders, we stand in support of Tricia Tuttle’s wish to continue as Berlinale Festival Director, in full trust and with institutional independence,” the letter begins. 

The note continues to state that in their role as “cultural custodians,” film festivals must “create and protect the space for filmmakers, artists, professionals and audiences to come together.” 

“This includes people who bring with them not only a shared love of cinema, but also a huge variety of lived experiences and viewpoints. This is what gives our film festivals their vitality, relevance, and value, and it is what festival ‘spirit’ is made from,” the letter reads. 

“We must also navigate – with care – the fact that ‘everyone’ can include people with political and personal views that don’t always align, with each other, or with socially accepted or politically mandated positions. And while film festivals that are long-lived and well-attended may appear to be indestructible meeting places, these spaces are often fragile, hard-won, and complex to preserve.”

The festival directors conclude by asking their various stakeholders, including “audiences, creators, festival teams, public and private partners, industry, media, fellow institutions,” to “show each other grace, respect and solidarity as communities and networks connected through the love of film, or we risk losing these spaces completely.” 

“It is so much easier to destroy than it is to build,” the letter ends. 

This open letter follows the week-long fallout following a report in the German tabloid Bild that Tuttle’s job was under threat. Bild said the German Culture Minister was considering Tuttle’s job in part because of a series of pro-Palestinian speeches at the festival’s closing ceremony. 

There has been a groundswell of support for Tuttle from cinema professionals in Germany, Europe, and beyond. An open letter circulated across the industry and first reported on by us reached over 2,500 signatories, including Sean Baker, Kleber Mendonça Filho, and Nancy Spielberg. 

Local German media reports that Tuttle will meet with the German Culture Minister tomorrow. 

Read the open letter from the festival directors in full below.

As film festival directors and leaders, we stand in support of Tricia Tuttle’s wish to continue as Berlinale Festival Director, in full trust and with institutional independence.

In the debates that have surrounded the 2026 Berlinale and other cultural and artistic events in preceding months, we recognise the mounting pressures on film festivals everywhere to navigate volatile times while maintaining a safe space for the exchange of cinema, and of ideas.

A core aspect of our role as cultural custodians is to create and protect the space for filmmakers, artists, professionals and audiences to come together. This includes people who bring with them not only a shared love of cinema, but also a huge variety of lived experiences and viewpoints. This is what gives our film festivals their vitality, relevance and value, and it is what festival ‘spirit’ is made from.

We must also navigate – with care – the fact that ‘everyone’ can include people with political and personal views that don’t always align, with each other, or with socially accepted or politically mandated positions. And while film festivals that are long-lived, and well-attended, may appear to be indestructible meeting places, these spaces are often fragile, hard-won and complex to preserve.

Film festivals as we know, and need them, are becoming increasingly challenging to sustain in a climate where the appreciation of nuance is collapsing. Supporting genuine freedom of expression, including the freedom to articulate imperfect or unpopular opinions, has never been more important. We need to maintain spaces where discomfort is embraced, where debates can be expansive, where new ideas can propagate and where unexpected – and sometimes conflicting – perspectives are made visible.

We need all our stakeholders – audiences, creators, festival teams, public and private partners, industry, media, fellow institutions – to show each other grace, respect and solidarity as communities and networks connected through the love of film, or we risk losing these spaces completely. It is so much easier to destroy than it is to build.

Kristy Matheson, Artistic Director, BFI London Film Festival 

Jung Hanseok, Festival Director, Busan International Film Festival

Ellen Y. D. Kim, Director, Asian Contents & Film Market

Karen Park, Program Director, Busan International Film Festival

Thierry Frémaux, General Delegate, Cannes Film Festival
Christian Jeune, Director of Films Department – Deputy General Delegate, Cannes Film Festival

Amr Mansi, Executive Director & Co-Founder, El Gouna Film Festival

Ilda Santiago, Executive Director, Festival do Rio

Pia Lundberg, Artistic Director, Göteborg Film Festival

Mirja Wester, VD/CEO, Göteborg Film Festival

Vanja Kaludjercic, Festival Director, International Film Festival Rotterdam
Clare Stewart, Managing Director, International Film Festival Rotterdam

Karel Och, Artistic Director, Karlovy Vary International Film Festival

Kryštof Mucha, Executive Director, Karlovy Vary International Film Festival

Giona A. Nazzaro, Artistic Director, Locarno Film Festival

Damien Hodgkinson, CEO, Melbourne International Film Festival

Al Cossar, Artistic Director, Melbourne International Film Festival

Daniela Michel, Founding Director, Morelia Film Festival

Roman Gutek, Head of New Horizons Association

Dorota Lech, Festival Director, New Horizons International Film Festival

José Luis Rebordinos, Director, San Sebastian International Film Festival

Maialen Beloki, Lucía Olaciregui – Deputy Directors, San Sebastian International Film Festival

Jovan Marjanović, Festival Director, Sarajevo Film Festival

Renata de Almeida, Director, São Paulo International Film Festival

Eugene Hernandez, Festival Director, Sundance Film Festival
Kim Yutani, Director of Programming, Sundance Film Festival

Nashen Moodley, Festival Director, Sydney Film Festival

Frances Wallace, CEO, Sydney Film Festival

Julie Huntsinger, Executive Director, Telluride Film Festival

Cameron Bailey, CEO, Toronto International Film Festival

Anita Lee,Chief Programming Officer, Toronto International Film Festival

Shozo Ichiyama, Programming Director, Tokyo International Film Festival