We're Dreaming of a Free Palestine 🍉

Reflections on a year of solidarity, and how to get involved in 2025

Author

Film Workers for Palestine
December 20, 2024

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Film Workers for Palestine formed as an ad-hoc collective just before the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, where we then held space for Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim colleagues, helped local organizers shut down Main Street, and gathered thousands of signatures for our statement of solidarity, which you can still read and sign HERE. Over the last year, members have continued to organize collaboratively across the globe, centering Palestinian workers and their call for us to speak out against oppression and complicity in our industry.

As film workers, we know just how much happens behind the scenes. The urgency of the ongoing genocide in Gaza makes longer-lede projects challenging, but we have worked to create the infrastructure for interventions that are planned further in advance that can have sustained impact. Below, you’ll find information on projects coming to fruition in the new year which need your engagement, including The Palestine Memory Archive, the Disney/Marvel boycott, and #StrikeBerlinale, with more initiatives coming soon. The FWP Instagram and Twitter presence has remained active, and in 2025, you will see a newsletter at least quarterly to keep up with screenings, actions, campaigns and gatherings. 

No platitudes can soften the horror of experiencing or even witnessing this year of genocide, but we can say that pain is a sign of humanity that we refuse to see extinguished. As crushing as the reality of the genocide is, we have power through our numbers – and as workers who make and amplify images that shape how we understand the world, we have a responsibility to keep building and using our strength to disrupt, dismantle, and reimagine the spaces and institutions that seek to threaten Palestinian liberation.

Pro-Palestinian protestors gather on Main Street in Park City, UT at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. The crowd holds two large banners, one that reads "Ceasefire Now" and another that reads "Deplatform Zionism."

Pro-Palestine protest at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival
Image: The Hollywood Reporter/Mia Galuppo

Industry Protocol in Times of Genocide

To ground us for the work ahead, we return to these wise and practical words from the Palestinian Film Institute, an excerpt from their recently published Industry Protocol in Times of Genocide.

The on-going genocide in Gaza and the West Bank, compels  us with the urgency to build a front of international solidarity to create pressure to stop the carnage. Cultural workers and artists from all disciplines can redress the moral compass of elected politicians, institutions, foundations and philanthropists who choose to look the other way or remain silent witnesses to massacres. We believe it is the PFI’s mission to inspire and support cultural protagonists in taking actions to end and reverse  complacency with the genocide.

Demands for actions that film institutions and film festivals can implement: 

Regarding freedom of speech: Defend the freedom of speech  of Palestinian filmmakers and their supporters. 

Regarding the protection from censorship and  aggression: Provide protection and public defense to those  censored, defamed or attacked for their public support for the  plight and struggle of the Palestinians. 

Regarding support for Palestinian filmmakers: Sponsor delegations of Palestinian filmmakers by extending funding and  logistical support. 

Regarding severing collaborations and bonds with institutions or individuals complicit with the Israeli state: Adhere to the guidelines of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) as well as the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI). 

Regarding ethical funding: Refuse philanthropy and donations from corporations, foundations, funds, institutions or individuals enabling and/or profiting from the occupation and genocide of the Palestinian people.

To read the entire statement and all the actions outlined, please visit the PFI website.

Strike Berlinale 2025

We call on all film workers who are in a position to do so safely to strike Berlinale 2025, including the Talent Forum and European Film Market. The strike was launched in advance of the festival’s submission deadline in order to hit revenue coming in from submission fees, and continues now amidst serious allegations that Berlinale leadership reported a pro-Palestinian employee to the police, resulting in a heavy fine and, if they are convicted, the possibility of deportation. We refuse to allow our films to be shown, to attend the festival, and to provide our services to them, because we refuse to give our art and labor to an institution that publicly opposes affirmations of the dignity of Palestinian life.

The graphic has black and red lettering that read "Strike Berlinale" against a dark purple background and a photograph of Berlin.

This strike will remain in place until Berlinale leadership agrees to:



  1. Publish a statement that affirms the Palestinian right to life, dignity, and freedom; condemns the ongoing Israeli genocide of Palestinians; and commits to uphold the right of artists to speak without constraint in support of Palestinians.

  2. Meet the basic demands from Strike Germany; to protect artists in Germany: support artists’ right to adhere to the Boycott, Divest, Sanction Movement, commit to the Jerusalem definition of antisemitism, and refuse to do political background checks on artists.

  3. Develop a program of Palestinian films for Berlinale 2025.

  4. Sponsor a delegation of Palestinian filmmakers to Berlinale and the European Film Market with funding and logistical support (as is typically done for filmmakers form underrepresented regions) as well as protection. Allow their voices to be heard.

Read the full call from Film Workers for Palestine and Strike Germany HERE

Boycotting Disney and Marvel

In partnership with PACBI, Jewish Voice for Peace, Movement 4 Black Lives, SAG-AFTRA for Ceasefire and IATSE Members for Palestine, FWP calls on film workers and moviegoers worldwide to join us in boycotting all screenings of Marvel's Captain America: Brave New World and Disney's Snow White remake. The latest Captain America film features anti-Palestinian character Ruth Bat-Seraph aka Sabra, an Israeli Mossad operative who first appeared in the 80s. In response to backlash, Marvel made superficial revisions but did not remove Sabra, who is portrayed by Israeli government propaganda spokesperson and volunteer IDF soldier Shira Haas, a disturbing confluence of art and life. There has even been talk of a potential Sabra spinoff. Meanwhile, Snow White stars one of Hollywood’s most vocal propagandists for Israel’s genocide, actor and former IDF soldier Gal Gadot, as the Evil Queen.

A graphic with white letters on black background reads "This Movie Supports Genocide." Next to the text is an image of a red, white and blue shield used by Marvel character "Captain America."

We must answer the call of Palestinian filmmakers, and show corporate entertainment companies that artwashing genocide is unacceptable, and it will not work. Do not give them your money, and sign and share our petition today! To learn more and get involved please sign up for FWP’s Broadcast Channel and the Boycott Disney working group.

The Palestine Memory Archive

Graphic reads "The Palestine Memory Archive" in large Black letters on a white background. The subtitle says "Existence is Resistance" (with Arabic translation) and "a cultural archive initiative created and led by Palestinians." There is a Palestinian flag in the lower right hand corner.

FWP is proud to join PFI in supporting a new cultural preservation initiative created and led by Palestinians, The Palestine Memory Archive (PMA). This project is dedicated to archiving videos, photographs, maps, writings, personal letters, and records of Palestinian memory and culture in any medium. Through advanced digital archiving and security measures, PMA will create a permanent and trusted repository for these stories, ensuring that future generations can access and understand the rich history, varied experiences, and present reality of Palestinians in Gaza. Please consider donating to help get this project off the ground, and be in touch with Emma ([email protected]) if you’d like more information.

A faded black and white / sepia tone photograph shows an image of two young girls in traditional Palestinian clothing.

The archive empowers researchers, historians, and advocates by preserving these memories with integrity, building a foundation for truth and accountability. By contributing to this initiative, you’re not just supporting a project—you’re safeguarding voices that might otherwise be lost to time.

Please consider donating to help get this project off the ground, and be in touch with Emma ([email protected]) if you’d like more information.

Palestinian Films Shortlisted for Oscars

Three Palestinian films have been shortlisted for 2025 Academy Awards; No Other Land (Directed Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, and Hamdan Ballal) for Best Documentary, From Ground Zero (an anthology made by 22 Gazan directors) for Best International Film, and An Orange from Gaza (Directed by Mohammed al-Mughanni) for Best Live Action Short.

A young man lies on the ground of a rocky hill in the foreground, a bulldozer drives on the top of the hill in the background.
Image of a Palestinian mad sitting in front of a destroyed building with a sliver of blue sky and kites flying in the background.
An animated image of an orange - the orange is black with purple leaves against a deep reddish orange background.

While awards are no automatic indication of a film’s artistry or value - so many beautiful Palestinian films this past year are not on the road to the Oscars - we hope this public recognition indicates a turning tide and the possibility that more Palestinian voices will be present and heard in spaces of power. Congratulations to these brilliant artists, and the many film workers internationally who distribute, promote, program, and platform them, including From Ground Zero distributor Watermelon Pictures, a Palestinian-owned company launched in 2024 that is also releasing Lyd, Israelism, and Life is Beautiful: A Love Letter to Gaza, among others. 

You can support these films and their awards campaigns just by attending screenings if available to you, and spreading the word as much as possible.

From Ground Zero Theatrical Release

Folks will have the opportunity to watch From Ground Zero sooner rather than later; the film’s US theatrical release from Watermelon Pictures is coming up this Friday, January 3rd. The film is a compilation of 22 shorts filmed in Gaza in the past year, giving an unprecedented and urgent look into life, creativity, and steadfast resilience in the besieged territory. 

The film will have its NYC premiere at Quad Cinema the weekend of January 3rd to 5th. Get your tickets now and tell everyone you know so we can fill the theater for all six showtimes and keep their shortlist momentum going!

Film Workers for Palestine & Partners Present

Inspired by the solidarity surging through international film festivals and industry award events, members of Film Workers for Palestine joined forces with SAG-AFTRA & Sister Guild Members for Ceasefire, The Solidarity Index, Watermelon Pictures, and DCTV to launch a new screening series that amplifies narratives of Palestinian filmmakers exploring memory, identity, separation and return. The series launched at DCTV’s Firehouse Cinema in New York City back in 2024 with support from a wider community of powerhouse partners including Arab Film & Media Institute, Islamic Scholarship Fund, Center for Asian American Media, Peace Is Loud, Women Make Movies, and Palestine Film Institute.

Two graphics promoting recent film screenings: The first shows two film stills from Bye Bye Tiberias (two women in profile gazing off to the left) and Memory of the Land (image of a crowd going through a checkpoint.) The second graphic shows Palestinian director Mohamed Jabaly taking a selfie with a crowd of people at an airport.

Image: Courtesy of DCTV

The first two events earlier this year screened to a completely sold out house -  in June we presented Lina Soualem’s Bye Bye Tiberias preceded by Samira Badran’s Memory of the Land, and in August, Mohamed Jabaly’s Life is Beautiful: A Letter to Gaza.

The series will re-launch on March 30th with a coalition Land Day program of screenings, teach-ins, and more.

Have you Experienced Discrimination as a Film Worker for Palestine?

The Safety & Care working group is currently coordinating with SAG-AFTRA to schedule interviews with workers in the film and television industries who have experienced discrimination and/or retaliatory action for expressing support for Palestinian liberation. We are hoping folks will share these stories with us as the information will be invaluable in investigating and exposing the extent of blacklisting in our industry, which has been vastly under-reported in the media. Please know that we are working with a legal team to keep this confidential, safe, and respectful for those who choose to speak with us. For more information, or if you identify as someone who has experienced or are currently experiencing this form of blacklisting, please reply with the subject “FWP CARES”

Learning Palestine

We will end with a text suggested by Learning Palestine, a group of artists, academics, intellectuals and community members who aim to disseminate knowledge on the history of the ongoing struggle for justice and freedom for Palestine and the Palestinian People. The group has built a trove of text and other creative resources designed to empower the discourse of liberation, from links to educational writing; to pamphlets to print and fold at home, creating a physical copy without the aid of corporate controlled networks; to the 12 Hour Radio Programs created in collaboration with Radio Alhara.

The following is an excerpt from “It’s been 164 Days and a Long Century: Notes on Genocide, Solidarity, and Liberation,” by Omar Jabary Salamanca, Punam Khosla and Natasha Aruri.

Perhaps no language, no cartography, no record is capable of tracking, conveying, mapping, archiving the ongoing lived reality of this devastation. No written intervention, no matter how earnestly penned, can grasp, contain, or abrogate the manifold scales of violence, the shameless saturnalia of mass murder, callous barbarism, and flagrant fabrication of falsehoods that saturate our days. We sometimes wonder if genocide, the crime of crimes, bears any explanation at all. As we grapple with the reality and reach for answers in the epochal lineages, calculated destructions, and indignities lodged in the imaginaries and materialities of settler colonialism and racial capitalism, we are forced to confront the limits of language and scholarship. The horrors, intimacies, and scales of genocidal violence exceed imagination and description, they escape analytical capture.

Despite the seeming futility we must continue to write, speak, and organise against the mounting savagery. As Nicki Kattoura (2024) recently wrote: “How else did Zionists convince the world of the Palestinian as subhuman but with a string of words? How else did the movement for Palestine grow beyond any measure without the words and actions of Palestinians and her comrades?” In what follows we hope that our string of words can become a kite, a sign of life in a sky ablaze with indiscriminate, coldblooded bombardments. Or, at least, offer some stepping stones to navigate, confront, and surpass the limits and structures of ahistorical accounts, arid legal language, scholarly epistemicide, transnational complicities, and the geographies of bodily and spatial erasure we are all witnessing, live streamed by its victims, in the Gaza Strip and across Palestine.

Get Plugged In

Five people wearing keffiyehs stand in the street at Berlinale. They smile toward the camera.

A group of Film Workers for Palestine at Berlinale. Image: Film Workers for Palestine.

Want to get plugged into our organizing work? Just fill out our intake form that will connect interested film workers to our ongoing efforts. 

Please only fill out this form if you are available and able to organize with us. We acknowledge that this is volunteer work, so if you do not have the capacity right now, we understand. You can continue to stay up-to-date by following our social media accounts and staying subscribed to this newsletter.                             

Happy New Year, may 2025 bring a permanent ceasefire and a path to reconstruction and healing for the Palestinian people.

In solidarity, 
Film Workers for Palestine