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The American head of the Berlin film festival, Tricia Tuttle, will keep her job after a free speech row over Gaza, but the event will have to consider a new code of conduct to “fight antisemitism”, the German culture ministry has said.
Tuttle’s position came under threat after an awards gala at the end of the 76th edition last month in which several prize winners condemned Israel’s actions against Palestinians from the stage.
The German culture minister, Wolfram Weimer, last week convened a crisis meeting as the Bild tabloid reported Tuttle was to be fired over giving “hate speech” an airing.
In response, hundreds of prominent film-makers from around the world, including Israel, rallied around Tuttle, who previously helmed the BFI London film festival.
In an open letter, more than 2,800 actors, directors and producers including Tilda Swinton, Todd Haynes and Nancy Spielberg warned her departure would smack of government intimidation of free expression and artistic liberty.
The directors of several global film festivals including Cannes, Toronto and Sundance also threw their support behind Tuttle.
From the start of her tenure, Tuttle faced friction over the war in Gaza, with a diverse scene of international artists clashing with a staunch pro-Israel stance among the German political authorities.
The controversy this year centred around Syrian-Palestinian director Abdallah al-Khatib, who accepted the best first feature award for his hard-hitting drama Chronicles From the Siege and criticised Germany as “partners in the genocide in Gaza by Israel”.
The remarks prompted the German environment minister, Carsten Schneider, to walk out of the ceremony in protest. Weimer later described al-Khatib’s statements as “threatening”.
Rightwing media outlets then published a photograph taken a week earlier that showed Tuttle posing in a routine picture as festival director with members of al-Khatib’s film team who were wearing keffiyeh scarves. One held a Palestinian flag.
The symbols and statements mentioned in the criticism of the festival are protected under German law, meaning the compromise announced on Wednesday appeared complex to implement.
Announcing Tuttle would stay on, the culture ministry said it “regrets the overshadowing of artistic work by political activism at the recent Berlinale”, as the festival is known.
The event’s supervisory board put forward “recommendations to strengthen the festival in order to develop it further in the long term” and “secure its social acceptance and economic stability”.
It said the new measures would include the establishment of an advisory forum and the development of a code of conduct.
At the same time the festival is to shore up its financial footing with the involvement of the film industry, media companies and potential investors.
The supervisory board “reaffirmed its firm commitment to fighting antisemitism” and “protecting, promoting and amplifying Jewish perspectives”.
The Berlinale currently receives about 40% of its funding from the German government, which sees its steadfast support for Israel as crucial to its atonement for the Holocaust. Criticism of Israeli policies is frequently branded antisemitic, a charge pro-Palestinian activists strongly reject.
Weimer had told German media at the weekend that Tuttle herself had considered leaving the job as festival director two years into a five-year contract, quoting her as saying that “in this toxic atmosphere and its political tensions, it is hardly possible to continue the Berlinale”.
Tuttle told local news agency DPA this week that she had doubted whether she could persevere “in an environment in which my leadership role and the integrity of the Berlinale were seriously questioned”.
But the enormous pushback in the cinema community against her departure convinced her to stay on, she said.
In Wednesday’s statement, Weimer thanked Tuttle for staying and credited her with “showing the Berlinale the way out of a crisis that had been looming for some time”.
The festival faced criticism in recent years for falling further behind its rivals, Cannes and Venice, in terms of prestige, influence and star power.
Tuttle said in the statement she welcomed the renewed “trust in her leadership” and pledged to carefully consider the committee’s recommendations. She thanked the board for “once again emphasising the importance of the independence of our work”.
