Tilda Swinton on why she’s attending Berlinale despite boycott calls

Any time with Tilda Swinton is precious and with her, a press conference very easily turns into something more. A masterclass. An articulate conversation. A thoughtful meditation.

The Academy Award-winning actress, who is in Berlin to accept the Honorary Golden Bear, has been a Berlinale regular for decades now, having starred in close to 30 films in the festival’s selection. These include Caravaggio, the first film she made with Derek Jarman.

During her press conference, she spoke about how she started working in a collective with Jarman and shared how her “drug of choice” was community and working collectively. She added that Jarman was a vital figure for her and her career, sharing two pieces of advice that he gave her: “Hold your own light” and “be prepared not to sleep.”

Swinton stated that she was not shooting a film for the rest of the year (“Filmmaking is a merciless mistress and I’ve been under the lash for a while. I need a break so I’m going to have one!”) and also went on to echo her Golden Bear acceptance speech, in which she movingly and passionately called out the “state-perpetrated and internationally-enabled mass murder is currently actively terrorizing more than one part of our world.”

“The inhumane is being perpetrated on our watch. I’m here to name it without hesitation or doubt in my mind and to lend my unwavering solidarity to all those who recognize the unacceptable complacency of our greed-addicted governments who make nice with planet-wreckers and war criminals, wherever they come from.”

Today, she shared her motivations for attending this year’s Berlinale calls for a boycott by BDS over the war in Gaza, saying it was “more useful to our causes” for her to show up.

“I’m a great admirer of and have a great deal of respect for BDS and I think about it a lot,” said Swinton, who has been a long time advocate for Palestinians. “I am here today and yesterday and tomorrow and the next day because I decided to come, I decided it was more important for me to come. I was given, thanks to the festival, a platform which I decided in a personal moment was potentially more useful to all our causes than me not turning up.”

“It was a personal judgment call, that I take full responsibility for,” she added.

Swinton went on to say that she has “enormous respect and understanding for the need for people to find ways of feeling powerful.”

“Because what we’re all up against is this feeling of powerlessness and this is the most difficult thing we’re all having to deal with right now. So any powerful action, gesture we can make feels like a good option. I understand absolutely that boycotting can feel and very often is the most powerful thing we can do.”

The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) movement has called for the boycott of this year’s Berlinale, stating that “the Berlin International Film Festival is complicit in the German government’s partnership in Israel’s genocide in Gaza and fails to protect filmmakers standing in solidarity with Palestinians.”

“Echoing the call and demands of international film workers and Berlin-based activists, PACBI – a founding member of the BDS National Committee, the largest Palestinian coalition leading the global BDS movement – urges all participants, including filmmakers, jury members, industry members and all others to withdraw from Berlinale to avoid artwashing the German state’s partnership in Israel’s genocide.”

Their statement went on: “Last year, the German political and media establishment viciously attacked filmmakers participating in Berlinale who called for ceasefire in Gaza, and who criticised Israel’s regime of military occupation, apartheid and settler-colonialism against the Palestinian people. The German federal culture minister Claudia Roth, Berlin’s mayor Kai Wegner and cultural senator Joe Chialo, and even the German head of state Chancellor Olaf Scholz condemned filmmakers who refused to remain silent on Israel’s genocidal assault on besieged Gaza, with a government spokesperson stating that Scholz agrees it “cannot be allowed to stand.””

You can read the full boycott statement here.

The Berlinale has clarified its position on freedom of expression in a FAQ post on dialogue and exchange, in which organizers addressed the situation: “All of our guests have a right to free speech within the bounds of the law. We also stand by the right of our filmmakers to talk about the impulses behind their work and their experiences of the world. The Berlinale welcomes different points of view, even if this creates tension or controversy. At the same time, we aim to create an environment in which we can listen and learn from each other, and we ask for respectful dialogue and a certain cultural sensitivity. We also ask guests to understand that when they speak out as is protected under free speech, people may disagree. This is also free speech.”

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The Berlin Film Festival takes place until 23 February.