Some of Hollywood’s most ardent anti-Israel activists are flocking to Saudi Arabia this week for a government-sponsored film festival—and the kingdom is compensating them well for their time.
The Red Sea International Film Festival, which has been held annually in Jeddah since 2021 under the authority of the Saudi Ministry of Culture, has drawn a star-studded guest list including actors like Riz Ahmed, Juliette Binoche, Michael Caine, Kirsten Dunst, and Idris Elba—all of whom have accused Israel of committing atrocities in response to Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack and none of whom have spoken about Saudi Arabia’s human rights record.
The festival has been known to pay large sums to celebrity guests. Filmmaker Spike Lee received between $2.5 million and $3 million for presiding over the festival’s jury last year, Puck reported, though it is unclear how much this year’s jury president, Oscar-winning director Sean Baker, has received. A source familiar with the festival confirmed Saudi Arabia has compensated actors and filmmakers for attending, and NBC reported that "many [attendees are] set to receive checks." The festival said in a statement to NBC that it will "on occasion engage with talent on a contractual basis for work we ask them to do at the festival which includes labs, in conversations, mentorship sessions with emerging regional talent." Though representatives for the festival did not disclose the names of actors and filmmakers it is paying, Ahmed is a member of the jury, Dunst participated in a conversation on Thursday, and Elba will do so on Wednesday.
The film festival—and appearances from actors who frequently condemn Israel—comes after a group of U.S. comedians faced scrutiny for performing at the Riyadh Comedy Festival in September in the face of Saudi Arabia’s policing of speech and widespread human rights abuses. Comedian Shane Gillis, who turned down a "significant" payout, said he declined the offer because most of the 9/11 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia.
"I’m not doing it," he said. "Then they doubled the bag. It was a significant bag. But I’d already said no. I took a principled stand. You don’t 9/11 your friends."
Dave Chappelle, meanwhile, used his performance at the festival to bash the United States—after signing a gag order shielding Saudi royals from criticism—because it was "easier to talk here than it is in America."
Ahmed, born in the United Kingdom to Pakistani parents, has become one of the most outspoken anti-Israel activists in film. In September, he signed a pledge to boycott Israel, vowing "not to screen films, appear at or otherwise work with Israeli film institutions—including festivals, cinemas, broadcasters and production companies—that are implicated in genocide and apartheid against the Palestinian people." Examples of "complicity," the open letter states, "include whitewashing or justifying genocide and apartheid, and/or partnering with the government committing them."
Also in September, Ahmed spoke at the "Together for Palestine" music festival in London. Other speakers at the event included former Palestine Liberation Organization spokeswoman Diana Buttu—who has praised Hamas as a "movement for freedom, for liberation" and said "the first reaction" to Oct. 7 "was elation"—and U.N. Palestinian rights envoy Francesca Albanese, who has been under U.S. sanctions since July over a pressure campaign she carried out against a long list of corporations that do business in Israel.
The Sound of Metal star signed an open letter last May accusing Israel of committing a "genocide" in Gaza and promoting unsubstantiated claims that the Israeli military was "targeting civilians" and "deliberately killed" journalists.
"As artists and cultural players, we cannot remain silent while genocide is taking place in Gaza and this unspeakable news is hitting our communities hard," the letter read. It went on to state the entertainment community must speak out against "far right, fascism, colonialism, anti-trans and anti-LGBTQIA+, sexist, racist, islamophobic and antisemitic movements."
Binoche, who received an award at the festival for her contributions to cinema, also signed the May letter and the September boycott pledge. She praised Saudi Arabia’s progress on gender equality in an interview with Screen Daily this week, saying there is an "opening that is happening with women, and that feels good." Binoche did not mention the second-class status women still face in the country even after reforms, nor the fact that adultery, apostasy, and homosexuality are all punishable by death in Saudi Arabia.
Caine, who received a lifetime achievement award at the festival, has accused Israel of "starving" children in Gaza. Dunst, who signed a letter calling for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas soon after the Oct. 7 attack, made headlines in April 2024 when she defended The Zone of Interest director Jonathan Glazer’s remarks at the Academy Awards.
Glazer, whose film was set next door to the Auschwitz death camp during the Holocaust, used his Best International Feature Film acceptance speech to attack Israel.
"Our film shows where dehumanization leads, at its worst," Glazer said. "Right now, we stand here as men who refute their Jewishness and the Holocaust being hijacked by an occupation, which has led to conflict for so many innocent people."
Dunst, a supporter of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) during the 2020 Democratic presidential primary election, said during an interview with Variety that her "interpretation was [Glazer] was saying that genocide is bad."
Elba, who pulled out of a British Museum event after a group of anti-Israel activists protested the museum’s ties to companies supposedly connected to Israel’s "genocide" in Gaza, began attacking Israel even before Oct. 7 took vilifying the Jewish state mainstream. The actor, slated to speak at the Saudi festival on Wednesday, accused Israel of "brutality and bloodshed" as it responded to riots in the West Bank in 2021.
