Acclaimed actor Javier Bardem declared at Cannes that the genocide in Gaza is a fact, saying anyone who does not support Palestine is pro-genocide.

Javier Bardem says in #Cannes that genocide being committed in Gaza "is a fact."

"You can fight against, you can try to justify it… it is a fact. If you justify it with your silence or your support, you are pro-genocide. Those are facts for me."https://t.co/8PctbmMzM3 pic.twitter.com/FgBgiGAfaC

— Variety (@Variety) May 17, 2026

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Mia Schem: “I refused to give up. I took the yellow hostage pin from one of the members of the delegation and wore it on my dress.”

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

Guards forced former Hamas captive Mia Schem to remove a hostage ribbon at the Cannes film festival.

At the closing red carpet event on Saturday evening, security guards at the entrance forbade her from wearing a ribbon that said, “Bring Them Home Now!”

Schem told the Israeli news site N12, “I came to help in the fight to return the kidnapped. Unfortunately, at the entrance to the red carpet, the festival management confiscated the ribbon I was supposed to wear. I refused to give up. I took the yellow hostage pin from one of the members of the delegation and wore it on my dress,” she said.

The local Jewish community invited Schem, who is a dual French and Israeli citizen, to raise awareness about the hostages remaining in Gaza.

During her visit, she met with Nice Mayor Christian Paul Gilbert Estrosi, who told her that her mother and brother visited him to advocate for her release.

Schem spoke before the Nice City Council and was received with a round of applause.

Her warm welcome during various meetings in Nice is in stark contrast to celebrity protests against Israel during the festival.

More than 370 celebrities signed a petition protesting Israel’s operations in Gaza and the death of Fatima Hassouna, the young Gazan photojournalist featured in the documentary “Put Your Soul in Your Hand and Walk,” which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival.

The petition features prominent names such as Joaquin Phoenix, Riz Ahmed, Pedro Pascal, Guillermo del Toro and Juliette Binoche.

During a screening of the film “Once Upon a Time in Gaza,” directors Arab and Tarzan Nasser protested against Israel, claiming that “Gaza is undergoing the greatest and most horrific genocide in modern history.”

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange arrived at an official festival event wearing a jacket that read “Stop Israel” and a shirt with about 5,000 names of children who were allegedly killed as a result of IDF bombings in the Gaza Strip.

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The pavilion will showcase films made by filmmakers from Sapir College in Sderot that highlight the lives of those living near Gaza before the atrocities of Oct. 7.

By Shiryn Ghermezian, The Algemeiner

The Israeli Pavilion at the 76th Cannes Film Festival opened on Wednesday and is dedicated this year to residents living near Israel’s border with the Gaza Strip, where the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks took place.

The pavilion will showcase films made by filmmakers from Sapir College in Sderot that highlight the lives of those living near Gaza before the atrocities of Oct. 7.

The films will show the daily lives of residents in the area and also the toll it takes on children in the region who have lived for years with the constant threat of missile attacks from Palestinian terrorists.

“The opening of the pavilion during the war reflects Israeli resilience and the Israeli commitment to building bridges of culture and international dialogue even in challenging times,” said Israel’s Culture and Sport Minister Miki Zohar.

“Especially in this complex time, we must amplify the voices promoting the Israeli narrative first. For the first time, we will show Israeli films in the pavilion that reflect the unfathomable reality that the residents of the border communities lived in before Oct. 7.”

One of the films is from director Michal Lavi, whose brother-in-law, Omri Miran from Kibbutz Nir Oz, is one of about 130 hostages still held by Hamas terrorists in Gaza.

The pavilion will also host a panel discussion on “diversity in cinema” and another panel about women in the cinema industry who work in countries at war.

The pavilion will additionally highlight film creation, co-productions, and collaborations between the Israeli film industry and foreign film industries.

The Cannes Film Festival takes place from May 14-21 in Cannes, France, and the Israeli pavilion will remain open during the entire duration of the festival.

Laura Blajman-Kadar, a survivor of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack at the Supernova music festival in Israel, attended a screening at the Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday wearing a gown that honored the Israeli hostages who have been held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip for seven months.

The short film “It’s Not Time For Pop” by Tel Aviv University student Amit Vaknin is the only film from Israel taking part in the Cannes Film Festival this year and it will compete in the La Cinéf section, which highlights projects from film students.

The 14-minute film is about a woman who is not interested in spending Memorial Day in Israel commemorating her father, who was killed in a war, and instead wants to focus on trying to find an apartment in Tel Aviv.

Israeli films have won a number of awards at the Cannes Film Festival, most recently in 2021, when Israeli filmmaker Nadav Lapid won the Jury Prize for “Ahed’s Knee.”

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She thanked the October 7 Collective, a French organization dedicated to helping hostages, for making her appearance at the Cannes Film Festival possible.

By Shiryn Ghermezian, The Algemeiner

A survivor of the Hamas massacre at the Supernova Music Festival on Oct. 7 attended the Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday in a gown that drew attention to the hostages who have been held captive in the Gaza Strip for seven months.

Laura Blajman-Kadar wore a yellow gown that featured pictures of Israeli hostages held in Gaza, including Yarden Bibas, Liri Albag, and two of her friends, Elkana Bohbot and Eliya Cohen. On top of the gown she wore a black slash that read: “Bring Them Home.”

She walked the red carpet during arrivals for the screening of the film “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” and was accompanied by a woman who wore a white ensemble that had yellow ribbons on it.

The color yellow, and specifically a yellow ribbon, is a longstanding symbol of solidarity with prisoners or hostages — and in this case is a nod to the 132 Israeli hostages who remain in captivity in Gaza since being kidnapped on Oct. 7.

Blajman-Kadar shared on social media a photo of her wearing the gown at the Cannes Film Festival and wrote in the caption, “It wasn’t easy but with the help of amazing people we succeeded! We will not allow the world to forget you!!! BRING THEM HOME!!!”

She also thanked the October 7 Collective, which is a French organization dedicated to raising awareness about the release of the hostages. The organization helped Blajman-Kadar with her appearance at the Cannes Film Festival.

“A lot of people participated in the design of the dress and in helping to get tickets for the ceremony,” she told Ynet. “I got them through someone who wants to stay behind the scenes and does not want to be involved in what is called ‘provocation’ here. There are many good people behind the scenes.”

Beljman-Kader also told the Israeli publication that people in charge at the festival did not allow her to walk on the red carpet like most of the celebrities and some other guests, but they did let her to walk the famous stairs and take a picture on them.

She said once she was inside the hall, her dress garnered positive attention, with many guests congratulating her or voicing support for her efforts to raise awareness regarding the hostages.

“There were no bad reactions,” she explained. “It was very important for us to have representation to call for the release of the kidnapped, certainly in a year when there is also no adequate representation for Israeli cinema.”

The short film “It’s Not Time For Pop” by Amit Vaknin is the only film from Israel taking part in the Cannes Film Festival this year and it will compete in the La Cinéf section, which highlights projects from film schools.

Blajman-Kadar survived the Oct. 7 terrorist attack at the Supernova festival by hiding in a van with six others, including her husband, for six hours. Since the attack, she has traveled the globe advocating for the hostages and sharing her personal story of survival.

She also published a memoir about her experience on Oct. 7 that is titled “Croire en la vie,” which in English means “Believing in Life.”

Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists murdered 1,200 people and abducted over 250 others during their surprise invasion of southern Israel on Oct. 7. Over 100 of the hostages were released in November as part of a temporary ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.

After leaving the screening of “Furiosa: The Saga of Mad Max” starring Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Hemsworth, Blajman-Kadar said the film was a “harsh” reminder of the Oct. 7 attacks.

“It’s not a movie to watch after the ordeal I went through,” she told Ynet. “It has scenes of people cutting off their limbs and kidnapping them on motorcycles. We experienced things not far from what happened in the movie. For me, personally, it was harsh.”

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