The 74th Berlin Film Festival (Berlinale) took place this year under the shadow of controversy.
The festival, which concluded with the awards ceremony this weekend, was marked by a 'Genocide' post made on the Instagram account of Panorama, a side section of the Berlinale, intended to break the silence regarding the attacks in Gaza.
In the statement made from the festival's 'Panorama' account, a text reading "Genocide is genocide, we are all complicit" was shared over the official poster for this year's Berlinale.
Shortly after, the festival management stated in a post on the official Berlinale X account that this text did not belong to them, that the Panorama account had been hacked, and that they would file a criminal complaint against those who made the statement on behalf of the festival.
The text shared from the Instagram account named 'berlinale.panorama' is as follows:
"In response to the pro-Palestinian actions targeting Berlinale 2024 and in light of the rise of the far-right in Germany, we acknowledge that our silence makes us complicit in Israel's ongoing genocide in Gaza and ethnic cleansing in Palestine.
After long internal discussions, we have finally decided to abandon the idea that 'German guilt' exempts us from our country's history or our current crimes as a nation. We are raising our voices to join the millions around the world demanding an immediate and permanent ceasefire, and we call on other cultural institutions in Germany to do the same."
The festival management announced that the Instagram account had been 'hacked' and stated the following regarding the matter:
"Visual-text posts regarding the war in the Middle East, which also included the Berlinale logo, were made on Panorama's Instagram account. These posts do not represent the stance of the Berlinale.
We have immediately deleted these posts and launched an investigation into how the incident occurred. We will file a criminal complaint against the individuals who made the post."
News Source: 12punto
