Berlin Film Festival director to stay in role after Gaza tensions

BERLIN: Berlin Film Festival director Tricia Tuttle will remain in her role but has been given a set of new guidelines, a statement said on Wednesday, after tensions over Gaza overshadowed the event in February.

Tuttle’s future as head of the festival, known as the Berlinale, was in the spotlight last week, with Germany’s government convening an emergency meeting to discuss the matter.

German media reports suggesting that Tuttle could be ousted prompted a number of directors, writers and producers to rally around her.

It capped a politically charged festival that pitted anger over Israel’s actions ⁠in Gaza and concerns over free speech against historical sensitivities in Germany, which remains one of Israel’s staunchest supporters due to guilt over the Nazi Holocaust.

The supervisory board of ​the federal body responsible for the ‘Berlinale’ recommended creating an advisory forum for the event and a new code of conduct for all federal cultural events.

Tuttle said in the statement she would carefully ​consider the recommendations.

In the same statement, the government’s Commissioner for Culture and Media, ​Wolfram Weimer, said the new guidelines would boost public acceptance of the festival, adding: “Art and artists ‌should once ⁠again be at the heart of the Berlinale.”

Israel has strongly denied that its actions in Gaza amount to genocide and says ​they are justified as self-defence.