At the end of the festival’s introductory press conference, screenwriter Paul Laverty used his position as a member of the Cannes jury this year to speak out against the Hollywood blacklisting of actors who have taken a public stance against the war in Gaza, stating, “Shame on Hollywood.”
“Can I just leave one tiny thing?” Laverty asked at the press conference, before telling those gathered, “The Cannes Film Festival has a wonderful poster. Yes, and isn’t it fascinating to see some of them like Susan Sarandon, Javier Bardem, Mark Ruffalo blacklisted because of their views in opposing the murder of women and children in Gaza?”
“Shame on Hollywood people who do that. My respect and total solidarity to them. They’re the best of us, I look up to them,” Laverty added. “I just hope we don’t get bombed now, because we’ve got this poster in Cannes.”
Sarandon, who is prominently featured on this year’s 2026 Cannes poster, made waves in February when she revealed that she had lost her agent in Hollywood after publicly calling for a ceasefire in the Middle East. While speaking in Spain earlier this year, Sarandon revealed, “I was fired by my agency, specifically for marching and speaking out about Gaza, for asking for a ceasefire.”
“It became impossible for me to even be on television,” the actress added. “I don’t know lately if it’s changed. I couldn’t do any major film or anything connected with Hollywood. I found agents ultimately in England and in Italy, and I work there. I just did a film in Italy, and I did a play at the Old Vic for a number of months. I know this Italian director that just hired me — he was told not to hire me, so that’s still recently. He didn’t listen.”
Laverty referenced Shakespeare’s “King Lear” during the Cannes press conference this week, reciting the line, “’Tis the time’s plague when madmen lead the blind.” Born in Calcutta, Laverty is an Irish and Scottish screenwriter best known for penning a number of Ken Loach films, including “The Wind That Shakes the Barley” and “I, Daniel Blake,” which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 2006 and 2016, respectively.
At the press conference this week, the screenwriter said he was “knocked” out by the chance to be part of this year’s Cannes jury.
“You see so much violence, genocide in Gaza and all these terrible things. To come to a festival — which is a celebration of diversity, imagination, tenderness — when there’s such vulgar, vicious, systematic violence?” Laverty noted. “Where there’ll be contradiction and nuance and beauty and inspiration? It knocked me out.”
