CANNES: Hollywood heavyweights Joaquin Phoenix, Pedro Pascal, Riz Ahmed and Guillermo del Toro have added their names to a letter condemning the film industry’s silence on genocide in Gaza, the organisers said on Friday.

The petition, signed by more than 370 actors and filmmakers, also denounced Israel’s killing of Fatima Hassouna, a young Gaza photojournalist featured in the documentary, Put Your Soul in Your Hand and Walk, which premiered at the Cannes film festival on Thursday.

The organisers of the letter said French actor Juliette Binoche, who is chairing the jury at Cannes, also added her name to the letter, along with Rooney Mara, US indie director Jim Jarmusch and Lupin star Omar Sy.

Binoche had initially seemed to pull back from supporting it as the festival opened on Tuesday, instead delivering a tribute to Hassouna, who was killed with 10 members of her family the day after she learned the film would be shown at Cannes.

“She should have been here tonight with us,” an emotional Binoche said at the opening ceremony.

The growing protest comes after several days of mounting bloodshed in the besieged Palestinian territory, with 120 people killed on Thursday.

Schindler’s List star Ralph Fiennes, as well as Richard Gere, Mark Ruffalo, Guy Pearce, Susan Sarandon, Javier Bardem, and directors David Cronenberg, Pedro Almodovar, Alfonso Cuaron, Mike Leigh, said they were ashamed of their industry’s failure to speak out about Israel’s siege of Gaza in the original letter.

Michael Moore, the director of Bowling for Columbine, and French actor Camille Cottin of Call My Agent fame are among other entertainment industry figures who have added their names to the letter since Tuesday.

Published in Dawn, May 17th, 2025