Kaouther Ben Hania rejected the Most Valuable Film Prize at the Cinema for Peace gala.
On stage, she emphasised peace requires justice and accountability, not glossy slogans.
The docudrama has an Oscar nomination for Best International Feature.
Oscar-nominated The Voice of Hind Rajab director Kaouther Ben Hania refused the “Most Valuable Film” award at the Cinema for Peace gala held on the sidelines of the Berlin International Film Festival on 16 February, after retired Israeli general Noam Tibon was honored at the same ceremony.
Ben Hania said she would not accept recognition while genocide in Gaza goes unaddressed, leaving the trophy on stage at the ceremony that took place in Berlin. “Peace is not a perfume sprayed over violence so power can feel refined, and can feel comfortable,” Ben Hania told the audience. “If we speak about peace, we must speak about justice. Justice means accountability."
Ben Hania’s film, The Voice of Hind Rajab, reconstructs the final hours of five-year-old Hind Rajab, who was killed in Gaza in 2024 alongside members of her family. Two paramedics who attempted to rescue her were also killed. The child remained trapped inside a car – which was hit with more than 350 bullets from an Israeli tank – during a three-hour phone call with Palestine Red Crescent dispatchers, who attempted to calm her with assurances that help was on the way. The paramedics sent to her rescue were also killed by Israelis before they could reach her. Ben Hania's docudrama premiered at last year's Venice Film Festival, where it won the Grand Jury Prize.
On stage at the Cinema for Peace ceremony, Ben Hania said, “I feel responsibility more than gratitude.” She added, “What happened to Hind is not an exception. It is part of a genocide. I refuse to let their deaths become a backdrop for a polite speech about peace.”
Explaining her decision, Ben Hania declared, “So tonight, I will not take this award home. I leave it here as a reminder. And when peace is pursued as a legal and moral obligation, rooted in accountability for genocide, then I will come back and accept it with joy."
Ben Hania’s public stand in Berlin comes after more than 80 prominent film professionals, including actors Javier Bardem, Tilda Swinton and Brian Cox, alongside directors Mike Leigh and Adam McKay, signed an open letter criticising the Berlin International Film Festival's silence on Gaza.
