The producers of a documentary about the victims of the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas at the Nova Music Festival are accusing the International Documentary Association of anti-Israel bias after they pulled paid awards season ads ahead of voting for the Oscars’ Best Documentary shortlist.
The organization denied the charge on Wednesday in a letter from their lawyer sent to TheWrap, calling the accusation “fictional.”
Ads for “We Will Dance Again,” a documentary streaming on Paramount+ from director Yariv Mozer, began to run Nov. 18 and were suddenly pulled ahead of the first round of Academy Award voting to determine the shortlist for the Best Documentary Feature category.
Producer Michael Schmidt accused Zaferhan Yumru, IDA’s director of marketing and communications, of pulling the ads over their opposition to Israel.
“Zaferhan Yumru’s sudden and arbitrary cancellation of all our ad contracts with the IDA is simply the result of their own personal animosity,” Schmidt wrote in a statement to TheWrap. “We know the IDA is better than this. The IDA’s very mission is to share the stories that matter — one person’s personal bias should not stand in the way of that. Our focus remains where it belongs, however: sharing with audiences a non-partisan, intimate, yet horrifying story about the loss we all suffer in tragedy.”
TheWrap reached out to Yumru who did not respond to a request for comment. The spokesman said that the ads were pulled because the IDA overbooked its advertising inventory and needed the space for films that had higher priority.
Yumru is a signatory to Film Workers for Palestine, a “call by and for filmmakers and cinema workers to stand for an end to genocide, and for a free Palestine,” according to its website.
A legal letter sent on Dec. 4 from Singh and Trauben noted the “IDA rejected at least twelve (12) other inquiries for eBlasts and other related marketing. We mention this as, unfortunately, it appears your client has chosen to unilaterally ascribe a fictional anti-Israel bias to IDA as the motivation for these cancellations of space reservations.”
The IDA also called on Sipur to “immediately cease and desist from any public statements ascribing an alleged anti-Israel or antisemitic or other political bias to IDA or to IDA’s decision to cancel these space reservations.”
The fast-moving controversy highlights the tension inside Hollywood between progressives — including many activists in the documentary community — who are pro-Palestinian and oppose Israel’s response to the Oct. 7 attacks, which were the basis of a highly critical Amnesty International report on Wednesday, and those who support Israel in the wake of hostage-taking and a deadly massacre.
Lawyers representing Sipur Studios wrote on Nov. 26 that Sipur signed a $21,000 contract for a series of eBlast ads — ads that appear in email newsletters — sent directly to IDA members, many of whom are also Academy voters.
Released on Paramount+ in August, “We Will Dance Again” reconstructs the Oct. 7 attacks on the Nova music festival through video footage and interviews with more than two dozen survivors. The film opens with text noting, “The human cost of the Hamas massacre in Israel and the war that followed in Gaza has been catastrophic for both Israelis and Palestinians,” adding that, “This film cannot tell everyone’s story.”
“At some point between Nov. 13, 2024, and the date hereof, IDA improperly decided to abandon its obligations to Sipur and is refusing to distribute the eBlast(s) as set forth in the Agreement. IDA ostensibly abandoned its obligations because of operational reasons though we are not aware of any other clients of IDA who were impacted by this operational issue nor did IDA disclose the nature of the operational issue,” the letter reads.
A spokesperson for “We Will Dance Again” told TheWrap on Wednesday that he has previously worked with the IDA on eBlast ad buys for other films in past awards cycles and has never been notified about overbooking. The spokesperson said his team could not find any other films that had ad space pulled, nor did the IDA identify other films that were affected.
“In reality, there is significant concern that IDA’s decision is driven by non-operational reasons given that Sipur is an Israel-based studio and the Project sheds light on the atrocities committed on the Israeli people on Oct. 7, 2023 which has garnered much public attention,” the Sipur letter continues.
In a statement, Schmidt said that after they were notified of the ad pull on Nov. 21, the producers had several email exchanges with the IDA in which they were promised replacement ads, but no longer received replies on Nov. 25, leading to the Nov. 26 email from legal counsel.
“They said it was a mistake, that they need the [advertising] inventory for themselves. Well, we have a binding contract,” Schmidt said. “And if you really have an issue with your inventory, why not reduce the inventory across your clients by one post instead of deleting all the inventory of one client?”
Schmidt believes that the cancellation stemmed from one of the production companies involved in the project being Israeli. “Our film is not even political but follows young kids (not even all Israeli or even Jewish) at a music concert on Oct. 7 getting slaughtered by terrorists,” he said.
In a statement to TheWrap, former IDA President Richard Propper expressed his support for Sipur.
“Why would the IDA, a champion of independent filmmakers, renege on its commitment to promote ‘We Will Dance Again’? The IDA has a distinguished history of promoting films from all faiths, cultures and nationalities. Sabotaging the qualification of any documentary because staff disagrees with its content is a gross violation of trust with the membership, trustees and sponsors of IDA,” he said.
In a response from its attorneys sent Wednesday (available in full here), the IDA rejected claims that “We Will Dance ” was singled out for ad pulls because of its content, claiming that the organization had received an “influx of inquiries” from films nominated for the IDA Documentary Awards, which will be held this Thursday.
Advertising space in IDA publications, particularly in newsletters to members, is sought after by documentaries not just for the IDA Awards, but to raise awareness of films ahead of the voting period for the Best Documentary Feature Oscar shortlist, which the Film Academy will open Dec. 9.
The IDA declined further comment beyond the letter from its attorneys.
