Ukraine condemns Woody Allen for speaking at a Russian film festival
[August 26, 2025]
By DASHA LITVINOVA and HILLEL ITALIE
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry on Monday condemned Woody Allen for
speaking virtually at a Russian film festival over the weekend, calling
his participation in the event “a disgrace and an insult” to the victims
of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
According to Russian media, Allen spoke Sunday at the Moscow
International Film Week via video conference. The appearance put him at
odds with the Hollywood establishment, which has embraced the Ukraine
cause during Russia's 3 1/2-year war, with prominent actors signing on
to the United24 crowdfunding initiative and Ukraine's President
Volodymyr Zelenskyy making virtual appearances at past Golden Globes and
Grammys ceremonies.
Footage aired by Russian state TV showed the filmmaker addressing a
tightly packed movie theater from a massive screen, with pro-Kremlin
film director Fyodor Bondarchuk moderating the session. Russian media
reports quoted Allen as saying that he has always liked Russian cinema,
recounting his past trips to Russia and the Soviet Union, and talking
about what he would do if he were to receive a proposal to direct a
movie in the country.
Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry in an online statement on Monday said that it
“strongly condemns” Allen’s participation in the festival, which “brings
together supporters and mouthpieces of Putin.” The ministry called it “a
disgrace and an insult to the victims among Ukrainian actors and
filmmakers who have been killed or wounded by Russian war criminals,”
adding that Allen “is deliberately turning a blind eye to the atrocities
that Russia has been committing in Ukraine.”
In a statement to The Associated Press on Monday, Allen criticized Putin
and denounced the invasion but called for cultural exchange to continue.
“When it comes to the conflict in Ukraine, I believe strongly that
Vladimir Putin is totally in the wrong. The war he has caused is
appalling,” Allen said. “But, whatever politicians have done, I don’t
feel cutting off artistic conversations is ever a good way to help.”
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Director Woody Allen poses for photographers upon arrival for the
premiere of the film "Coup de Chance" during the 80th edition of the
Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, Sept. 4, 2023. (Photo by
Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP, File)
 The website of the festival, which
runs through Wednesday, billed Allen as one of its headliners, along
with Serbian film director Emir Kusturica and American actor Mark
Dacascos. Moscow International Film Week is a relatively new
festival, first held in the Russian capital in August 2024. It is
separate from the decades-old Moscow International Film Festival,
which in 2022 was stripped of its International Federation of Film
Producers Associations accreditation following the invasion of
Ukraine.
Kusturica has been open about his support for Russian President
Vladimir Putin, including after the invasion. He received an award
from Putin and attended a military parade in Moscow earlier this
year.
Allen has long had an affinity for Russian literature and history.
His 1975 comedy “Love and Death” spoofs the fiction of Tolstoy and
other 19th century Russian novelists. The title of his 1989 release,
“Crimes and Misdemeanors,” echoes Dostoevsky’s “Crime and
Punishment” and also broods over the themes of wrongdoing, justice
and guilt.
In the 1972 essay, “A Brief Guide to Civil Disobedience,” Allen
jokes about the Russian Revolution, writing that the serfs rebelled
when they “finally realized that the Czar and the Tsar were the same
person.”
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Associated Press journalist Illia Novikov contributed to this report
from Kyiv.
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