Michael Moore, Barry Jenkins, Marisa Tomei Among 600 Creatives Who Condemn ‘No Other Land’ Censorship Threat in Miami

Michael Moore, Barry Jenkins, Marisa Tomei, Ezra Edelman, Phil Lord and more than 600 other members of the international filmmaking community have signed an open letter to the Mayor and City Commission of Miami Beach over their proposed censorship of “No Other Land.”

“We, the undersigned members of the international filmmaking community, write to express our deep concern and condemnation of your attempts to censor O Cinema, a local independent movie theater, for its exhibition of the Academy Award-winning documentary, ‘No Other Land,’ by withholding its funding and ending its lease,” the Monday letter reads.

“O Cinema has a long history of supporting important and diverse viewpoints that foster dialogue. We as filmmakers invite critical discussion of any film, but your decision to punish O Cinema for screening ‘No Other Land’ is an attack on freedom of expression, the right of artists to tell their stories and a violation of the First Amendment,” it continues. “It is also an offense to the people of Miami Beach, and Greater Miami as a whole, who deserve to have access to a diverse range of films and perspectives.”

The message concludes, “We urge you to reconsider your decision and to allow O Cinema to continue to operate without interference.”

The letter comes two days before the city is set to determine the state of O Cinema’s lease agreement with a vote after the theater initially chose to screen Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor’s doc, which won Best Documentary Feature Film at the 2025 Oscars. The movie from the Palestinian and Israeli filmmakers chronicles the displacement of Palestinians in Masafer Yatta by Israeli military and settlers after a court ruling declared the area a “closed military zone.”

On Sunday, the International Documentary Association and the independent cinema coalition Art House Convergence released a joint statement similarly criticizing Miami Beach Mayor Steven Meiner over his threat to terminate the lease and withdraw more than $40,000 in city grant funding.

Meiner, who is Jewish, first sent a letter to O Cinema CEO Vivian Marthell urging her to cancel the screenings, calling the film “a one-sided propaganda attack on the Jewish people.”

“My initial reaction to Mayor Meiner’s threats was made under duress,” Marthell told the Associated Press on Thursday after she initially agreed to pull the film. “After reflecting on the broader implications for free speech and O Cinema’s mission, I (along with the O Cinema board and staff members) agreed it was critical to screen this acclaimed film.”

“Normalizing hate and then disseminating antisemitism in a facility owned by the taxpayers of Miami Beach, after O Cinema conceded the ‘concerns of antisemitic rhetoric,’ is unjust to the values of our city and residents and should not be tolerated,” Meiner then wrote in response.

PEN America’s Florida director Katie Blankenship also called the city’s tactics “blatantly unconstitutional.”

“No Other Land” is the Academy’s first Best Documentary Feature winner to win without a U.S. distributor. Its release has been handled through an independent booker on a theater-by-theater basis.

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