Members of the European film community join forces calling on Serbia to prevent extradition of Belarusian filmmaker and journalist.

Juliette Binoche, Sandra Hüller, Agnieszka Holland, Wim Wenders, Justine Triet, Arthur Harari, Yorgos Lanthimos, Cristian Mungiu, Oleh Sentsov, Margarethe von Trotta, Edward Berger, Karim Aïnouz, Béla Tarr, Jessica Hausner, Ken Loach, Jasmila Žbanić, Lukas Dhont, Isabel Coixet, Victor Kossakovsly, Alice Diop, Mélanie Laurent, Guslagie Malanda, Mark Cousins, Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren, Kirill Serebrennikov, Lambert Wilson, Nina Hoss, Zar Amir Ebrahimi, Charlotte Wells, Fernando Trueba, Lars Eidinger, and Jim Sheridan among signatories.

In the past 24 hours, over 70 prominent European directors and artists have signed the urgent open letter calling on the Court of Appeal in Belgrade and the Minister of Justice of Serbia Maja Popović to prevent extradition of filmmaker and democracy activist Andrei Gnyot to Belarus.

Tomorrow, 27 August, the Serbian Court of Appeal will hold the very final hearing of Andrei Gnyot’s case and will decide whether to extradite him or not to Belarus. The supporters of the letter along with international human rights groups believe if extradited Gnyot will face torture, years long imprisonment and even potentially the death penalty.

Actress Juliette Binoche, President of the European Film Academy, leads a list of renowned and award-winning representatives of the European film community. Members of the European Film Academy and of the wider global film community are still adding their names to the list of supporters for Andrei Gnyot’s case, including Academy Chair Mike Downey and the full Board of the European Film Academy, as well as its CEO and Director Matthijs Wouter Knol. The list also features many names from the Serbian film community, addressing the court case in Belgrade. Among them directors Srdjan Dragojević, Bojan Vuletić, Nikola Ljuca, Srdan Golubović, Tanja Brzaković, and other prominent artists such as 2015 Nobel Prize laureate Svetlana Alexievich.

The Artists for Andrei Campaign is organised by actor Mitya Savelau and film director Volia Chajkouskaya, co-foundress of the Belarusian Independent Film Academy (BIFA) with the support of the European Film Academy.

The full text of the letter and list of the supporters can be found here.

For more information, please contact Artists for Andrei organisers:

• Mitya Savelau, actor and campaigner, dsavelau@gmail.com +447833053496
• Volia Chajkouskaya, film producer and director, BIFA co-founder, volia@northernlightsff.com, +37257811727
  
  

About the European Film Academy:

The European Film Academy seeks to support and connect its 5,000 members and celebrates and promotes their work. Its aims are to share knowledge and to educate audiences of all ages about European cinema. Positioning itself as a leading organisation and facilitating crucial debates within the industry, the Academy strives to unite everyone who loves European cinema, culminating annually in the Month of European Film and the European Film Awards, strengthening European film heritage, and by connecting to young audiences through the European Film Club.