​​Paramount is facing criticism over reports that company leadership informally blacklists actors and filmmakers who publicly condemn Israel’s genocide in Gaza, even as thousands in the film industry pledge to cut ties with Israeli institutions.

Amid a growing number of voices in the film and entertainment industry opposed to Israel’s genocide in Gaza, the media conglomerate Paramount maintains a blacklist of talent it will not work due to allegations of antisemitism, according to Variety magazine.

Paramount blacklists celebs calling out Israel for Gaza campaign — Variety

‘Overtly antisemitic’ and ‘xenophobic’ — the company won’t work with those criticizing Israel’s actions in Gaza

The Israel connection is so deep that the entire C-suite received threats, the media learnt pic.twitter.com/bfvgyuMIZW

— RT (@RT_com) November 5, 2025

“Sources say Paramount maintains a list of talent it will not work with because they are deemed to be ‘overtly antisemitic’ as well as ‘xenophobic’ and ‘homophobic,’” the magazine reported. In an update on November 7, the magazine said “Other sources intimately familiar with Paramount said that while an itemized list does not exist, the management team shares a set of values and has no desire to work with anyone who expresses hate in public and damaging ways.”

The company is headed by multi-billionaire Larry Ellison, who is described in a report by the World Socialist Web Site (WSWS) as an “arch-Zionist” and close friend of “war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu” as well as a supporter of US President Donald Trump.

Pledge by Film Industry Workers

In September, thousands of writer-directors, actors, and other film industry workers signed a pledge “not to screen films, appear at or otherwise work with Israeli film institutions—including festivals, cinemas, broadcasters and production companies—that are implicated in genocide and apartheid against the Palestinian people,” the WSWS report stated.

The signatories to the pledge, organized by Film Workers for Palestine, include award-winning actors such as Emma Stone, Olivia Colman, Ayo Edebiri, Mark Ruffalo, Riz Ahmed, Joaquin Phoenix, Tilda Swinton and Javier Bardem, as well as writer-directors Yorgos Lanthimos, Ava DuVernay, Asif Kapadia, Emma Seligman, Boots Riley, Adam McKay and Joshua Oppenheimer, the report added.

EXCLUSIVE: Roughly 30 Paramount Skydance employees sent a letter to the office of CEO David Ellison on Sept. 17 slamming the company for “aligning” with “a genocide in Gaza and of the Palestinian people.”

After two weeks without receiving a response, the group followed up on… pic.twitter.com/B7j02BRMu2

— Variety (@Variety) October 6, 2025

Variety magazine noted that it “is unclear” whether the boycott signatories are part of the Paramount’s blacklist.

According to the WSWS report, Paramount “was the only major studio to brazenly reject this appeal out of hand, defending Israel and its military operations, albeit using duplicitous language.”

It noted that Paramount’s statement “sanctimoniously proclaimed that Paramount believed ‘in the power of storytelling to connect and inspire people, promote mutual understanding, and preserve the moments, ideas, and events that shape the world we share.’”

‘Aligning’ with Apartheid

In response, a group of workers calling themselves Paramount Employees of Conscience, the report added, denounced the statement, saying “you are aligning yourselves with systems of apartheid, occupation,” which countless” international organizations “have recognized as a genocide in Gaza and of the Palestinian people.”

The Middle East Monitor (MEMO) reported that the blacklist follows Paramount’s $7.7 billion merger with Skydance Media, led by Ellison.

Drop Site’s @RyanGrim spoke to @AJListeningPost about how billionaire Larry Ellison — Oracle founder and a top donor to Israel’s military — is buying up U.S. media outlets to reshape coverage of Gaza and shore up Israel’s collapsing image among Americans. pic.twitter.com/vL4yTfW08L

— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) October 11, 2025

He is the son of Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, one of the largest financial contributors to Friends of Israel Defense Forces, a US-based organization that raises funds for the Israeli army, according to the WSWS report.

A leadership overhaul at the conglomerate has included the appointment of Bari Weiss, a “self-described Zionist and vocal defender of Israel’s assault on Gaza”, as editor-in-chief of CBS News, one of Paramount’s flagship assets, MEMO reported.

Funding for Israeli Army

Just International reported that Ellison “counts” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “among his closest friends” with whom “he vacationed on his private island in Hawaii.

“Ellison was so impressed and confident in the Israeli prime minister that he offered him a seat on his company’s board, replete with a salary of $450,000,” the report stated.

“I will never work with some company now that are not condemning the genocide in Gaza.”

Spanish actor Javier Bardem calls for sanctions on Israel and for others in the film industry to stop supporting film institutions that do not condemn Israel’s genocide in Gaza. pic.twitter.com/PJfcJMJzPH

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) September 15, 2025

It also noted that “Ellison himself has personally bankrolled the Israeli Defense Forces, giving tens of millions of dollars to the Friends of the IDF, an organization that purchases equipment for the Israeli military.”

This included “a $16.6 million pledge (the largest single donation the group has received) to build a new training facility for soldiers defending what he called ‘our home.’”

The WSWS report also cites Truthout as reporting that Ellison is “also a backer of former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair and has given or pledged at least $348 million to Blair’s Institute for Global Change.”

Blair could be part of Trump’s “Board of Peace” in Gaza if the current ceasefire deal holds, the report stated.

(PC, Variety, MEMO)