The post-screening Q&A was reportedly interrupted by a small group of protesters campaigning for support of Palestine and Lebanon, who have been the target of Israeli airstrikes.
A Film at Lincoln Center spokesperson told Deadline, “Two individuals held a banner and shouted slogans in the theater during the Q&A following the NYFF screening of Pedro Almodóvar’s film The Room Next Door. They were peacefully escorted out.”
However, the protest seemed to be welcomed by not only the crowd, who applauded it, but also the film’s director Pedro Almodóvar and even Swinton.
According to an X post from a patron of the festival, Almodóvar gave the group a chance to speak.
They also paraphrased Swinton’s response to the protest as: “These interruptions are uncomfortable, but they’re necessary, and it is relevant to our film. Syria is the room next door, Beirut, Gaza. Pedro’s film asks us not to look away.”
