The Los Angeles Pageant of Films (LAFM), heading into its third yr April 9 – 12 in 2026, has parted methods with MUBI as a presenting sponsor, as LAFM shared on Instagram Thursday.
The pageant launched in 2024 with MUBI as a sponsor to deliver the perfect of impartial movie to Los Angeles over one weekend. MUBI has been subjected to inside and exterior strife since receiving a $100 million funding from the enterprise capital firm Sequoia, which has additionally supported corporations tied to Israeli army expertise amid the struggle on Gaza.
MUBI CEO Efe Cakarel stated in August that the distributor and streamer’s earnings don’t have any relationship to different corporations in Sequoia’s portfolio. MUBI secured the funding on the finish of Could 2025, across the time it acquired the Jennifer Lawrence-starring movie “Die My Love” out of Cannes for a reported $24 million. MUBI declined to touch upon the LAFM information, and referred again to Cakarel’s assertion from August.
Filmmakers and MUBI employees have since implored the corporate to drop its relationship with Sequoia, with a request to take away Sequoia companion Andrew Reed from MUBI’s board.
MUBI’s fall slate contains, together with “Die My Love,” Kelly Reichardt’s “The Mastermind” and Jim Jarmusch’s Venice Golden Lion winner “Father Mom Sister Brother.” On the Venice Movie Pageant this yr, Jarmusch expressed discontent over MUBI’s relationship with Sequoia and stated he’d had conversations with its leaders about subsequent steps.
Again in August, IndieWire obtained a letter signed by roughly half of MUBI’s employees sharing frustrations over the funding. Cakarel stated that Sequoia is a minor investor within the firm with no oversight on programming or distribution. Anticipated on October 15 is an inside coverage at MUBI, to be shared publicly, on pointers to moral investments.
Micah Gottlieb and Sarah Winshall co-founded the L.A. Pageant of Films as a response to the 2018 discontinuation of the L.A. Movie Pageant. Gottlieb’s movie non-profit Mezzanine additionally serves as a sponsor.
Right here’s the pageant’s full assertion, as shared on Instagram, under.
Within the spirit of constant to construct belief and transparency with our group, we need to share that LAFM has parted methods with our presenting sponsor MUBI, on account of its monetary ties to Sequoia Capital, an organization invested in Israeli army expertise and the continuing marketing campaign of genocide in Gaza.
This was not a choice taken flippantly. LAFM continues to be a brand-new pageant run by a fledgling nonprofit group, and we’re nonetheless largely depending on company sponsorships and donations. This determination definitively places us behind on our fundraising objectives for subsequent yr.
With MUBI, we have been in a position to work with a advertising group that understood our mission of daring curation, and supported us in cultivating dynamic areas for cutting-edge arthouse and impartial cinema. We at the moment are actively looking for sponsors and donors who share these values.
After we started in 2024, we arrived in an extremely precarious surroundings for impartial cinema. We planted a seed in a metropolis dominated by the business movie business, with the intention to construct a basis for the sort of movie tradition we need to perpetuate.
Like many, we’ve got been witnessing the genocide in actual time on our social media feeds. And like many, we query our materials skill to maneuver the needle as a cultural arts group. However we don’t need to stay detached.
We’re so fortunate to proceed with intention, curiosity and heat. It’s these values that we need to imbue to our companions and to our viewers.
The assist that we get from you goes a good distance.
Please take into account supporting us, and assist us make it to 2026.
