Mia Schem’s hostage-solidarity ribbon confiscated at Cannes
Security personnel at the 78th annual Cannes Film Festival on Saturday confiscated a yellow ribbon worn to the event by Mia Schem, a 22-year-old dual Israeli-French citizen and former Hamas hostage, in solidarity with captives still held in Gaza.
French-Israeli former hostage Mia Schem arrives for the Closing Ceremony at the 78th edition of the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, southern France, on May 24, 2025. Photo by Bertrand/AFP via Getty Images.
According to Schem, the ribbon was taken as soon as she arrived at the red carpet.
“I came to support the struggle to bring back the hostages,” Schem told Israel’s Channel 12 News. “Unfortunately, at the entrance to the red carpet, the festival organizers confiscated the ribbon I was supposed to wear. I refused to concede. I took a yellow hostage pin from one of the delegation members and wore it on my dress.”
Schem was invited to the French Riviera city by the local Jewish community to raise awareness for the hostages still held in Gaza. On Friday, she was hosted by the mayor of Nice and addressed the city council.
The Cannes Film Festival has not issued an official comment regarding the removal of Schem’s ribbon.
Schem was abducted by Hamas terrorists during the Oct. 7, 2023 Nova music festival massacre and taken to the Gaza Strip. She was released on Nov. 30, 2023, after 54 days in captivity, as part of a ceasefire agreement that included the exchange of hostages for Palestinian security prisoners.
Since her release, Schem has publicly spoken about the abuse she endured while in captivity, reportedly at the hands of Palestinian residents in Gaza.
As of now, 58 hostages are believed to remain in Gaza, with 20 confirmed to be alive.
On the festival’s opening day, more than 370 members of the international film industry issued an open letter expressing “collective shame” over what they described as the industry’s inaction in response to the situation in Gaza. The letter focused on the humanitarian toll of the conflict but did not mention the hostages still being held by Hamas.
While the letter referred to the “terrible massacres of October 7, 2023” and noted that no foreign journalists have been allowed into Gaza since the outbreak of the war, it omitted any reference to the Israeli victims of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack.
JNS
