Overview
- More than 100 actors, directors and producers—including Cate Blanchett, Spike Lee, Monica Bellucci, Viggo Mortensen and Chris Pine—met the pope in the Apostolic Palace.
- In a speech framing cinema as a "workshop of hope," he urged institutions to safeguard neighborhood movie houses and called theaters the "beating hearts" of communities.
- He appealed to filmmakers to include marginalized voices, resist "the logic of algorithms" that repeat what works, and confront violence, poverty, exile, loneliness, addiction and forgotten wars.
- Attendees publicly endorsed the message, with Blanchett calling it a charge to tackle difficult stories and Judd Apatow praising the emphasis on shared big‑screen experiences.
- He greeted each guest and received gifts—including a personalized New York Knicks jersey from Spike Lee—as the Vatican’s culture office underscored the outreach by sharing his four favorite films: It’s a Wonderful Life, The Sound of Music, Ordinary People and Life Is Beautiful.