Politics
UK cinema chain won’t screen new Ali G film
On 26 August, Sacha Baron Cohen and Sony Pictures showed off the new Ali G sequel. The response — it’s fair to say — has not been positive. And now, campaigners are asking cinemas to not show the film, with one UK chain already confirming the following:
Just in: Picturehouse Cinemas (UK chain) has already responded to action participants, saying that they will NOT screen the new Ali G film. https://t.co/oBYVSMaY6B pic.twitter.com/4WEx1mCiMO
— NewsCord (@newscord_org) August 26, 2026
Pushback
Cohen is receiving backlash for three primary reasons. The first is that the character is basically just Cohen doing blackface:
This tweet typifies the whole problem with Ali G. The character is supposed to be a white guy from Stains, Surrey who “thinks he’s black” but because his conception of blackness is inherently racist, he’s now a “swaggering London bad boy” whatever the fuck that means https://t.co/e7CkEYx877
— Steve Nyash (@yadanknow) August 25, 2026
When Ali G first came out, the joke was seemingly pastiching white guys who appropriated what they saw as Black culture in London. Whether you bought that joke or not, it’s clearly worn thin to the point of being non-existent at this point, and as such people are understandably taking the character to be Cohen’s impression of Black people.
The new Ali G is also facing pushback because of Cohen’s support for Israel – especially as the trailer literally features an Israeli government talking point:
“How dangerous is Iran?”
Sacha Baron Cohen, who lobbied TikTok for Israel during the Gaza genocide, uses his Ali G film to perpetuate the idea that the only effective state actor facing Israel is “dangerous.” https://t.co/myMbyBQn8T — Lowkey (@Lowkey0nline) August 26, 2026
The comedy film is also receiving pushback for not looking very funny:
Just to confirm. I don’t think it looks bad because of politics or appropriation. I just don’t see any funny bits. Thanks.
— Elliot Eastwick’s World Famous Hot Sauce (@WorldFamousHot1) August 25, 2026
Campaign against Ali G
In response to all this, NewsCord have issued the following statement:
New campaign: demand cinemas worldwide refuse to screen the new Ali G film.
Sacha Baron Cohen retired Ali G in 2007. Amazon has revived him. On 23 October, Ali G: Who Iz I? opens in cinemas worldwide, and Sony Pictures is selling it to the public with the line “He iz back. We ain’t liable.”
The distributor is joking about liability. But the screens belong to the cinemas, and a booking is a choice.
In January 2000, the Guardian reported the verdict of Black British comedians under the headline “Comics find Ali G is an alibi for racism”. Felix Dexter said the act lets “the liberal middle classes laugh at black street culture” while keeping their sense of political correctness.
The catalogue behind it hurt community after community. The Kazakh American Association told Amazon that in Borat “a white person adorns a Kazakh persona” and belittles everything Kazakhs stand for. Kazakh children were bullied at school off the back of the joke.
On The Dictator, Jack Shaheen said “Arabs are being ridiculed again and again and again”, and Dean Obeidallah called it a “modern-day minstrel show”.
Studios sell films. Cinemas choose them. No film is owed a screen.
So we’ve created a campaign where you can voice your opinion to the cinemas.
One click sends up to 20 personalised letters in your name to the booking desks of Odeon, Cineworld, Regal, Vue, Everyman, Picturehouse, Showcase, Cinemark, Harkins, B&B, Landmark, Cineplex, Event, Kinepolis, VOX, Reel, Pathé, CinemaxX, Cinépolis, Cinemex and Nordisk Film.
Every address is verified on the chain’s own website.
Non-English chains get the letter in their own language.
You read every letter before it is sent. The chains decide their bookings in the next eight weeks.
The link to the email campaign can be found here.
Zionists and cinema
It’s unlikely cinemas will ever put a blanket ban on movies linked to Zionists. We say this because several prominent movie producers have supported Israel throughout the genocide.
For clarity’s sake, when we say ‘Zionists’, we mean people who actively support Israel existing as an expansionist colonial state – a state which serves as America’s foothold in the Middle East. One such supporter is Larry Ellison, who owns Paramount Studios and is a major donor to the IDF (a.k.a. the ‘IOF’ or ‘Israeli Occupation Forces’). Ellison also owns Oracle – a company which has continued to provide tech solutions to Israel throughout the genocide. He was additionally involved in the US takeover of TikTok:
Many oppose Larry Ellison taking over TikTok, but do they know his firm Oracle stores data of the UK Home Office, Ministry of Defence & NHS?
He offered Netanyahu director role & employed relative of the UK PM at the same time as bidding for the contract.pic.twitter.com/mcI4ImLsB4
— Lowkey (@Lowkey0nline) September 19, 2025
Actor Mark Ruffalo recently spoke out against Paramount’s attempts to buy out Warner Bros, and he did so by pointing out Ellison’s links to the genocide. Paramount smeared Ruffalo as an ‘antisemite’. The response to that was an outpouring of support for Ruffalo from people who oppose the mass killings which Israel is continuing to perpetrate in Gaza.
Ali G loses his mojo
The backlash to the new Ali G movie is a sign that support for Israel is increasingly toxic. The reason for this is that the genocide has made it completely impossible to present Israel in a favourable light.
Of course, it’s possible many cinema chains aren’t going to show the movie purely because it doesn’t look very good. At the same time, it would have needed to be Citizen Kane levels of amazing to escape the backlash that now accompanies Cohen and his increasingly dated caricature.
Featured image via the Canary
By Willem Moore
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