VATICAN CITY (RNS) — Spike Lee, Cate Blanchett and Judd Apatow were among the Hollywood personalities who met with Pope Leo XIV for a private audience at the Vatican on Saturday (Nov. 15), where the U.S.-born pontiff uplifted the art form of filmmaking and the movies’ ability to bring people together.
Speaking to the invited crowd of actors, directors and producers from all over the world, the pope praised cinema as “intended for and accessible to all.” Movies ignite “the eyes of the soul” and movie theaters are “a threshold” where “the heart opens up and the mind becomes receptive to things not yet imagined,” he said.
“I find comfort in the thought that cinema is not just moving pictures — it sets hope in motion!” Leo said. Cinemas, he added, are a place for those “who carry within their hearts a sense of restlessness and are looking for meaning, justice and beauty.”
The pope called all cultural centers, including cinemas and theaters, “the beating hearts of our communities.” He urged people to “inhabit these spaces” that contribute to enlivening a city.
The pontiff spoke as proposed legislation was pending that would allow developers to turn as many as 50 movie theaters in Rome into shopping malls, supermarkets and hotels. A number of well-known directors, including Martin Scorsese, Wes Anderson and Francis Ford Coppola have signed an open letter denouncing the move as “unacceptable” and an “irreparable loss.”
The pope in his remarks recognized that “cinemas are experiencing a troubling decline, with many being removed from cities and neighborhoods.” But he urged moviemaking institutions “not to give up, but to cooperate in affirming the social and cultural value of this activity.”
Pope Leo XIV greeted actress Cate Blanchett during an audience with Hollywood stars and directors at Clementine Hall in the Apostolic Palace at the Vatican, Nov. 15, 2025. (Photo: Vatican Media)
Movie theaters are not just facing challenges in Italy, said Lee, whose movies examine race relations and struggles in the Black community (“Do the Right Thing,” “Malcolm X,” “BlacKkKlansman”). “In the United States … more people are streaming films at home than going to the theater.”
Leaving the meeting with the pope, Lee praised Leo’s words as “a love letter” that was “beautiful, very inspiring, about hope and our work in the cinema.” He gifted the pope a New York Knicks basketball shirt with “Pope Leo 14” emblazoned on it and said he asked him for “a miracle” to make the team win the championship, which the Knicks haven’t won since 1972. He noted that three Knicks players share the pope’s alma mater, Villanova University.
Comedy director Apatow (“The 40-Year-Old Virgin,” “Knocked Up”), accompanied by his wife, actress Leslie Mann, said about the pope’s words: “It’s important for people to get together and have common experiences, and a movie theater is one place where we do that in a big way.