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.”

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,” “Malcom 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 they haven’t won since 1972. He noted that three Knicks players share the pope’s alma mater, Villanova University.

Comedy director Judd 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 movies theater is one place where we do that in a big way. We need to spend more time in the movie theater and less time on the La -Z-Boy!” he said.

In his remarks, the pope said that despite a mindset that clings to “what works,” movies are meant to push beyond the predictable. “Not everything has to be immediate or predictable. Defend slowness when it serves a purpose, silence when it speaks and difference when evocative,” he said.

Leo encouraged filmmakers to “not be afraid to confront the world’s wounds,” adding that “violence, poverty, exile, loneliness, addiction and forgotten wars are issues that need to be acknowledged and narrated.”

Before the meeting, Leo revealed his favorite films, which include uplifting classics — ‘The Sound of Music’ (1965) and ‘It’s A Wonderful Life’ (1946) — but also the 1997 Italian drama “Life is Beautiful,” set at a concentration camp during World War II, and “Ordinary People,” an 1980 drama about a family confronting loss.

“Giving voice to the complex, contradictory and sometimes dark feelings that dwell in the human heart is an act of love,” the pope said, adding that movies can be a strong educating tool, without being preachy.

Leo also praised the hundreds of professionals who come together to make a movie, “a collective endeavor in which no one is self-sufficient.”

Actress Cate Blanchett (“Lord of the Rings,” “The Aviator”) said the pope’s words underlined the importance of “including voices that are often marginalized, and not to not to shy away from the pain and complexity that we’re all living through right now, and that cinema and sitting in the dark with strangers is a way in which we can reconnect to what unites us rather than what divides us.”

She praised the pope for promoting a dialogue that “celebrates diversity, instead of fearing it” and said the movies can inspire people to delve into the “difficult, gray areas,”  and issues such as human displacement and climate change.

Other celebrated actors who attended the event were Viggo Mortensen (“Lord of the Rings”), Adam Scott (TV’s “Parks and Recreation”), Chris Pine (“Wonder Woman”) and Monica Bellucci (“Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice”) as well as directors Gus Von Sant (“Milk”), Greta Gerwig (“Barbie”) and George Miller (“Mad Max: Fury Road”).

The event was part of the Catholic Church’s Holy Year celebration, which brings pilgrims to Rome to obtain forgiveness of sins.

Archbishop Paul Tighe, secretary of the Vatican’s Dicastery of Culture and Education, said that Scorsese and Jesuit priest James Martin were instrumental in getting the A-list actors and directors to attend. Scorsese, a recent fixture at the Vatican, is soon to publish a movie of his last interview with Pope Francis. Martin played a key role in organizing the pope’s meeting with comedians at the Vatican in 2024.

“Movies are kind of the soundtrack of your life. You mark them at different times. You remember where you saw it and who you were with and how. So, I think it’s only natural for this pope, who would have grown up with cinema, to be celebrating movies with a kind of spontaneity,” Tighe said.