Pedro Almodóvar has argued that film-makers have a “moral duty” to speak up about politics or they will enable the kind of stifling of free speech taking place in the US, warning that “Europe must never be subjected to Trump”.

Speaking at the Cannes premiere of his new film Bitter Christmas, the veteran Spanish director was responding to questions about previous comments in which he had remarked on a lack of protests at the Oscars earlier this year.

“I don’t want to judge anyone, but I think artists have to speak out about the situation in which they live in contemporary society,” the 76-year-old auteur said, wearing a Free Palestine badge on his jacket. “It’s a moral duty.”

With far-right populist parties leading national polls in France, Germany and the UK, there are concerns that the kind of self-censorship decried by Almodóvar could soon become a reality on the continent too.

In the middle of Cannes, reports broke of the head of France’s largest film producer, Canal+, threatening to blacklist actors who signed a petition against its main shareholder, the rightwing businessman Vincent Bolloré.

“Silence and fear is a symptom that things are going badly, it’s a serious sign democracy is crumbling,” the Spanish director said. “In Europe we have laws […] we have to act as a shield against this madness.”

In the run-up to Cannes, he had told the Los Angeles Times that “there were not many protests against the war or against Trump” at this year’s Oscars ceremony. The only note of protest at the Academy Awards, he noted, had been by his friend and fellow Spaniard Javier Bardem, who said “No to war and free Palestine” on stage.

Bitter Christmas, Almodóvar’s first Spanish-language film in five years, is his seventh in the main competition at Cannes. Although he is one of Europe’s most revered directors, the Palme d’Or has so far eluded him, though he won best director for All About My Mother in 1999 and best screenplay for Volver in 2006.

Described by the Guardian’s film critic Peter Bradshaw as a “movie auto-metafiction”, Bitter Christmas tells the story of a film director who fears that his well of creative ideas has run dry, and interrogates himself about an artist’s right to vampirise his friends’ troubles.

While reviews have been mixed, the film received a nine-minute standing ovation at its premiere screening on Tuesday.