Overview

• An open letter from V4P (Venice4Palestine) urges the Venice Film Festival, the Biennale, Venice Days and Critics’ Week to clearly condemn what signatories describe as genocide in Gaza and ethnic cleansing across Palestine.
• Hundreds of mostly Italian film professionals signed the appeal, including Marco Bellocchio, Matteo Garrone and Alice Rohrwacher, alongside international figures such as Abel Ferrara, Ken Loach, Audrey Diwan and Palestinian directors Arab and Tarzan Nasser.
• The Biennale responded that the festival has historically been a place for open discussion and said it remains open to dialogue.
• The Biennale pointed to this year’s competition title The Voice of Hind Rajab by Kaouther Ben Hania and referenced last year’s Of Dogs and Men by Israeli director Dani Rosenberg as evidence of politically engaged programming.
• The 82nd Venice Film Festival opens on August 27, and no institutional policy change or formal condemnation aligning with the letter’s demands has been announced.