Overview

• The Biennale and festival chief Alberto Barbera rejected requests to exclude any artists, reiterating that the event will not practice censorship.
• Venice4Palestine organized a Lido demonstration for August 30 and circulated an appeal that drew roughly 1,500 industry signatures before a later addendum urged banning Gal Gadot and Gerard Butler.
• Carlo Verdone said he signed an initial appeal urging attention to Gaza but that the push to bar Gadot and Butler was added afterward, arguing that excluding artists amounts to censorship.
• Gadot and Butler appear in Julian Schnabel’s In the Hand of Dante slated to screen out of competition, though reports said their attendance at Venice was not expected.
• Emanuela Fanelli said she would join the protest but would not speak on Gaza from the festival stage, a stance that drew public rebukes from commentators including Veronica Gentili and Selvaggia Lucarelli, while figures such as Paolo Sorrentino and Pietrangelo Buttafuoco cautioned against boycotts.