Overview

• More than 1,500 Italian film professionals signed an appeal urging the Venice Film Festival to bar Gerard Butler and Gal Gadot over their perceived ties to Israel.
• Carlo Verdone says Silvia Scola asked him to back a statement condemning the situation in Gaza and that organizers later added Butler and Gadot’s names.
• Verdone argues that banning artists constitutes censorship and says a festival should serve as a forum for discussion and freedom.
• He adds that some signatories, including Toni Servillo, have expressed second thoughts, and notes director Roberto Andò has taken a cautious stance.
• Butler and Gadot appear in Julian Schnabel’s Dante project, and Corriere reports their presence at the festival was not originally planned as activists prepare a Venice4Palestine protest at the Lido.