Filmmakers Urge Venice Programmers to Take Stand on Gaza in Open Letter
Hundreds of artists, including Ken Loach and Alba Rohrwacher, call on the Venice Film Festival to condemn what they describe as genocide and ethnic cleansing in Gaza.
The Venice Film Festival is facing mounting pressure from filmmakers, actors, and cultural figures worldwide after hundreds signed an open letter urging the event to take “a clear and unambiguous stand” on the war in Gaza.
Organized under the banner of Venice4Palestine (V4P), the appeal was sent Friday to the Biennale di Venezia, which oversees the festival, along with its independent sections Venice Days and International Critics’ Week. The group accused the Israeli government and military of committing genocide in Gaza and ethnic cleansing across Palestine, calling on the festival to avoid becoming “a sad and empty showcase” by instead offering “a place of dialogue, active participation, and resistance.”
The signatories include a mix of Italian and international heavyweights: British filmmaker Ken Loach, Italian star Toni Servillo (who headlines Paolo Sorrentino’s Venice opener La Grazia), actresses Alba and Alice Rohrwacher, French directors Céline Sciamma and Audrey Diwan, British actor Charles Dance, and Palestinian directing duo Arab and Tarzan Nasser, who recently won Best Director at Cannes’ Un Certain Regard with Once Upon a Time in Gaza. Italian actress Jasmine Trinca also lent her support.
The letter highlights the deaths of nearly 250 Palestinian media workers since the conflict began and frames festivals like Venice as moral platforms:
“As the spotlight turns on the Venice Film Festival, we’re in danger of going through yet another major event that remains indifferent to this human, civil, and political tragedy,” the letter states. “‘The show must go on,’ we are told, as if the film world had nothing to do with the real world. For once, the show must stop.”
Signatories are demanding Venice host Palestinian-centered programming and build “a constant backdrop of conversations and initiatives” on ethnic cleansing, apartheid, illegal occupation, and colonialism.
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In response, the Biennale issued a statement reaffirming its role as “a place of open discussion and sensitivity to the most pressing issues facing society.” The festival pointed to its inclusion of Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania’scompetition title The Voice of Hind Rajab—a real-life drama about a five-year-old Palestinian girl killed in Gaza in 2024—as evidence of that commitment. Last year’s program also featured Of Dogs and Men, a film by Israeli director Dani Rosenberg.
Meanwhile, a separate Italian artist network, Artisti #NoBavaglio, announced plans for a public “stop genocide” protest on August 30, during the festival’s opening weekend.
The 82nd Venice International Film Festival runs August 27 – September 6, 2025.
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