A coalition of filmmakers, writers, and artists has sent an open letter to the Venice Film Festival demanding action in support of Palestine, with the 83rd edition of the festival set to open on September 2.
According to Variety, the letter comes from the Venice4Palestine collective, which issued a similar appeal last year. This year's signatories include Nobel Prize-winning author Annie Ernaux, Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters, and directors Isabel Coixet and Matteo Garrone. Also among those who signed are artist Nan Goldin, screenwriter Paul Laverty, and several prominent Italian actors including Anna Foglietta, Fabrizio Gifuni, Greta Scarano, Jasmine Trinca, and Luigi Lo Cascio.
"One year after its first appeal, Venice4Palestine is once again calling on the Venice Biennale [the festival's parent org], the Venice International Film Festival and professionals across the film, audiovisual and cultural sectors to take concrete action in support of Palestine," the collective wrote in the open letter.
The letter also calls for the Palestinian flag to be flown throughout the festival. The collective pointed to the presence of two Palestinian films in the official selection as part of its reasoning. The first, Ahmed Hassouna's "Citizen Osama," portrays a photographer attempting to balance his roles as father and journalist while documenting the realities of war in Gaza. The second, Muayad Alayan's "Conversation with the Sea," follows a 60-year-old Palestinian man named Kamal who becomes entangled in Israeli bureaucracy.
The Venice4Palestine collective made more specific demands last year, including calls to withdraw invitations to actors Gerard Butler and Gal Gadot over their previous support for Israel. This year's letter is framed more broadly, calling for concrete action without specifying particular targets.
The festival also added a new film to its competition lineup on Monday. "NAZA," a documentary from "No Other Land" directors Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, was shot at night on the rooftops of Tel Aviv. According to its official synopsis, the film shows "in detail the systems behind Israel's calculated mass killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza."
The collective also announced a panel titled "And Yet Gaza Continues to Burn — What Is the Point of Seeing if We Do Not Act?," scheduled for September 8 under the fest's Giornate degli Autori section, also known as Venice Days. The panel will include international law experts and representatives of the Global Sumud Flotilla group, which has attempted to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza by sea.
The festival has engaged with Palestinian-themed work before. Last year, Kaouther Ben Hania's Gaza-set film "The Voice of Hind Rajab" won the Silver Lion after receiving a 22-minute standing ovation, the longest in the festival's history.
The Venice Film Festival had no immediate comment on the open letter. The event runs through September 12.
