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Hundreds of Film Industry Professionals Pressure Venice Film Festival to Condemn ‘Genocide’ in Gaza
Workers set up the red carpet a day before the start of the 82nd Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, Aug. 26, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Yara Nardi
Hundreds of professionals in the Italian and international film industry signed an open letter on Saturday that calls on organizers of the 82nd Venice International Film Festival to take a “clear and unambiguous” stand and condemn what they describe as a genocide and ethnic cleansing taking place in the Gaza Strip.
Actor Toni Servillo – star of this year’s Venice opening film “La Grazia” – director siblings Alba and Alice Rohrwacher, director Marco Bellocchio, and filmmaker Matteo Garrone are among the Italians who have gathered under the banner V4P (Venice4Palestine) to publish the open letter. They call on the Venice Film Festival, its parent body the Biennale di Venezia, and the festival’s independent parallel sections Venice Days and the International Critics’ Week “to be more courageous and clear in condemning the ongoing genocide in Gaza and the ethnic cleansing across Palestine carried out by the Israeli government and army.”
“Stop the clocks, turn off the stars,” reads the first line of the open letter, which is written in Italian. “The burden is too much to carry on living as before. For almost two years now, we have been seeing images of unmistakable clarity from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Incredulous and powerless, we keep witnessing the torment of a genocide carried out live by the State of Israel in Palestine. No one will ever be able to say: ‘I couldn’t know, I couldn’t imagine, I couldn’t believe.’”
“It is time not only for empathy but also for responsibility,” they added. “Semantics, language, words, and images are not accessories, especially for those who believe in art: they are a form of fundamental and necessary resistance. Otherwise we should surrender to the evidence that being a filmmaker or journalist today no longer makes any sense.”
Members of the film industry outside of Italy who signed the letter include French Venice Golden Lion-winning director of “The Happening” Audrey Diwan, fellow French director Céline Sciamm, Iranian-French filmmaker Sepideh Farsi, and French-Swiss director-actor Laetitia Dosch.
Others who signed the open letter are British filmmaker Ken Loach, French actor Swann Arlaud, Bulgarian director Kostantin Bojanov, British actor Charles Dance, and Palestinian brothers Arab and Tarzan Nasser. The duo from Gaza together won Best Director in the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival this year for their film “Once Upon a Time in Gaza.”
Saturday’s letter also includes accusations that Israel has been persecuting Palestinians even before the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack, and that it is time for members of the film industry to take a stand “to uphold the truth about ethnic cleansing, apartheid, illegal occupation of Palestinian territories, colonialism, and all the crimes against humanity committed by Israel for decades.”
“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 show must go on,’ we are told, as we’re urged to look away — as if the ‘film world’ had nothing to do with the ‘real world,’” the letter states. “The Biennale and the Venice International Film Festival should celebrate the power of art as a means of transformation, testimony, representation of humanity, and development of critical consciousness. And it is precisely this that makes art an extraordinary means for reflection, active participation and resistance.” The letter concludes with the proclamation “Free Palestine!”
The 82nd Venice Film Festival starts on Aug. 27, almost six weeks to the second anniversary of the deadly Hamas-led terror attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7 2023, in which 1,200 people were murdered and 251 hostages were kidnapped to Gaza.
The Biennale released a statement in response to the open letter earlier this week, according to Variety. The cultural organization said it and the festival “have always been, throughout their history, places of open discussion and sensitivity to all the most pressing issues facing society and the world.”
“The evidence of this is, first and foremost, the works that are being presented [at the festival],” the Biennale noted, before giving as an example the film “The Voice of Hind Rajab” by Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania. The political drama, which is in competition this year at the festival, is about the killing of a five-year-old Palestinian girl, who was trapped in a car that had allegedly come under fire by Israeli forces in Gaza in 2024. The Biennale further noted in its statement that last year’s Venice Film Festival featured “Of Dogs and Men” by Israeli director Dani Rosenberg. The film is about a 16-year-old named Dar who returns to her kibbutz in Israel to look for the dog she lost during the Oct. 7 Hamas attack.
“The Biennale is, as always, open to dialogue,” the organization said in conclusion.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.