Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters, a vocal and sometimes controversial critic of the Israeli government’s actions in Gaza, joined Nobel Prize Winning novelist Annie Ernaux (Les Années) , directors Matteo Garrone (Gommorah) and Isabel Coixet (Three Goodbyes), and actors Alia Shawkat and Guy Pearce among others in calling for what they termed “concrete action in support of Palestine.” Steps called for in the letter include flying the Palestinian flag to honor the two Palestinian films invited to this year’s festival (Ahmed Hassouna’s Citizen Osama and Muayad Alayan’s Conversation with the Sea), for the festival to cut ties with “organizations and institutions associated with the Israeli government,” and “the introduction of safeguards for professionals who choose to dissociate themselves from such ties.”
The controversies mounting in advance of Venice’s September 2 start date mirror those faced by both the Berlin and Cannes festivals earlier this year, where conflicts arose over everything from Israel and Russia to right-wing control of media to the rise of A.I.
Neither organizers Venice Biennale nor the Venice Film Festival have yet commented on the letter from the Venice4Palestine collective, but while organizers have always touted the non-political nature of the annual festival, this year’s film roster includes projects certain to generate some controversy about the ongoing conflict in Gaza. In addition to Hassouna and Alayan’s films, the 83rd Venice Film Festival will include screenings of NAZA, the new documentary from No Other Land filmmakers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, described as an exposé of “the systems behind Israel’s calculated mass killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza.” Ben Hania’s The Voice Of Hind Rajab, a wrenching dramatization of the emergency call received from 5-year-old Palestinian girl after her family’s car was destroyed by Israeli bombing during the 2024 invasion of Gaza City, received a record-breaking 23-minute standing ovation at last year’s festival.
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