A group of filmmakers and artists have once again issued an open letter urging the Venice International Film Festival to take a stronger pro-Palestinian stance during its Sept. 2-12 run. The group, which again goes by Venice4Palestine (or V4P, for short), issued the appeal to the festival and its parent organization, Venice Biennale, under the title “Yet Gaza Continues to Burn.”
“A year ago, thousands of people joined the Venice4Palestine appeal to put Palestine in the spotlight of the Film Festival and bring the resistance of the Palestinian people to the center of public discourse: finally there was open talk of genocide instead of war,” the letter, which has gained more than 200 signatures, opens. The passage was translated from Italian. “While we asked Biennale and Mostra to take a clear position and film workers to express their solidarity, the vision of ‘Sawt Hind Rajab’ (‘The Voice of Hind Rajab’), during the festival, suddenly seemed to take charge of those instances, generating a collective emotion and indignation.”
The letter references “The Voice of Hind Rajab,” Kaouther Ben Hania’s real-time docudrama that premiered at the festival in 2025. It went on to earn an Academy Award nomination for Best International Feature Film as Tunisia’s entry, the country’s second nomination in the category to date. On Aug. 21, Ben Hania commented on Israel’s decision to launch an investigation into the killing of five-year-old Palestinian girl Hind Rajab, whose story is depicted in the film, calling it “a smokescreen.” Ben Hania will be among the jurors at this year’s festival.
This year, Venice International Film Festival will feature two Palestinian films: “Al Mowaten Osama” (“Citizen Osama”) by Ahmed Hassouna and “Hiwar ma’ albahr” (“Conversation With the Sea”) by Muayad Alayan. On Monday, the festival also added the Gaza-set documentary “Naza,” directed by two of the filmmakers behind the Oscar-winning doc “No Other Land.” The film from Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor will be the only documentary competing for the Golden Lion this year.
“We ask the Exhibition to also hoist the Palestinian flag for the duration of the festival alongside all the other flags that represent the films present in the official selection, as per practice and as already recognized by the official sources of information of the Exhibition,” the letter reads.
Among the letter’s 200-plus signatories are actors Alia Shawkat and Guy Pearce, French filmmaker Céline Sciamma, Nobel Prize-winning writer Annie Ernaux, Palestinian directors Arab and Tarzan Nasser, and actress Indya Moore, who appeared in last year’s Golden Lion winner, “Father Mother Sister Brother.”
The letter makes several other appeals, including a demand for “transparency in all phases of the supply chain, suspending any agreement with bodies and institutions linked to the Israeli government” and the creation of “a protection structure that defends workers in the sector from the professional risks of a concrete commitment against genocide.”
Venice Film Festival will run from Sept. 2 to Sept. 12. You can view the full letter from Venice4Palestine here.
