A group of filmmakers penned an open letter Saturday to the Venice Film Festival urging event organizers to take a stronger pro-Palestine stance. The group, operating under the name Venice4Palestine or V4P, called on the Venice Biennale, Giornate degli Autori (Venice Days) and the International Critics’ Week “to be more courageous and clear in condemning the ongoing genocide in Gaza.”
The 82nd annual film festival begins on Aug. 27 and runs through Sep. 6.
Signatories of the letter were mostly Italian film professionals including Marco Bellocchio, Matteo Garrone and Alice Rohrwacher, as well a few non-Italians like Abel Ferrara, Ken Loach, Audrey Diwan, Arab Nasser and Tarzan Nasser.
“Stop the clocks, turn off the stars,” the letter began. “The burden is too much to carry on living as before. For almost two years now, images of unmistakable clarity have been reaching us from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Incredulous and helpless, 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.’ We have seen it all. We keep seeing it all.”
The letter goes on to ask the Biennale, the Festival, Venice Days and Venice Critics’ Week “to take a clear stance and support our requests.” They also asserted “the need to access spaces to host diverse narratives for Palestine.”
In a statement shared with TheWrap, the Biennale responded by saying the festival had always been a place for “open discussion and sensitivity” regarding the issues society faces, and that they were, as always, open to dialogue.
“The Biennale di Venezia and the Venice International Film Festival have always been, throughout their history, places of open discussion and sensitivity with regard to all the most pressing issues facing society and the world,” they said in a statement. “The evidence of this is, first and foremost, the works presented [at the festival]. In this year’s case the film ‘The Voice of Hind Rajab’ by Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania, presented in competition, and last year the film ‘Of Dogs and Men’ by Dani Rosenberg, which screened in Orizzonti.”
It continued: “What is more, the above is also affirmed by the comments on this matter issued by the President of the Biennale and the Artistic Director of the Venice International Film Festival at the Venezia 82 programme announcement on 22 July, as well as the statements at the openings of the 2025 Architecture Biennale and 2024 Art Biennale, and Luciano Violante’s lectio magistralis Domicidio, which took place at the Arsenale on 17 June 2025. The Biennale is, as always, open to dialogue.”
You can read the full V4P letter below:
Stop the clocks, turn off the stars.
The burden is too much to carry on living as before. For almost two years now, images of unmistakable clarity have been reaching us from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Incredulous and helpless, 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.”
We have seen it all. We keep seeing it all.
But 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.”
And yet, it is precisely through those images, captured by our colleagues, perhaps even by friends, that we have learned of the genocide, of the violent and even murderous attacks on film directors and crews in the West Bank, of the collective punishment unleashed upon the Palestinian people, and of all the other crimes against humanity committed by the Israeli government and army. Those images have cost the lives of nearly 250 Palestinian media workers so far.
The Biennale and the Venice International Film Festival are supposed to celebrate the power of art as a means of transformation, testimony, representation of humanity, and development of critical consciousness. It is precisely this that makes art an extraordinary vehicle for reflection, active participation and resistance.
In response to recent tepid, vague or, even worse, convenient statements made by the organs of power, information and culture, we take a clear and unambiguous stand: it is time not only for empathy but also for responsibility. Semantics and languages, words and images, are not accessories – especially for those who believe in art, they are a fundamental and necessary form of resistance. Were it not the case, we might as well surrender to the evidence that being a filmmaker or a journalist today has no longer any meaning.
For this reason we – activists and workers in the film, media and news fields – believe that for once, the show must stop: we must interrupt the flow of indifference and open a path to awareness. We therefore ask the Biennale, the Festival, Venice Days and Venice Critics’ Week to take a clear stance and support our requests. We also assert the need to access spaces to host diverse narratives for Palestine.
We appeal to all those who can and want to make a difference – at any level. In Venice, all the spotlight will be on the film world: we all have a duty to amplify the stories and voices of those who are being massacred, even with the complicit indifference of the West.
We urge all members of the worlds of culture and information to use their notoriety and any other means available during the Festival to create a constant backdrop of conversations and initiatives to uphold the truth about ethnic cleansing, apartheid, illegal occupation of Palestinian territories, colonialism and all the other crimes against humanity committed by Israel for decades, not just since October 7th.
We invite those who work in film to imagine, coordinate and implement together, during the Festival, actions that give voice to criticism of pro-Zionist government policies: a dissent expressed through creativity, thanks to our artistic, communicative and organizational skills.
As artists and art lovers, as industry professionals and film enthusiasts, as organizers and news reporters, we are the beating heart of this Festival, and we firmly reiterate that we will not be complicit, we will not remain silent, we will not look the other way, we will not give in to the sense of powerlessness nor to the logics of power. The times we live in and our responsibility as human beings demand this of us. There is no cinema without humanity. Let us ensure that this Mostra has meaningful values and does not turn into a sad and shallow vanity fair once more. Let’s do it all together – with courage, with integrity. Free Palestine!
