Roger Waters, Annie Ernaux and Leading Directors Back New Venice4Palestine Open Letter Ahead of Festival Opening

Roger Waters, Annie Ernaux, and directors Matteo Garrone and Isabel Coixet have signed an open letter calling on the Venice Film Festival, its parent body the Venice Biennale, and the wider audiovisual world to take concrete action in support of Palestine. The letter was organised by the Venice4Palestine collective and published on 28 August 2026, just days before the festival opens on 2 September (Deadline).

This is the collective's second appeal. Venice4Palestine issued its first open letter a year ago. The new one arrives with sharper demands: greater transparency across the film industry, suspension of agreements with organisations and institutions linked to the Israeli government, and the introduction of safeguards for professionals who choose to cut ties with those bodies (Deadline).

The letter also calls for the Palestinian flag to be flown throughout the festival grounds. The reason is specific: two Palestinian films sit in this year's official selection — Ahmed Hassouna's Citizen Osama and Muayad Alayan's Conversation with the Sea (Deadline).

The appeal lands amid growing international condemnation of Israel's military campaign and ongoing occupation of Gaza, which followed the Hamas terror attacks of 7 October 2023. The letter also cites Israel's expansion of settlements in the West Bank and settler violence against Palestinians (Deadline).

Venice4Palestine has kept up steady pressure across the year. In January 2026, the collective published an open letter to the European Film Academy stating that people continue to die in Gaza and that the so-called peace process has failed to change that (Collettiva).

The broader Biennale has faced its own campaign. Nearly 200 artists, curators and art workers involved in the Venice Biennale signed a letter in March demanding Israel's exclusion from the 2026 edition, with signatories including Yto Barrada, Carolina Caycedo, Gala Porras-Kim and Alfredo Jaar (Hyperallergic). A separate letter from 74 artists and curators in April called on La Biennale di Venezia to exclude states accused of war crimes, naming Israel, Russia and the United States (STIR).

The cultural sphere's engagement with the issue extends beyond Venice. In February, over a hundred entertainment and cultural figures signed an open letter supporting UN Special Rapporteur on the Palestinian territories Francesca Albanese. Ernaux was a signatory there too, alongside British musician Annie Lennox (Times of Israel).

For the festival itself, the letter adds a political dimension to what is already one of the most closely watched events on the film calendar. Venice's official selection — the films chosen to compete and screen across its sections — sets the conversation for the autumn awards corridor. Two Palestinian films in that lineup give the collective's flag request a concrete anchor: the festival has already decided these films belong on its screens.

Whether the Biennale will act on any of the demands remains an open question. The festival has not yet responded publicly to the letter.