Dozens of Hollywood A-listers will descend on the Venice film festival this week, but activists hope to shift the spotlight from the red carpet to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

With an anti-war demonstration planned for one of the festival’s biggest nights on Saturday, questions over the biennale’s stance on Gaza dominated Wednesday’s launch event.

Scores of local political and grassroots organisations are expected to join the march, running under the title Stop the Genocide – Free Palestine.

More than 1,500 people, including industry figures, have signed an open letter from the group Venice4Palestine (V4P) calling on the festival “to be more courageous and clear in condemning the ongoing genocide in Gaza and the ethnic cleansing across Palestine carried out by the Israeli gove

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