In Venice, Italy, on Sept. 3, 2025, Julian Schnabel attends the Cartier Glory to the Filmmaker Award 2025 and the ”In the Hand of Dante” red carpet during the 82nd Venice International Film Festival. Photo: Luca Carlino via Reuters Connect

Award-winning American filmmaker and artist Julian Schnabel rejected efforts by anti-Israel activists to disinvite Gal Gadot and Gerard Butler, stars of his new film “In the Hand of Dante,” from the 82nd Venice Film Festival because of their ties to Israel.

Before the festival started, anti-Israel activists under the banner Venice4Palestine released a statement urging festival organizers to withdraw invitations to Butler, Gadot, “and any artist and celebrity who publicly and actively supports the genocide.”

“We wonder how we can pay tribute to figures like Gerard Butler and Gal Gadot, protagonists of a film out of competition, who ideologically and materially support Israel’s political and military conduct?” they added.

Venice Film Festival Director Alberto Barbera confirmed that Butler and Gadot were not disinvited, but neither of them attended the festival this year.

Gadot is a native of Petah Tikva and former soldier in the Israel Defense Forces who has expressed avid support for her home country before and after the Hamas-led terrorist attack in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. She has been spending the summer in Israel and a representative for the actress said she “was never able nor was ever confirmed to attend the Venice Film Festival.”

Butler attended the Friends of the IDF Western Region Gala in Los Angeles in 2018, but has not made any public comments about Israel since the Oct. 7 terrorist attack.

“I think there’s no reason to boycott artists,” Schnabel said on Wednesday afternoon at a press conference for “In the Hand of Dante,” before the film’s out of competition premiere that evening at the Venice Film Festival. He was responding to a question about boycott efforts by Venice4Palestine against Butler and Gadot. “I selected those actors for their merits as actors, and they did an extraordinary job in the film, and that’s about it,” he added. “I think we should talk about the movie rather than this issue.”

“In the Hand of Dante” is an adaptation of a novel of the same name by Nick Tosches. The film follows the story of a handwritten manuscript of Dante Alighieri’s poem “The Divine Comedy” and jumps between the 14th and 21st centuries. Oscar Isaac plays both Tosches and Dante. The film also stars Al Pacino, John Malkovich, Martin Scorsese, Jason Momoa, Sabrina Impacciatore, Louis Cancelmi, and Franco Nero.

The movie received a 9 1/2-minute ovation after its world premiere on Wednesday night at the festival. Schnabel also received Venice’s Cartier Glory to the Filmmaker Award on Wednesday night in a ceremony held before the premiere. The award is given to someone who has made a particularly original contribution to the contemporary film industry.

The 82nd Venice Film Festival runs from Aug. 27-Sept. 6.