Locarno Film Festival 2026 saw a surge of protests around the Palestine genocide.
The swell happened right before a screening of The Invite.
A shroud was carried out bearing the names of those killed in Gaza since the start of the genocide.
Locarno Film Festival saw a spate of protests against Israel's genocidal attacks on Palestine. The protest, which was organised by three Swiss groups, witnessed a white shroud printed with the names of victims of the war in Gaza being strewn out over several hundred metres and lifted in the air by dozens of attendees. 100 demonstrators unwound a shroud carrying the names of 60,000 people who have been slaughtered in Gaza since the beginning of the war two and a half years ago.
Organisers said the shroud gives “a name and a visual representation to at least some of the victims of the genocide in Gaza.” Dr. Michele Ghielmini from Swiss Healthcare Workers Against Genocide, told Variety that the protestors were not skewed to favour any political party and were not seeking to interrupt the festival.
Locarno 2026 Palestine Protests
Palestinian filmmakers appear in this year's selection, such as Mohanad Yaqubi’s feature-length documentary Revolutionaries Never Die, in the Concorso Cineasti del Presente (Filmmakers of the Present) competition, and Palestinian-Jordanian director Asmahan Bkerat’s debut feature Concrete Land in the Semaine de la Critique section.
Ghielmini said: “The festival is an opportunity because a lot of people are here, a lot of people from all over the world, but also importantly, a lot of people from Switzerland. Not all people of Switzerland have been sensitive in the same way to these actions of the Swiss government, and in particular, the German part of Switzerland was less sensitive. The Italian and French-speaking parts were more sensitive to it, and because of the film festival, there are more people from the German part of Switzerland here. Also, more press from the German part of Switzerland, and because of that, we thought it would be a good moment again to call attention to what has happened and to what is still happening in Gaza.”
“The festival was informed in advance that a protest was being planned,” festival organizers shared with Variety. “As with any peaceful demonstration, we respect people’s right to free speech and to express their views, provided it takes place safely and without disrupting other attendees.”
Over 8,000 attendees piled into the Grand Piazza an hour after the protest had peacefully concluded for a sold-out screening of Olivia Wilde’s The Invite.
