The 81st Venice International Film Festival witnessed Sarah Friedland's "Familiar Touch" win awards for Best Director, Best First Film, and Best Actress. During her acceptance speech for the Luigi de Laurentiis Prize, Friedland took the opportunity to make a political statement and voiced her support for Palestinians.

I hate using the phrase 'self-hating Jew', but have no issue doing so here, as Jewish director Sarah Friedland (@motionxpictures) received an award at #VeniceFilmFestival and then proceeded to spout lies against Israel and essentially call for genocide of the Jewish state. pic.twitter.com/FMbRl6q9zW

— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) September 8, 2024

 During her acceptance speech, she said, "As a Jewish American artist working in a time-based medium, I must note, I'm accepting this award on the 336th day of Israel's genocide in Gaza and 76th year of occupation. I believe it is our responsibility as filmmakers to use the institutional platforms through which we work to redress Israel's impunity on the global stage. I stand in solidarity with the people of Palestine and their struggle for liberation."

International Human Rights Lawyer and CEO of the International Human Rights Forum, Arsen Ostrovsky, called her a "self-hating Jew" who "spout lies against Israel and essentially called for genocide of the Jewish state."

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"Scenes from a Marriage" is an adaptation of the legendary Swedish director Ingmar Bergman's 1973 TV series on the gradual dissolution of a couple's marriage by the same name. In Levi's version, the series examines the concepts of love, monogamy, marriage, and divorce through the eyes of an American couple.

Bergman's family asked Levi to adapt the classic TV series eight years ago.

Levi has worked on several projects with the American network over the years, beginning with the sale of his "In Treatment" TV series, which he also adapted for American TV. Levi also created the controversial mini-series "Our Boys" on the murder of three Israeli teens and a Palestinian teenager.

In a statement, Levi said: "I am very excited and happy to have the premiere of Scenes from a Marriage at the Venice Film Festival. Ingmar Bergman's original series, which will soon turn 50, is the work that influenced me more than any work of art. And yet, I remember saying to myself: 'So this is art, this is what it looks like.'"

He noted: "It took me many years to dare and respond to the Bergman family's request and rework" this piece.

"Scenes From a Marriage" will premiere on HBO in September.

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Polanski has sought to compare his own situation with that of Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish artillery officer in the French army who in 1894 was convicted of treason and shipped to the Devil's Island penal colony off South America's Atlantic coast.

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Dreyfus' conviction was criticized as being motivated by anti-Semitism and the case deeply split France. He was eventually exonerated.

Polanski, who fled the United States after pleading guilty in 1977 to having unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl in Los Angeles, said in production notes that he was "familiar with many of the workings of the apparatus of persecution shown in the film, and that has clearly inspired me."

The French Polish director did not attend the Venice festival, where the French-language film is one of 21 in competition for the Golden Lion prize. It was presented by cast members, including Polanski's wife Emmanuelle Seigner, and producers.

Festival organizers have faced criticism for including it in the program but have defended the move, saying it is the film and not the man being judged.

At the start of a news conference, where Seigner, actors Jean Dujardin and Louis Garrel were applauded on arrival, producer Luca Barbareschi said that only questions about the movie would be answered.

"This is not a moral tribunal," he said. "The past is in the past, we need to focus on the present. The film must speak for itself, the jury must judge and the public, if they want, can applaud."

Polanski fled the United States in 1978 for fear that a deal for leniency with prosecutors would be overruled and he would get a lengthy prison term. Now aged 86, he lives in Europe.

His history came under renewed scrutiny as the #MeToo movement against sexual abuse and harassment grew in the wake of allegations against Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein in 2017.

Last year, he was expelled from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

In "An Officer and a Spy," Oscar winner Dujardin plays Lt. Col. Georges Picquart, who in 1896 found evidence that the traitor was someone else and not Dreyfus. He reported this to his superiors, who declined to take the matter further.

"I approached this film with hindsight, modesty and knowing that history is the star of the film," Dujardin said.

In the production notes, French writer Pascal Bruckner asks Polanski about his own "persecution," which he says began when his actress wife Sharon Tate was murdered in 1969 by followers of cult leader Charles Manson.

"Most of the people who harass me do not know me and know nothing about the case," Polanski says.

"All this still haunts me today. Anything and everything. It is like a snowball, each season adds another layer. Absurd stories by women I have never seen before in my life who accuse me of things which supposedly happened more than half a century ago."

At an early morning screening of the film, based on the book by Robert Harris, audiences cheerfully applauded once the credits rolled up.

"The film itself is a solid decent movie and it might be accepted that way," Scott Roxborough, European bureau chief for The Hollywood Reporter, said.

"But I think because of all the controversy surrounding Polanski, it's going to be very difficult for people to separate the two," he added.

Critics were divided and many disputed the parallels that Polanski cited in his production notes.

The Guardian described the film as "a solid, well-crafted piece of professional carpentry" while IndieWire called it a "dull procedural drama."

"It's [a] meticulous production, made with robust confidence by the 86-year-old director, and I wish I could say it was Polanski working at peak form," Variety's Owen Gleiberman wrote.

"But it's a film that tells you things more than it gets you to feel them."

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