A head of the Berlinale has said the film festival is a place for “dialogue and inclusion” amid calls for a boycott of Germany’s cultural institutions over their stance on the Israel-Hamas fighting, AFP reports.

The plea came at the unveiling of the full competition lineup for the 2024 Berlinale, with prominence given to several African films.

More than four months after the start of the fighting in Gaza, the festival heads, Mariette Rissenbeek and Carlo Chatrian, expressed sympathy for “all the victims of the humanitarian crises in the Middle East” in the festival programme.

“We are also concerned to see that anti-Semitism, anti-Muslim resentment and hate speech are spreading in Germany and around the world,” they said.