Israeli

An Israeli strike targeted a vehicle carrying displaced Palestinians who were evacuating Gaza City to the south under Israeli forced displacement orders on Tuesday. Injured women and children were filmed being carried away from the burning car, while authorities said multiple people were killed.

The Israeli army has subjected Gaza City to its most punishing attacks in two years of war, sending thousands of residents fleeing under bombs and bullets amid fears they might never return, with the United Nations chief calling the offensive “horrendous”.

“Gaza is burning,” Israeli Minister of Defence Israel Katz said on X, as columns of vans and donkey carts laden with furniture, and people on foot carrying the last of their worldly possessions, steamed down the coastal al-Rashid Street against a backdrop of black smoke rising from the destroyed city.

Many had pledged to stay in the early days of Israel’s takeover plan. But as the military accelerated the pace of its deadly bombing campaign, turning high-rises, homes and civilian infrastructure to rubble, those able to afford the journey are heading south, with no guarantees of a safe zone for shelter.

On Tuesday, the army killed at least 91 people in the city, with health authorities reporting that one of its bombs hit a vehicle carrying people about to escape on the coastal road.

At least 17 of the city’s residential buildings were destroyed, including Aybaki Mosque in the Tuffah neighbourhood to the east, which was targeted by an Israeli warplane.

As the bombs rained down, the Israeli army continued to destroy areas in the north, south and east of the city with explosive-laden robots.

Earlier this month, the rights group Euro-Med Monitor said the army had deployed 15 of these machines, each one capable of destroying up to 20 housing units.

Tanks push into the city

About 1 million Palestinians are known to have returned to Gaza City to live among the ruins after the initial phase of the two-year war, but reports on how many remain vary.

An Israeli army official estimated on Tuesday that approximately 350,000 had fled. But Gaza’s Government Media Office said 350,000 had been displaced to the centre and the west of the city, with 190,000 leaving it altogether.

Either way, those who left faced a bleak future in the south, where the already cramped al-Mawasi camp, filled with people forcibly displaced from the eastern parts of Rafah and Khan Younis, has itself been hit by Israeli strikes.

The Government Media Office noted a trend of reverse displacement, saying on Tuesday that 15,000 had returned to Gaza City after witnessing the dire conditions at al-Mawasi.

As people fled, the Israeli military released aerial footage showing a large number of tanks and other armoured vehicles pushing further into Gaza City.

The Israeli army admitted on Tuesday that it would take “several months” to control Gaza City.

“No matter how long it takes, we will operate in Gaza,” army spokesman Effie Defrin said, as fighting raged in the enclave’s largest urban hub.

At least 106 people were killed across Gaza since dawn on Tuesday, according to medical sources.

‘Specific intent’ to destroy Palestinians

Amid the brutal offensive, the United Nations Commission of Inquiry on Tuesday concluded that Israel’s war on Gaza is a genocide, a landmark moment after nearly two years of war that has killed at least 64,964 people.

Among its findings, it drew on the public statements of Israeli officials to show that Israel had the “dolus specialis” of genocide, or the “specific intent” to destroy Palestinians as a people.

Palestine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs welcomed the report. “The situation in Gaza today portends a humanitarian catastrophe that cannot tolerate any leniency or delay,” it said on X.

International criticism of Israel is growing, with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday calling the war morally, politically and legally intolerable.

France’s Foreign Ministry urged Israel to stop its “destructive campaign, which no longer has any military logic, and to resume negotiations as soon as possible”.

Irish President Michael D Higgins condemned “those who are practising genocide, and those who are supporting genocide with armaments”.

“We must look at their exclusion from the United Nations itself, and we should have no hesitation any longer in relation to ending trade with people who are inflicting this on our fellow human beings,” he said.

Al Jazeera’s Ibrahim al-Khalili saw the aftermath of an Israeli attack on one of the tallest residential towers in Gaza City. The Israeli military has levelled at least 50 multi-storey buildings in recent weeks.

US president says if reports that captives are being moved above ground to hinder Israeli assault are true, ‘all bets are off’.

United States President Donald Trump has warned Hamas against moving the Israeli captives in Gaza above ground to hinder Israel’s military campaign, renewing his call for their release.

Trump wrote in a social media post on Monday that he had read a news report indicating that Hamas would use the captives as “human shields” amid the relentless Israeli bombardment of Gaza.

“I hope the Leaders of Hamas know what they’re getting into if they do such a thing,” the US president said.

“This is a human atrocity, the likes of which few people have ever seen before. Don’t let this happen or, ALL ‘BETS’ ARE OFF. RELEASE ALL HOSTAGES NOW!”

Trump has regularly posted threats against Hamas. But with most of the group’s leaders already killed, and Israel having destroyed much of Gaza in a campaign that experts and rights groups say is a genocide, it is not clear how the US president can further punish Hamas.

In recent weeks, Israel has been carrying out a systematic campaign to level what remains of Gaza City, targeting residential towers and schools, and forcing a mass evacuation of the area. The United Nations’s special envoy said on Monday that the offensive is part of a broader campaign of ethnic cleansing.

Trump’s warning on Monday comes less than a week after Israel killed five Hamas members and a Qatari security official while trying to assassinate senior Hamas leaders in the Qatari capital, Doha. Those targeted were involved in negotiating a ceasefire and captives’ proposal put forward by the US president himself.

Hamas said its top officials survived the strikes, which Trump said he opposed. On Monday, Trump repeated his assertion that Israel would not be striking Qatar again.

Days before the Doha attack, Trump had issued what he called a “last warning” for Hamas.

On Monday, Trump again denied reports that he had advance knowledge of the Israeli attack. He suggested that he learned about it from the media – a claim that contradicts his previous assertion that he was notified about the strikes by the US military shortly before they were launched.

Asked how he found out about the strikes, the US president told reporters, “The same way you did.”

‘Human shields’

On Sunday, Israel’s public broadcaster, Kan, reported that Hamas was moving Israeli captives to homes and tents to pressure Israel to halt its bombardment campaign in Gaza City.

The Israeli military has long used Palestinians as human shields, both in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, according to numerous media reports, witness testimonies and video footage.

Last year, Al Jazeera obtained footage of Israeli soldiers sending Palestinian prisoners into tunnels and buildings in Gaza to ensure they were not rigged with explosives.

Israeli authorities regularly justify their atrocities in Gaza by claiming that Hamas uses civilians as human shields.

Over the past days, the Israeli military has been stepping up its attacks on the city and across the territory with hundreds of strikes.

On Sunday, Israeli Minister of Defence Israel Katz shared footage of a high-rise building in Gaza being obliterated by an Israeli strike, with the caption: “The house of cards. The skyline of Gaza is changing.”

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington will encourage Doha to continue to play a constructive role in Gaza during a press conference with Israel’s PM in Jerusalem on Monday. The comments come after last week’s Israeli attack on Qatar’s capital which targeted Hamas leaders.

Qatar’s prime minister pledged to continue its efforts to stop Israel’s war on Gaza, ahead of an emergency international summit to discuss a joint response after the Israeli attack in the Qatari capital Doha.

Israeli attacks on civilians and infrastructure continue across Gaza as Qatar hosts Muslim, Arab world leaders.

Arab and Islamic foreign ministers are gathering in Doha after Israel’s unprecedented missile strikes on Qatar that killed five Hamas members and a Qatari officer. The summit aims to formulate a collective regional response, with leaders warning Israel’s attack crossed ‘all red lines’, as Al Jazeera’s Resul Serdar explains.

Israel has repeatedly entered Syria since the fall of al-Assad and has carried out air raids across the country.

Israeli troops have carried out a ground operation in Syria’s southeastern Deraa province, Syria’s state news agency reported, the latest incursion in the neighbouring country as it also continues air raids against Damascus in various locations.

Soldiers also carried out searches in the Saysoun and Jamlah towns on Sunday, which are adjacent to the 1974 ceasefire line that was meant to separate Israeli and Syrian troops.

On Saturday, Ahmed al-Sharaa, the country’s interim president, said talks with Israel have begun to re-establish a 1974 agreement which was concluded after the 1973 war between the countries.

Israel and Syria have held direct talks in recent months, and al-Sharaa has ruled out normalisation. The talks are aimed at halting Israel’s aggressive actions towards Syria and reaching some kind of security deal.

Israel has launched hundreds of strikes on military sites and assets across Syria since the fall of former leader Bashar al-Assad in December. It has also expanded its occupation of the Syrian Golan Heights by seizing the demilitarised buffer zone, a move that violated the 1974 disengagement agreement with Syria.

On Tuesday, Syria “strongly condemned” Israeli attacks on several sites in and around Homs city in the west of the country and around the coastal city of Latakia.

The Israeli air attacks represent “a blatant violation of the sovereignty of the Syrian Arab Republic”, the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.

While Israel had for years waged a secretive campaign of aerial bombardment against Syria’s military infrastructure, its attacks on its neighbour have ramped up since the war on Gaza and the fall of al-Assad.

In late August, six Syrian soldiers were killed in an Israeli drone attack on Damascus, which came a day after a ground incursion into Syrian territory by Israeli troops.

The attacks on Syria come amid Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s promotion of a vision for a “Greater Israel“, a concept supported by ultranationalist Israelis that lays claim to the occupied West Bank and Gaza, as well as parts of Lebanon, Syria, Egypt and Jordan.

After violence in southern Syria’s Suwayda on July 13 between Bedouin tribal fighters and Druze factions, government forces were sent in to quell the fighting. But the bloodshed worsened, and Israel carried out strikes on Syrian troops and bombed the heart of the capital, Damascus, under the pretext of protecting the Druze.

As Israel displaces thousands from the north of the enclave, concerns are growing about worsening conditions in the south.

Thousands of Palestinians are being displaced each day by Israel’s indiscriminate carpet bombing of Gaza City, which is killing dozens of civilians daily, with families fleeing south towards an uncertain fate in the repeatedly attacked and overcrowded al-Mawasi.

More than 6,000 people were forced to leave the besieged city on Saturday, according to the Palestinian Civil Defence, as the Israeli army continued its relentless bombardment of the area.

Some 900,000 Palestinians are currently left in the city, but the number is decreasing rapidly.

“Gaza City is being emptied building by building, family by family,” Al Jazeera’s Hamza Mohamed said.

“Soon, what remains might not be a city, just the memory of one,” he added.

Khalil Matar, a displaced Palestinian fleeing south, said: “We keep moving. There are sick people with us, and we don’t know where to go. There are no safe zones.”

Many of those who are leaving the north are heading on the forced evacuation threats of the Israeli army to al-Mawasi camp, where conditions have been described as beyond dire, crowded, and under-resourced even before the latest mass displacements.

Reports from al-Mawasi, which is often struck by Israeli strikes despite being a so-called “safe zone”, suggest that new arrivals are struggling to find space to pitch their tents.

‘Famine is devouring us too’

Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary, reporting from the al-Mawasi, said the scenes there were “very chaotic” as more and more families arrived, with their belongings placed by the side of the road.

“For almost a whole week, we’ve been trying to figure out a place to shelter in. I have a large family, including my children, my mother and my grandmother,” one displaced Palestinian man told Khoudary.

“Not only are missiles pouring down on our heads, but famine is devouring us too,” he said.

The man added that his family’s tent was not fit for purpose after two years of use, and that he was unsure where they would take shelter.

“Displacement is as painful as eviscerating one’s soul out of the body. We don’t know where to take refuge,” he said. “I’m taking my family into the unknown.”

Speaking from al-Mawasi, displaced journalist Ahmed al-Najjar said the camp was not safe.

“It’s called a safe zone, but we have been living here for months and we know for sure that it’s not safe,” he stressed.

“How can I call it safe when Israel killed and bombed my own sister within this ‘safe zone’?”

Al-Najjar also described being woken up by the “cries and horrific sounds of people being burned alive in a nearby tent”.

Given such dangers as well as the lack of space, some displaced Palestinians have told Al Jazeera that they will be returning to Gaza City from al-Mawasi, in an apparent trend of reverse displacement.

Faraj Ashour, a displaced Palestinian who lost his legs in an Israeli attack, is one of those considering the return journey.

“I went to al-Mawasi, but the costs were too high … and it was almost impossible to find a proper spot without paying extra,” Ashour said.

Israeli forces arrested a Palestinian student, Baraa Jamal Karama, during a raid on her home in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron. In the footage, a soldier shushes her as she calls out, while another points his gun at the person filming.

US secretary of state says Trump was ‘not happy’ about the attack, but the incident will not change ties with Israel.

United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio is due to arrive in Israel, where he is set to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as tensions mount in the Middle East over the Israeli attack on Qatar last week.

Rubio’s trip, which begins on Sunday, comes after US President Donald Trump criticised Israel over the unprecedented attack on Hamas leaders in the Qatari capital, Doha.

Before departing for Israel, Rubio told reporters that while Trump was “not happy” about the strike, it was “not going to change the nature of our relationship with the Israelis”.

But he added that the US and Israel would discuss its impact on efforts for a truce in Israel’s war on Gaza.

“The president wants this to be finished with. And finished with meaning 48 hostages released all at once. Hamas is no longer a threat, so we can move on to the next phase, which is, how do you rebuild Gaza?” he said.

“How do you provide security? How do you make sure Hamas never comes back again? That’s the president’s priority… And part of what we’re going to have to discuss as part of this visit is how the events of last week with Qatar impact that.”

Rubio said it had yet to be determined who would do that, who would pay for it and who would be in charge of the process.

Israel’s attack on Qatar, a major non-NATO ally of the US, targeted Hamas leaders who had gathered to discuss a new ceasefire proposal in the war on Gaza put forth by the US. The leadership survived, but six people were killed, including a Qatari security officer.

US officials described it as a unilateral escalation that did not serve US or Israeli interests.

The strike also led to broad condemnation from other Arab states, and derailed ceasefire and captive talks brokered by Qatar.

Al Jazeera’s Rosiland Jordan, reporting from Washington, DC, noted that the US and Qatar have expressed a commitment to continue the push for peace.

“However, late on Saturday, Netanyahu said on social media that it’s Israel’s view that the Hamas leadership needs to be driven out of Qatar, because in Israel’s view, Hamas is not committed to peace,” she said.

“So there’s going to be certain discussions about the next steps forward, given that Trump has said he wants to see an end to the war in Gaza,” she said.

For its part, Hamas has repeatedly said it was willing to release all of the captives it took from Israel and cede control of Gaza to an interim Palestinian administration, in exchange for an end to the war and a full Israeli withdrawal from the territory.

Netanyahu, meanwhile, has called for the expulsion of Gaza’s population and signed an agreement on Thursday to move ahead with a settlement expansion plan in the occupied West Bank that would make any future Palestinian state virtually impossible.

On Friday, the United Nations General Assembly voted to back a revival of the two-state solution, in open defiance of Israeli opposition.

Israeli allies, France and the United Kingdom, alongside several other Western nations, are set to recognise Palestinian statehood at a UN gathering this month out of exasperation at Israel’s conduct in the war in Gaza war and in the occupied West Bank.

Israeli forces bombed a residential building causing fires to spread in an intense night of Israeli strikes on Gaza City. The army says its forces are “increasing the pace of attacks” and told hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to move south.

The sound of an Israeli bomb interrupted Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud during a live broadcast as he explained that fighter jets have been striking buildings in Gaza City every 10–15 minutes since this morning. Israel says its forces are “increasing the pace of attacks” on the city.

Sept. 12 (UPI) — Qatar’s prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, will be at the White House on Friday before a summit between Arab states regarding Israel’s attack on Qatar’s capital city of Doha.

Al-Thani is expected to discuss the strike by Israel and potentially a defense deal between Qatar and the United States.

He is expected to meet with President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and diplomat Steve Witkoff.

Trump was in Doha in May, when the United States and Qatar finalized agreements regarding a letter of intent on defense cooperation between the Qatari Ministry of Defense and U.S. Department of Defense, which included a purchase of both drone systems and drone defense systems, as stated in a press release from the Qatar Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Trump has distanced himself from the Israeli strike, which was intended to target the leadership members of Hamas. White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said on Wednesday that Trump assured the Qatari government that such an attack would never take place again.

The Israeli attack struck a residential compound in Doha and killed six people, including a Qatari security officer.

Qatar has since stressed it would “take all necessary measures to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity” in a statement from the Qatari government.

Other countries in across the Persian Gulf are also concerned and are holding an emergency summit in Doha Sunday in response to Israel’s attack.

The Israeli offensive on Gaza City is displacing thousands of starving Palestinians.

Paramount on Friday sharply denounced a proposed boycott of Israeli film institutions by a group that calls itself Film Workers for Palestine and is supported by dozens of Hollywood luminaries.

Earlier this week, the group launched an open letter pledging to withhold support for Israeli film festivals, production companies and other organizations that the group said were involved in “genocide and apartheid against the Palestinian people.”

The letter has been signed by hundreds of individuals, including filmmakers Jonathan Glazer, Ava DuVernay, Yorgos Lanthimos, Emma Stone, Joaquin Phoenix, Rooney Mara, Olivia Colman and Mark Ruffalo.

“As filmmakers, actors, film industry workers, and institutions, we recognize the power of cinema to shape perceptions,” the group wrote. “In this urgent moment of crisis, where many of our governments are enabling the carnage in Gaza, we must do everything we can to address complicity in that unrelenting horror.”

The group pledged “not to screen films, appear at or otherwise work with Israeli film institutions — including festivals, cinemas, broadcasters and production companies,” which have been “implicated” in attacks on Palestinians. The group described its effort as being inspired by filmmakers joining the South African boycott over apartheid, a global campaign decades ago that proved influential in helping overturn the nation’s government.

Paramount, which was acquired last month by the Larry Ellison family and private equity firm RedBird Capital Partners, made clear its opposition to the filmmakers’ campaign.

“We believe in the power of storytelling to connect and inspire people, promote mutual understanding, and preserve the moments, ideas, and events that shape the world we share,” said an emailed statement attributed to the company. “We do not agree with recent efforts to boycott Israeli filmmakers. Silencing individual creative artists based on their nationality does not promote better understanding or advance the cause of peace.”

Paramount is the first studio to state a position on the divisive issue. An insider who was not authorized to speak about the internal debate said Paramount Chief Executive David Ellison and the company’s leadership team felt strongly about the need to speak out in opposition, believing that individuals should not be boycotted based on their nationality.

“The global entertainment industry should be encouraging artists to tell their stories and share their ideas with audiences throughout the world,” Paramount said. “We need more engagement and communication — not less.”

Controversy erupted over Wednesday’s announcement by Flanders Festival Ghent that it had canceled an upcoming concert by the Munich Philharmonic featuring Lahav Shani, an Israeli conductor who serves as the music director of the Israel Philharmonic.

In an online statement, festival organizers acknowledged that the canceled performance, scheduled for Sept. 18, was expected to be “one of the artistic highlights of the festival,” and that Shani “has spoken out in favour of peace and reconciliation several times in the past,” but that the decision had nonetheless been made because “we are unable to provide sufficient clarity about his attitude to the genocidal regime in Tel Aviv.”

“In line with the call from the Minister of Culture, the city council of Ghent and the cultural sector in Ghent, we have chosen to refrain from collaboration with partners who have not distanced themselves unequivocally from that regime,” the statement continued, adding that priority was being given to “the serenity of our festival,” and in order to “safeguard the concert experience for our visitors and musicians. ”

Backlash was intense and immediate, with many critics taking to social media to condemn the decision as antisemitic.

“This is not a protest. It is discrimination,” the European Jewish Congress wrote on X. “Targeting artists because of their nationality is unacceptable and undermines the very foundations of European cultural and democratic values. They only fuel hatred, with concrete consequences on European streets.”

By Thursday morning, an online petition in support of Shani organized by Iranian American harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani had garnered more than 5,500 signatures, including those of well-known classical musicians such as conductor and pianist Joshua Weilerstein, British classical pianist Danny Driver and cellist Kyril Zlotnikov.

“The Ghent Festival has chosen to punish an artist on the basis of his nationality alone,” reads the petition, which calls for an immediate reversal of the cancellation. “What is more insidious is the implication that any artist, Israeli or otherwise, will only be accepted if they express unequivocally the ‘correct’ opinions.”

“This decision will do nothing to save a single Palestinian life, bring a hostage home, or to make any improvement to the unbearable civilian suffering currently taking place in this conflict,” the petition continues. “It will, however, resonate loudly with those who equate an artist’s nationality with an excuse to exclude them from the cultural sphere.”

Martin Kotthaus, the German ambassador to Belgium, posted on X that he deeply regretted the move made by the Ghent Festival, adding, “The decision and the reasons given are incomprehensible. I welcome the fact that Belgian Foreign Minister Prévot and Flemish Prime Minister Diependaele have distanced themselves from the festival’s decision.” (Note: Matthias Diependaele is the current Minister-President of Flanders.)

Shani — a Tel Aviv-born conductor, pianist and double bassist —took over as music director of the Israel Philharmonic beginning with the 2020-21 season after Zubin Mehta stepped down. Earlier this year, his contract was extended until 2032. In 2023, it was announced that Shani would take over as chief conductor of the Munich Orchestra for the 2026-27 season, and he is expected to continue in both roles.

Shani is also serving as the chief conductor of Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra until the end of its 2025-26 season. Rob Streevelaar, general and artistic director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic, issued a statement saying that the orchestra is closely following the situation in Ghent.

“Our Chief Conductor Lahav Shani has previously spoken out in the press in favor of peace and humanity,” the statement reads. “He has emphasized that he does not represent a political position, but wishes to contribute to unity and hope through art. He does this by way of various initiatives, including his involvement with the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, founded by Palestinian scholar Edward Said and Israeli pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim.”

Flanders Festival Ghent is a three-week-long international music festival that attracts more than 50,000 visitors annually and features more than 180 concerts and 1,500 musicians. There are now calls for other participants to boycott the festival in protest.

I’m arts and culture writer Jessica Gelt, writing these words with peace on my mind. Here’s this week’s arts news.

On our critics’ radar this week

Steven Skybell as Tevye in “Fiddler on the Roof.”

(Jeremy Daniel I)

Fiddler on the Roof
This concert version of the much-heralded National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene’s production translates the beloved musical into Yiddish. Under the direction of Joel Grey, Steven Skybell reprises his much-acclaimed performance as Tevye. The show will include English supertitles for those who don’t understand Yiddish or already know the show by heart.
– Charles McNulty
8 p.m. Saturday; 3 and 7 p.m. Sunday. The Soraya, 18111 Nordhoff St., Northridge. thesoraya.org

Courtney M. Leonard, “Breach #2,” 2016, mixed media, part of LACMA’s “Grounded” exhibition.

(© Courtney M. Leonard)

Grounded
Featuring 40 works, spanning the 1970s to today, by 35 artists based in the Americas and around the Pacific, the exhibition continues LACMA’s ongoing emphasis on contemporary rather than historical art. The diverse work, primarily sculpture and installation, is billed as investigating “ecology, sovereignty, memory and home.”
– Christopher Knight
Sunday through June 21. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, BCAM Level 2, 5905 Wilshire Blvd. lacma.org

Neil Young performs at the Hollywood Bowl on Monday.

(Amy Harris / Invision / AP)

Neil Young and the Chrome Hearts
The veteran rocker will wrap his latest world tour — ostensibly booked behind June’s “Talkin to the Trees” album — with a sure-to-be-shaggy gig at the Hollywood Bowl. The Chrome Hearts include Spooner Oldham on organ, Micah Nelson on guitar, Corey McCormick on bass and Anthony LoGerfo on drums.
— Mikael Wood
7:30 p.m. Monday. Hollywood Bowl, 2301 N. Highland Ave. hollywoodbowl.com

The week ahead: A curated calendar

FRIDAY

A scene from the “Autos, Mota y Rocanrol,” which opens the Hola Mexico Film Festival on Friday.

(HMFF)

🎞️ 🇲🇽 Hola Mexico Film Festival
The celebration of cinema from our neighbors to the south features México Ahora, a curated section of the best recent releases; Nocturno, a selection of horror films; Documental, a nonfiction films section; the animated films of Hola Niños; and Nuevas Voces, a focus on emerging directors and their first works. The festival begins with an opening-night screening of director J.M Cravioto’s “Autos, Mota y Rocanrol.”
7 p.m. Friday. The Montalban Theatre, 615 Vine St, Hollywood. Festival continues through Sept. 20 at Regal Cinemas LA Live, Cinépolis Pico Rivera and Milagro Cinemas Norwalk, with closing night at La Plaza de Cultura y Artes.
holamexicoff.com

“Bosch Bird No. 3, 2014,” by Roberto Benavidez. Newspaper, paperboard, glue, party streamers, wire. 24 x 9 x 18 inches.

(Paul Salveson; courtesy of the artist and Perrotin)

“Hatching,” by Danielle Orchard, 2025. Oil on canvas, 90 x 56 inches.

(Paul Salveson ; courtesy of the artist and Perrotin. )

🪅 🎨 Roberto Benavidez/Danielle Orchard
The Pico Boulevard gallery Perrotin opens its fall season with two new exhibitions. Inspired by 15th century Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch, El Sereno sculptor Benavidez turns piñata-making into detailed figurative art with “Bosch Beasts.” Orchard finds parallels between motherhood and painting in her rich, evocative series “Firstborn.”
5-7:30 p.m. Friday opening for both shows; 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, through Oct. 18. Perrotin, 5036 W. Pico Blvd. perrotin.com

🎶 Made in Memphis
The performance collective MUSE/IQUE hosts a free, three-day open house paying tribute to “Stax Records, Soul and The Black Artists Who Started a Sound Revolution.” Rachael Worby leads an ensemble that features LaVance Colley, DC6 Singers Collective, Chris Pierce and Sy Smith, founder of the nu-soul movement
7:30 p.m. Friday-Sunday. Caltech, Beckman Auditorium, 332 S. Michigan Ave., Pasadena. muse-ique.com

SATURDAY
🎨 Bisa Butler
The New Jersey artist responds to how it feels to be an African American woman living in 2025 with quilted portraits on jet-black cotton or black velvet.
6-8 p.m. Saturday, opening reception; 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, through Nov. 1. Jeffrey Deitch, 7000 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles. deitch.com

🎭 🎶 Huzzah!
Two sisters battle to save their father’s Renaissance fair from financial ruin in the world premiere of a musical comedy by Olivier Award winners and Tony Award nominees Laurence O’Keefe and Nell Benjamin, directed by Annie Tippe.
8 p.m. Saturday through Oct. 19. Old Globe Theatre, 1363 Old Globe Way, San Diego. theoldglobe.org

La Santa Cecilia band members, Pepe Carlos, from left, Marisoul, Alex Bendana and Miguel “Oso” Ramirez.

(Berenice Bautista / Associated Press)

🎸 🎶 La Santa Cecilia
The Grammy-winning quartet fronted by Marisol “La Marisoul” Hernandez crosses borders and genres with passionate songs of love, identity and social justice, fusing Latin American traditions and global rhythms.
8 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 13, and 6 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 14. The Luckman, 5151 State University Drive, Los Angeles. luckmanarts.org

“Day Moon Shore/Through and Before the Immediate Trees” by Annie Lapin, 2025. Acrylic on Linen 68 x 94 in 172.7 x 238.8 cm

(Courtesy of the artist and Nazari an / Curcio.)

🎨 Annie Lapin
The L.A.-based artist blends representation and abstraction to reimagine the Southern California landscape in “Fragile Familiar,” a solo exhibition of new paintings.
6-8 p.m. Saturday, opening reception; 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, through Oct. 25. Nazarian / Curcio, 616 N. La Brea Ave. nazariancurcio.com

🎼 A Musical Genesis
The Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, led by Music Director Jaime Martín, is joined by cellist Nicolas Altstaedt for a program featuring Haydn‘s “La poule,” Schumann’s “Cello Concerto” and Beethoven‘s “Symphony No. 5.”
7:30 p.m. Saturday. Zipper Hall, 200 South Grand Ave., downtown L.A.; 4 p.m. Sunday, The Wallis, 9390 N. Santa Monica Blvd., Beverly Hills. laco.org

Virginia Errázuriz, “Untitled, from the series Cancelados,” circa 1979; mixed media; part of “Transgresoras” exhibition at California Museum of Photography on Riverside.

(© Virginia Errázuriz)

🎨 Transgresoras: Mail Art and Messages, 1960s–2020s
In the U.S., the emergence in the 1950s of the first lively American market for new art led to some artists developing strategies for getting around the limitations of galleries and commerce. In Latin America, meanwhile, artists often faced censorship. Mail art that could circulate through the post office was simultaneously invented in both places to serve those situations, as this intergenerational survey plans to explore. (Christopher Knight)
Noon-5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, through Sept. 24; noon-5 p.m. Thursday and Friday: 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 25-Feb. 15. California Museum of Photography, 3824 Main St., Riverside. ucrarts.ucr.edu

SUNDAY
🎞️ Jaws: The Exhibition
This deep dive into Steven Spielberg’s 1975 blockbuster, starring Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss and Robert Shaw, takes guests through the movie scene by scene via original objects, behind-the-scenes revelations and interactive moments. The film itself screens in 4K at 6:30 p.m. Sunday in the museum’s David Geffen Theater.
10 a.m. Sunday-Monday, Tuesday-Saturday, through July 26. Academy Museum, 6067 Wilshire Blvd. academymuseum.org

Kim Eung Hwa & Korean Dance Company at the Ford

💃 Kim Eung Hwa & Korean Dance Company
Bring the whole family to a gorgeous outdoor amphitheater to enjoy a colorful performance by this 45-year-old traditional dance company. The show commemorates the Korean fall festival Hangawi, which celebrates the harvest season. Traditional drums, as well as fan-and-flower-crown dances, will be performed to lively Korean folk music. (Jessica Gelt)
11:30 a.m. Sunday. The Ford, 2580 Cahuenga Blvd. E. theford.com

🎸 🇲🇽 Zona Libre: A Musical Celebration of Latino L.A.
Skirball Cultural Center, Grand Performances and Zócalo Public Square present a day of musical performances by Renee Goust, Vivir Quintana and La Verdad, plus dance workshops, panel conversations, food and museum exhibitions.
3-9:30 p.m. Sunday. Skirball Cultural Center, 2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd. skirball.org

WEDNESDAY
🎼 🎹 Thomas Kotcheff
The pianist is joined by musician Bryan Curt Kostors and video artist Allison Tanenhaus as they perform works from Kotcheff’s new album, “Between Systems,” as well as interpretations of music by Aphex Twin, Squarepusher, Cher, Céline Dion and Beyoncé.
8 p.m. 2220 Arts + Archives, 2220 Beverly Blvd. pianospheres.org

🎨 Hélio Oiticica
The first major L.A. exhibition in Los Angeles of the artist (1937-1980) includes gouaches, suspended sculptures and a rare oil painting that trace the formative years of Oiticica’s career
6-8 p.m. Wednesday opening; 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, through Nov. 1. Lisson Gallery, 1037 N. Sycamore Ave. lissongallery.com

THURSDAY

Nine Inch Nails vocalist Trent Reznor performing in 2008.

(Stephen Brashear / Associated Press)

🎸 🎶 Nine Inch Nails
The band has a new album of sorts out Sept. 19 in “Tron: Ares,” the latest film score from Trent Reznor and his partner Atticus Ross. The group’s “Peel It Back” tour hits the Forum for two nights; the band looks to be playing in the round for some experimental passages before firing on all cylinders with its new (and old) drummer Josh Freese, who they swapped in from Foo Fighters just days before the tour started. (August Brown)
7:30 p.m. Thursday and Sept. 19. Kia Forum, 3900 W. Manchester Blvd., Inglewood. thekiaforum.com

Culture news and the SoCal scene

“Sealstone with a Battle Scene (The Pylos Combat Agate),” Minoan, 1630 – 1440 BCE; banded agate, gold and bronze.

(Jeff Vanderpool)

Times art critic Christopher Knight weighs in with a review of a “captivating” exhibition, “The Kingdom of Pylos: Warrior-Princes of Ancient Greece,” at the Getty Villa — the first at the museum since January’s ferocious Palisades fire. The most fascinating object on view is a 1.3-inch-long, almond-shaped, gold-tipped agate, carved with an exquisitely detailed battle scene that is almost undetectable to the human eye. The piece is on display outside of Europe for the first time, and is part of a trove of treasures found with the entombed Griffin Warrior — also on display.

Times theater critic Charles McNulty also headed for the Getty Villa for its annual outdoor theater show. This year’s performance of “Oedipus the King, Mama!” comes courtesy of Troubadour Theater Company and turns the Villa’s grounds “into a Freudian carnival of psychosexual madness,” writes McNulty. The show pairs Sophocles’ “Oedipus the King” with Elvis, the king of rock ’n’ roll, to hilarious effect.

McNulty also caught A Noise Within’s production of Richard Bean’s farce “One Man, Two Guvnors,” which is based on “The Servant of Two Masters,” Carlo Goldoni’s mid-18th-century comedy. The classic commedia dell’arte antics follow a hungry busker who clandestinely works for two bosses in 1960s Brighton. “Bean’s play is impressively worked out, mathematically and verbally. The wit is crisp and the comic routines are evergreen, all the more so for the sharpness of the playing,” McNulty writes of the show.

Manuel Oliver is photographed at the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City.

(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

I sat down with Manuel and Patricia Oliver at the Kirk Douglas Theatre to talk about Manuel’s upcoming performance of his one-man-show, “Guac,” which explores the life and death of their son, Joaquin, who was killed in the 2018 Parkland school shooting. Our conversation included plenty of discussion about the Olivers’ quest to effect gun reform in the wake of their unimaginable loss. Creative forms of activism — including theater — are at the heart of those efforts.

I also went to opening night of “Hamilton” on the big screen at the El Capitan Theatre on Friday. I wrote an essay about how the live recording of the stage musical might be the most political film of the year. Here’s why.

A-Z Wagon Stations by Andrew Zittel

(Photo by Lance Brewer. © Andrea Zittel, Courtesy of the artist, Regen Projects, and High Desert Test Sites)

Mirage, Palm Springs, United States. Architect: Doug Aitken, 2017

(Raimund Koch / View via Alamy)

On Thursday, Dwell released its list of “The 25 most important homes of the past 25 years,” and three California structures made the list: A-Z West by Andrea Zittel near Joshua Tree; artist Doug Aitken’s Mirage, which was featured in 2017’s inaugural Desert X exhibition; and the house Axel Vervoordt built for Kim Kardashian in Hidden Hills. Zittel’s creations were featured on Dwell’s cover in its December 2002 issue and is a series of futuristic-looking “escape pods” that open up to the great outdoors and contain little more than a bed and a few hooks for belongings. Aitken made his mark when he covered a ranch-style house in mirrors that effectively camouflaged the house in its arid surroundings. “The mirrors made for iconic selfies, and onlookers clogged up the once-quiet streets, in an attempt not just to see the installation but to take a picture of themselves reflected in this viral ‘house,’” the entry on “Mirage” reads. Kardashian’s house is referred to as “The ship that launched a thousand beiges.” “Vervoordt, along with Claudio Silvestrin, Vincent Van Duysen, and Family New York, stripped back the details of a generic mansion to create a very strange blend of suburbia and austere European luxury that — for better or worse — set the standard for boring high-end home design in the Instagram age,” Dwell wrote.

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art announced that it has been gifted Francis Bacon’s 1969 triptych, “Three Studies of Lucian Freud,” from the estate of philanthropist Elaine Wynn, who died in April and served as a co-chair of LACMA’s board of trustees. It is the first work by Bacon in LACMA’s collection, and will be included in the inaugural installation of the museum’s new David Geffen Galleries. Wynn paid $142 million for the piece at auction.

In the wake of philanthropist Wallis Annenberg’s death, the Wallis Annenberg Legacy Foundation has announced a $10-million gift that will be split evenly between four initiatives of great importance to Annenberg: Santa Monica’s Annenberg Community Beach House; student internships at USC’s Wallis Annenberg Hall; free and low-cost performances for underserved audiences at Beverly Hills’ Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts; and the Wildlife Crossing Fund in Agoura Hills.

— Jessica Gelt

And last but not least

Features columnist Todd Martens says that the most exciting immersive show in L.A. is a funeral. Read all about the show, “The Cortège,” which also features the substantial talents of twins Emily and Elizabeth Hinkler.

Israeli forces have rounded up and arrested Palestinians en masse in the occupied West Bank’s Tulkarem. The operation is being described as “collective punishment” after several Israeli soldiers were injured in an attack.