NAZA film wins award in Venice; Israeli directors threatened with loss of citizenship after Gaza documentary

One of the most talked-about and celebrated films at this year’s Venice Film Festival is NAZA, the new film from the Israeli directors of “No Other Land”, Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, and the only documentary selected for this year’s main competition.

According to the official synopsis, it shows “in detail the systems behind Israel’s calculated mass killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza.”

The 80-minute documentary, secretly filmed at night on rooftops in Tel Aviv during the ongoing war in Gaza, features interviews with 24 Israeli military intelligence officers, soldiers and informants. They discuss how Palestinians have been targeted — hence the film’s title, a military acronym used by the Israel Defense Forces to refer to the number of civilians expected to be killed in an airstrike on Gaza. It stands for “Nezek Agavi”: collateral damage.

During Saturday’s awards ceremony, NAZA won the Special Jury Prize. Just a day later, Israel’s Minister of Culture, Miki Zohar, announced that he would “act immediately to revoke the Israeli citizenship” of the directing duo, directly equating criticism of Israel’s actions with antisemitism.

According to a translation provided by X, Zohar called NAZA “disgusting” and the Venice Film Festival honor “shocking”, adding: “The self-hatred burning in the creators, who are willing to harm their own homeland just to get applause from antisemites around the world, is inconceivable and constitutes a betrayal of the state.”

Here is a translation of Zohar’s statement: “The victory of the disgusting film NZA at the Venice Film Festival is shocking. The self-hatred that burns in the creators, who are willing to harm their own homeland just to get applause from antisemites around the world, is inconceivable and constitutes a betrayal of the state. This is exactly why I led the important reform in cinema so that Israeli citizens will no longer need to pay from their own pockets for harm against IDF soldiers and the State of Israel. As Minister of Culture, I will act immediately to revoke the Israeli citizenship of these disgusting creators for betrayal of the state. You are a disgrace and an embarrassment to the entire people of Israel. Leave!” said Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir on X.

“I am sure your friends, namely our enemies Hamas in Gaza, will welcome you with open arms,” he added.

NAZA received a record 25-minute standing ovation at its Venice premiere. The previous record was held by Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania’s “The Voice of Hind Rajab”, set in Gaza and telling the story of a 6-year-old girl killed by Israeli military fire as she tried to leave Gaza City with her family. The film, which premiered last year in Venice and was one of Euronews Culture’s Best Films of 2025, drew a record 22-minute standing ovation.

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Unlike Zohar and Ben-Gvir, some have praised NAZA and its directors. Former lawmaker Yousef Jabareen, leader of the left-wing Hadash party, congratulated the directors on the award, thanking them for exposing “these terrible crimes and the brutal reality in Gaza.”

Moreover, the newspaper Haaretz wrote in an editorial: “By screening their film at the Venice Film Festival, Abraham and Szor are trying to force Israelis to confront what they already know: that there is a black stain on the way Israel is waging war in Gaza, to put it mildly.”

Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor’s previous film, “No Other Land”, was released in 2024 and dealt with Israeli settler violence against Palestinian communities in the West Bank. It won the Oscar for Best Documentary.

Hamas launched an attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. Gaza’s health ministry has reported more than 73,000 deaths in the past three years of Israeli bombardment. Organizations including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the United Nations have described Israel’s actions as “genocide”, as did a report published in June by an independent UN commission, which found that “Israeli authorities and security forces have deliberately targeted Palestinian children, resulting in genocide and atrocious crimes in the Gaza Strip and war crimes in the West Bank.”

NAZA relies on reporting between 2023 and 2025 published by the Israeli-Palestinian magazine +972, the Hebrew-language media outlet Local Call and The Guardian. The documentary will screen in Spain at the San Sebastián International Film Festival on September 23 and then at the New York Film Festival on September 26.

So far, no official theatrical release date has been announced, but French distributor MK2 Films holds the worldwide sales rights.