The 83rd Venice International Film Festival announced this week that it has added NAZA, a highly charged new documentary by Israeli filmmakers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, two of the four directors of the Oscar-winning No Other Land, to its main competition.
NAZA will have its world premiere at Venice on September 10 and will compete for the Golden Lion. It is the only documentary among the 21 films in competition this year.
According to the press release, the film “was shot at night on rooftops in Tel Aviv, [and] examines Israeli military systems used in the Gaza war and focuses on Palestinian civilian casualties.”
The film draws on investigations published between 2023 and 2025 by +972 Magazine and Local Call, as well as The Guardian.
Film's title refers to estimates of civilian casualties anticipated in airstrikes
The title, NAZA, refers to the Hebrew military acronym short for “collateral damage” and, in the context of the film, refers to estimates of civilian casualties anticipated in airstrikes.
The film was produced by The Guardian and James Wilson of JW Films, in collaboration with Placeholder Films and Unseen Hand. Jonathan Glazer is executive producer. Wilson and Glazer were part of the Oscar-winning team behind The Zone of Interest.
Abraham and Szor previously collaborated with Palestinian filmmakers Basel Adra and Hamdan Ballal on No Other Land – a controversial documentary about the Masafer Yatta region – which won numerous international prizes, beginning with an award at the 2024 Berlin International Film Festival, and went on to win the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 2025.
'Together, our voices are stronger'
At the Oscars, Abraham called for an end to the destruction in Gaza while also calling for the release of the Israeli hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7.
“We made this film, Palestinians and Israelis, because together our voices are stronger,” he said in his acceptance speech.
No Other Land and its directors generated controversy in Israel, with Culture and Sport Minister Miki Zohar denouncing its Oscar victory and many criticizing it for omitting context and facts.
Since the film’s Oscar win, the issue of violence against Palestinians by Jews in the West Bank has come to dominate the headlines even more.
NAZA will not be the only film connected to Israel at Venice this year. Veteran Israeli filmmaker Amos Gitai will present The Road to Jericho in the festival’s Venice Open – Out of Competition section.
The French-British-Israeli production follows a journey from Jerusalem toward Jericho and examines the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through the legacy of the Oslo process and the situation of the Bedouin community of Khan al-Ahmar.
The Venice Film Festival will run September 2-12.