San Francisco Frontiers - Israeli-made Gaza documentary wins Venice special jury prize

"NAZA", by Oscar-winning Israeli directors Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, had been tipped by some critics for the top Golden Lion prize for best film after a record-breaking 25-minute ovation at its premiere on Thursday.

Receiving the award, Abraham said that in the 10 days since the festival began, "Israel killed six Palestinian children in Gaza at least".

"The Israeli intelligence officers we spoke with talked to us how this mass killing is systemic: not by accident, but by design, actions of murder and policies that are based on the total dehumanisation of Palestinians," he told the audience.

The special jury prize is given out each year by the jury to recognise an outstanding work, but it is below the Golden and Silver Lions in the pecking order.

Abraham and Szor won an Oscar in 2025 for their film "No Other Land" about Israeli settler violence in the occupied West Bank.

In their Gaza film, the directing pair used conversations with 24 different Israeli military or intelligence whistleblowers who spoke on condition that their identities be protected.

The 80-minute film left many audience members stunned, with interviewees describing how they felt like they worked in a killing "factory" or a lethal video game while using Israel's AI-powered targeting systems to bombard Gaza.

It was described as an "urgent, gut-punch" by film magazine Screen, while The Hollywood Reporter said it inspired "outrage" and "most certainly disgust, on a profound level, for the current Israeli regime".

The film was the only documentary in Venice's main competition.

Abraham called it "really, really, especially important for us that Israelis watch this film."

"It's our country that is doing these crimes," he said.

Israel's bombardment of Gaza has left around 73,500 Palestinians dead and 174,500 wounded since October 2023, according to Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry, whose figures the United Nations deem reliable.

The pounding of the territory followed an attack on Israel by Hamas militants on October 7, 2023, that resulted in the death of 1,219 people, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

The Israeli military has criticised the use of anonymous testimonies in the film, saying on Friday the identities of the whistleblowers "cannot be verified".

Israel denies deliberately targeting civilians.

Asked by a journalist following the awards ceremony about the military's reaction, Abraham responded that "it seems like an attempt to not face reality".

Abraham defended the film's reporting, done in partnership with Britain's The Guardian newspaper, calling it "rigorous" and its findings reported by other mainstream journalists as well.

He added that the filmmakers had received threats but did not go into more detail.

F.Young--SFF