Gaza documentary ‘NAZA’ wows Venice and breaks standing ovation record

'NAZA', the new documentary by 'No Other Land' filmmakers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, earned a record-breaking 24.5-minute standing ovation following its premiere – the longest-ever ovation recorded at the Venice Film Festival. The only documentary selected to this year's Venice Film Festival main competition premiered yesterday and has emerged as a serious Golden Lion contender. NAZA, the new film from Israeli No Other Land directors Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, shows “in detail the systems behind Israel’s calculated mass killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza,” according to its official synopsis. The 80-minute hot-button doc, shot in secrecy at night on the rooftops of Tel Aviv during the ongoing Gaza war, features interviews with 24 Israeli military intelligence officers, soldiers and whitleblowers. They discuss how Palestinians are targeted – hence the title of the film, a military acronym used offhandedly by Israeli Military Forces referring to the number of civilians expected to be killed in an airstrike in Gaza. It stands for "Nezek Agavi": collateral damage. The film builds on reporting between 2023 and 2025 published by the Israeli-Palestinian +972 Magazine, the Hebrew-language outlet Local Call, and The Guardian. NAZA earned a record-breaking 24.5-minute standing ovation following its premiere – the longest-ever ovation recorded at the festival. Previously, the record was held by Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania’s Gaza-set The Voice of Hind Rajab, about the death of a 6-year-old girl killed by Israeli military fire while attempting to flee Gaza City with her family. The film, which premiered last year in Venice and was one of Euronews Culture's Best Movies of 2025, elicited a 22-minute standing ovation. Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor's No Other Land was released in 2024 and followed Israeli settler violence against Palestinian communities in the West Bank. It won the Oscar for Best Documentary. Speaking at a press conference yesterday, Abraham said: “We just told these officers and soldiers, please describe to us what you did. Of course there were other questions that arose but the principal question was a question of detail - sketch it for us, we want to know how it worked. And sometimes just asking the question, you get answers.” In an interview with Variety, Abraham added: “As Israelis, we found ourselves wanting to use the kind of position that we have - the access that we have to people in our own society who went into the military - to look at that system as it carried out what all human rights organizations are saying is a genocide.” NAZA is produced by The Guardian, as well as James Wilson and Jonathan Glazer - the Oscar-winning team behind the film The Zone of Interest. Considering Venice comes to an end tomorrow and the raptuous reaction to NAZA, the question remains: Will it become only the third documentary to win the Golden Lion, following 2013's Sacro GRA and 2022's All The Beauty and the Bloodshed? NAZA will screen in Spain at San Sebastián International Film Festival on 23 September and then at New York Film Festival on 26 September. As of writing, no official theatrical release date has been announed, but French distribution company MK2 Films is handling world sales rights. This year's Golden Lion winner will be announced on Saturday 12 September.