Israeli Filmmakers Compete at Venice Festival with Gaza Civilian Killings Documentary

About a year and a half after winning an Oscar for "No Land's Man," Israeli filmmakers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Shor are returning with a new documentary titled "NAZA." The film, which will have its world premiere on September 10 at the 83rd Venice Film Festival, was officially selected for the festival's main competition. "NAZA" was filmed at night on rooftops in Tel Aviv and aims to expose the mechanisms behind what its creators describe as the "massive and deliberate killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza by Israel." The documentary is based on investigations published between 2023 and 2025 by Abraham in the Israeli news site "Local Call," the Israeli-Palestinian magazine 972+, and The Guardian.

The film's title derives from the Israeli Defense Forces acronym "Naza" ("Collateral Damage"), referring to uninvolved civilians who might be harmed during attacks not aimed at them. Throughout the film, the term is used to describe the number of civilians intelligence estimates could be killed in airstrikes. Produced by The Guardian's documentary department and British producer James Wilson, the film also involves Jewish-British director Jonathan Glazer, who previously won an Oscar alongside Wilson for the international feature "Area of Interest." "NAZA" is the only documentary among the 21 films competing in Venice's main competition this year.

Abraham and Shor were two of the four creators of "No Land's Man," alongside Basel Adra and Hamdan Bilal. That film documented the struggle of Palestinian residents of Masafer Yatta against home demolitions and evictions and won the 2025 Oscar for Best Documentary after a successful festival run starting at Berlin. Abraham and Shor are expected to attend the Venice screening with producers and journalists from The Guardian. The festival runs from September 2 to 12.