NAZA Documentary Earns Record 24.5-Minute Ovation at Venice Film Festival
NAZA, a documentary by No Other Land directors Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, received a record 24.5-minute standing ovation at its Venice Film Festival premiere.
A new documentary from the directors of No Other Land drew the longest standing ovation in the history of the Venice Film Festival at its premiere on Thursday.
NAZA, directed by Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, was met with 24.5 minutes of applause, surpassing the 22-minute ovation for The Voice of Hind Rajab at last year's edition. The festival concludes on Saturday.
Jonathan Glazer, the Oscar-winning director of The Zone of Interest and an executive producer on the film, embraced Abraham and Szor and cheered them on during the extended applause. The directing duo appeared somber and grew teary-eyed at moments, as did members of the audience, some of whom held up Palestinian flags.
According to its official synopsis, NAZA examines the systems behind Israel's mass killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza. The film was shot in secrecy at night on the rooftops of Tel Aviv and features interviews with 24 Israeli military intelligence officers and soldiers.
The title refers to an acronym used by Israeli intelligence for collateral damage, indicating the number of civilians expected to be killed in an airstrike.
The documentary was a late addition to Venice's competition lineup, added a month after the initial slate was announced in July. At a press conference earlier on Thursday, the directors said the last-minute inclusion was because they were still finishing the film, which took three years to complete.
Abraham and Szor were two of the four directors of No Other Land, which won the 2025 Best Documentary Oscar and depicts Israeli government efforts to force Palestinians from their homes in the southern West Bank.
In an interview ahead of the premiere, Abraham said that as Israelis, they wanted to use their position and access to people in their own society who had served in the military to examine the system as it carried out what human rights organisations describe as a genocide.
Last year, Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania's Gaza-set The Voice of Hind Rajab, about the death of a six-year-old girl killed by Israeli military fire while attempting to flee Gaza City with her family, received a 22-minute standing ovation, previously the festival's longest. Ben Hania is part of the Maggie Gyllenhaal-led jury that will select the award winners on Saturday.