The 2024 film No Other Land, which documents life in the West Bank's Masafer Yatta region under abuse by Israeli authorities and settlers, has won the Oscar for best documentary.
The documentary marks the directorial debut of Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham, and Rachel Szor, an Israeli-Palestinian collective of four activists. Its makers describe it as an act of resistance in the pursuit of justice amid the ongoing regional conflict.
In his acceptance speech, director Yuval Avraham said, "We made this film, Palestinians and Israelis, because together, our voices are stronger. We see […] the atrocious destruction of Gaza and its people, which must end; the Israeli hostages, brutally taken in the crime of October 7, who must be freed."
Avraham said about his codirector, "when I look at Basel, I see my brother – but we are unequal. We live in a regime where I am free under civilian law, and Basel is under military laws that destroy his life. There is a different path, a political solution without ethnic supremacy, with national rights for both of our people."
"And I have to say, as I'm here, the foreign policy in this country is helping block this path," Avraham added. "And why? Can't you see that we are intertwined? That my people can be truly safe if Basel's people are truly free and safe? There is another way. It's not too late for life, for the living."
Co-director Basel Adra said that he became a father two months ago, and that his hope for his daughter is that "she will not have to live always fearing settlers' violence, home demolitions and forced displacements that my community, Masafer Yatta, is living and facing every day under the Israeli occupation."
Adra added: "'No Other Land' reflects the harsh reality that we have been enduring for decades and still resist as we call on the world to take serious actions to stop the injustice and to stop the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people."
The film is a co-production between Palestine and Norway and also won the Panorama Audience Award for best documentary film and the Berlinale Documentary Film Award in 2024.
Israel's Minister of Culture, Miki Zohar, called the film's win "a sad moment," saying that the film manipulates and distorts Israel's image to international audiences.
"This is precisely why we passed a reform in state-funded cinema – to ensure that taxpayer money is directed toward works of art that speak to the Israeli audience, rather than an industry that builds its career on slandering Israel on the global stage," Zohar said.
No Other Land raised an outcry in Israel following the winners' speeches at the Berlin International Film Festival calling for a cease-fire in Gaza and pleading the German government to stop supplying weapons to Israel. Since then, the movie has won numerous prizes worldwide, including the Critics Choice Award (of American critics), the Gotham Awards, and the European Film Awards.
It was filmed over five years (2019 – 2023), combining 20 years of documentation accumulated by the residents struggling against their eviction.
In Israel/Palestine, the film is available for free online viewing, the directors said.
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