Palestinian-Israeli film No Other Land wins Oscar for Best Documentary

Co-director Basel Adra highlights ‘ethnic cleaning of Palestinian people’ in his acceptance speech

Israeli journalist and filmmaker Yuval Abraham (R) and Palestinian journalist and filmmaker Basel Adra accept the award for Best Documentary Feature for No Other Land at the Oscars. AFP

Palestinian-Israeli film No Other Land has won Best Documentary Feature Film at the 2025 Academy Awards. It is the first prize won by Palestine at the Oscars.

The documentary depicts the struggles faced by Palestinian journalist Basel Adra as he attempts to protect his West Bank village Masafer Yatta from Israeli settlers.

Co-directed by Adra and Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham, the film has been shunned by studios and has been self-distributed by the film's production team in the US, despite finding distribution in 24 countries including the UK and France.

“It's such a big honour for the four of us and everybody supported us for this documentary,” Adra said on stage in his acceptance speech.

“About two months ago, I became a father. I hope my daughter will not have to live the same life I'm living now: always fearing settler violence, home demolitions and forced displacements that my community and myself are living and facing every day under the Israeli occupation.

"[This is] 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 Palestinian people.”

Abraham added that the film was made by both Palestinian and Israelis “because together, our voices are stronger”.

Abraham also called for the end of “the atrocious destruction of Gaza and its people" and said the Israeli hostages "brutally taken in the crime of October 7 must be freed”.

Abraham added: “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 and he cannot control.

“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 am here, the foreign policy in this country is helping to block this path. 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.”

The filmmakers also supported Palestine on the Oscars red carpet earlier in the evening.

The film has received numerous accolades since its premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival last year, including prizes from the Gotham Awards, International Documentary Association and Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards.

Three million Palestinians and about 500,000 Israeli Jews call the occupied West Bank home. According to Israeli non-profit group Peace Now, more than 50 square kilometres of the territory was annexed in 2024 – more than in any previous calendar year.

Controversy erupted in February after Abraham, while receiving the top documentary prize at the Berlin International Film Festival, criticised Israel's attacks on Gaza and branded his country's actions in the West Bank “apartheid”.

The speech sparked an outcry in German media, with politicians accusing him of being anti-Semitic. Israeli media also aired a small segment and labelled it as anti-Semitism. Abraham later said he was unable to return home as a result, with threats made to him and his family.

“A right-wing Israeli mob came to my family’s home yesterday to search for me, threatening close family members who fled to another town in the middle of the night,” he posted on social media at the time.

“I am still getting death threats and had to cancel my flight home. This happened after Israeli media and German politicians absurdly labelled my Berlinale award speech – where I called for equality between Israelis and Palestinians, a ceasefire and an end to apartheid – as 'anti-Semitic'.”

No Other Land was the only film by an Arab filmmaker to be nominated for this year's Academy Awards. From Ground Zero, a collection of 32 short films from Gazan filmmakers, was shortlisted in the Best International Feature Film category but failed to achieve nomination.

Hollywoodgate from Egyptian director Ibrahim Nash'at, also shortlisted in the documentary category, was not nominated, nor was An Orange from Jaffa from Gaza-born filmmaker Mohammed Almughanni, shortlisted in the Best Live Action Short Film category.

In the Shadow of the Cypress from Iranian filmmakers Hossein Molayemi and Shirin Sohani was nominated in the Best Animated Short Film category.

Adra told Variety in January that an Oscar nomination would increase awareness of the documentary. “I really advise everybody in the US who has heard about No Other Land to watch it. It’s important for people to watch it so they can understand what’s going on.

“And we hope people … don’t just watch it to feel sad or sorry for us, but to join our struggle and our movement and take action. Especially in the US which, as a country, is a main player in what’s going on. Americans have a responsibility, I believe, and I hope that they watch it and move in the right direction and take any action they can in order to help us change.”