Naza, a documentary by Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor examining Israel’s military operations in Gaza, has won the Special Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival.
Speaking at the post-awards news conference on Saturday, juror Kaouther Ben Hania highlighted the film's documentation of events still unfolding in the war.
"Those two brilliant directors found a way with the constraints of filming testimonies anonymously," the Tunisian filmmaker said.
"And it's not about their feelings. They are cogs in a bigger machine. I found this just brilliant, necessary, and very important in a time when we are talking a lot about denial.
"And also the fact that they are filming fresh history. The genocide is still ongoing. This is brave. And they did it in a very strong, cinematic way. That's why I think it's important to recognize the courage, the vision, and also the importance of this movie," she added.
Naza was among the honourees during a ceremony where Danish-Egyptian director May el-Toukhy’s Woman Unknown won the Golden Lion. The latter's recognition followed an ovation lasting about 24 and a half minutes at Thursday’s premiere, when audience members held up Palestinian flags.
Produced by The Guardian and James Wilson, with Jonathan Glazer serving as an executive producer, Naza draws on an investigation spanning almost three years and interviews with 24 Israeli military intelligence officers and soldiers.
Participants were filmed at night on Tel Aviv rooftops, with their faces and voices digitally altered to protect their identities.
Before the 80-minute documentary's premiere, Abraham told AFP, “We are letting the soldiers and the officers speak about what they did.”
The film examines the use of artificial intelligence in selecting targets, with interviewees describing operations carried out despite knowledge that civilians were present. Its title comes from an Israeli military term referring to the number of civilians expected to be killed in an air strike.
Abraham and Szor previously co-directed No Other Land with Palestinian filmmakers Basel Adra and Hamdan Ballal. That documentary, about the displacement of Palestinian communities in Masafer Yatta in the occupied West Bank, won the Oscar for best documentary feature in 2025.
Ben Hania was part of a jury led by Maggie Gyllenhaal a year after her Gaza-set film, The Voice of Hind Rajab, won Venice’s Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize. Her drama reconstructs the efforts to rescue a Palestinian girl trapped in a car under Israeli fire, using recordings of her calls to the Palestine Red Crescent Society.
