Film World Backs NAZA Directors Amid Citizenship Threat — SkimNews
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- Israel's culture minister Miki Zohar threatened to revoke the citizenship of directors Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, accusing them of "treason against the state" for being willing to "harm their homeland" in exchange for applause from "antisemites."
- NAZA, an 80-minute Guardian-produced documentary, won the special jury prize at the Venice film festival after a record 25-minute standing ovation; the film features interviews with 24 Israeli military and intelligence officers detailing AI targeting systems used to bombard Gaza.
- Film festival leaders from Telluride, Locarno, San Sebastián, Berlin, and Bologna publicly backed the filmmakers, with San Sebastián's directors stating the film "exposes the systematic genocide of the Palestinian people by the Israeli government."
- More than 1,500 Israeli filmmakers signed a petition defending Abraham and Szor, warning that rhetoric against them was moving toward "effectively sanctioning violence" and posed a physical threat to their lives.
- Abraham and Szor won the documentary Oscar in 2025 for "No Other Land"; following that win, Abraham's family home was targeted by a rightwing mob, which he called "the worst moment of all."
- Laura Poitras and Nan Goldin joined British filmmakers Richard Eyre and Hanif Kureishi in support; Poitras called the threats "a threat to journalists worldwide" and noted that Israel has killed over 200 Palestinian journalists in Gaza.
Why it matters: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has yet to comment on the threat to its recent Oscar winners, while the Academy's silence contrasts sharply with the unified film-festival response — from Venice to Berlin — and the 1,500-signature petition from within Israel's own creative class. The stakes are concrete: if citizenship revocation proceeds, it would create a direct precedent for punishing Israeli documentary makers whose work implicates the state in civilian casualties in Gaza.
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