- NAZA received a record 24.5-minute ovation at Venice.
- The documentary features interviews with 24 Israeli soldiers and intelligence officers.
- Jonathan Glazer joined the applause for the No Other Land director
A new Gaza documentary has made history at the Venice Film Festival. NAZA, directed by Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor of No Other Land fame, received a 24.5-minute standing ovation at its premiere on Thursday. This makes it the longest ovation ever recorded at the festival, as per a Variety report.
The response continued for nearly half an hour, with Oscar-winning filmmaker Jonathan Glazer, who serves as an executive producer on the documentary, joining the applause and embracing Abraham and Szor. The directors appeared emotional during the reception, while some members of the audience were seen holding Palestinian flags.
The 24.5-minute ovation has now moved past the previous Venice record set by The Voice of Hind Rajab. Kaouther Ben Hania's Gaza-set film received a 22-minute standing ovation at last year's festival.
What Is NAZA About?
The documentary examines Israel's military operations in Gaza through interviews with 24 Israeli military intelligence officers and soldiers. According to its official synopsis, NAZA shows “in detail the systems behind Israel's calculated mass killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza”.
The title refers to a term used in Israeli intelligence. “NAZA” is described in the film as an acronym for collateral damage and is used to indicate the number of civilians expected to be killed in an airstrike.
Abraham and Szor worked on the documentary for three years, with much of it filmed secretly at night from rooftops in Tel Aviv. The film was added to Venice's competition lineup only a month before the festival began, after the filmmakers completed the project.
Speaking to Variety before the premiere, Abraham explained why they wanted to make the film. “As Israelis, we found ourselves wanting to use the kind of position that we have — the access that we have to people in our own society who went into the military — to look at that system as it carried out what all human rights organizations are saying is a genocide.”
NAZA is the only documentary feature competing at Venice this year. It is produced by The Guardian and James Wilson of JW Films, with Glazer serving as executive producer. Abraham and Szor were also among the four directors of No Other Land, which won the 2025 Oscar for Best Documentary.