{"id":113316,"date":"2026-09-13T10:44:54","date_gmt":"2026-09-13T10:44:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/israeli-made-gaza-documentary-wins-venice-special-jury-prize-the-express-tribune\/"},"modified":"2026-09-13T10:44:54","modified_gmt":"2026-09-13T10:44:54","slug":"israeli-made-gaza-documentary-wins-venice-special-jury-prize-the-express-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/israeli-made-gaza-documentary-wins-venice-special-jury-prize-the-express-tribune\/","title":{"rendered":"Israeli-made Gaza documentary wins Venice special jury prize | The Express Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"

Film is about Israel’s AI-assisted killing of civilians in Gaza, was only documentary in Venice’s main competition<\/p>\n

Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor interviewed Israeli military members for their documentary, ‘NAZA’ . PHOTO: AFP <\/p>\n

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A chilling new documentary about Israel’s AI-assisted killing of civilians in Gaza by two Israeli directors won a special jury prize at the Venice Film Festival on Saturday.<\/p>\n

“NAZA”, by Oscar-winning Israeli directors Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, had been tipped by some critics for the top Golden Lion prize for best film after a record-breaking 25-minute ovation at its premiere on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Receiving the award, Abraham said that in the 10 days since the festival began, “Israel killed six Palestinian children in Gaza at least”.<\/p>\n

“The Israeli intelligence officers we spoke with talked to us how this mass killing is systemic: not by accident, but by design, actions of murder and policies that are based on the total dehumanisation of Palestinians,” he told the audience.<\/p>\n

The special jury prize is given out each year by the jury to recognise an outstanding work, but it is below the Golden and Silver Lions in the pecking order.<\/p>\n

Abraham and Szor won an Oscar in 2025 for their film “No Other Land” about Israeli settler violence in the occupied West Bank.<\/p>\n

In their Gaza film, the directing pair used conversations with 24 different Israeli military or intelligence whistleblowers who spoke on condition that their identities be protected.<\/p>\n

Read: <\/strong>Gaza film vies for Venice Film Festival top prize<\/a><\/p>\n

The 80-minute film left many audience members stunned, with interviewees describing how they felt like they worked in a killing “factory” or a lethal video game while using Israel’s AI-powered targeting systems to bombard Gaza.<\/p>\n

It was described as an “urgent, gut-punch” by film magazine Screen<\/em>, while The Hollywood Reporter<\/em> said it inspired “outrage” and “most certainly disgust, on a profound level, for the current Israeli regime”.<\/p>\n

The film was the only documentary in Venice’s main competition.<\/p>\n

Abraham called it “really, really, especially important for us that Israelis watch this film.”<\/p>\n

“It’s our country that is doing these crimes,” he said.<\/p>\n

Israel’s bombardment of Gaza has left around 73,500 Palestinians dead and 174,500 wounded since October 2023, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, whose figures the United Nations deem reliable.<\/p>\n

The pounding of the territory followed an attack on Israel by Hamas militants on October 7, 2023, that resulted in the death of 1,219 people, according to an AFP<\/em> tally based on official figures.<\/p>\n

The Israeli military has criticised the use of anonymous testimonies in the film, saying on Friday the identities of the whistleblowers “cannot be verified”.<\/p>\n

Israel denies deliberately targeting civilians.<\/p>\n

Asked by a journalist following the awards ceremony about the military’s reaction, Abraham responded that “it seems like an attempt to not face reality”.<\/p>\n

Abraham defended the film’s reporting, done in partnership with Britain’s The Guardian<\/em> newspaper, calling it “rigorous” and its findings reported by other mainstream journalists as well.<\/p>\n

He added that the filmmakers had received threats but did not go into more detail.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Film is about Israel’s AI-assisted killing of civilians in Gaza, was only documentary in Venice’s main competition Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor interviewed Israeli military members for their documentary, ‘NAZA’ . PHOTO: AFP A chilling new documentary about Israel’s AI-assisted killing of civilians in Gaza by two Israeli directors won a special jury prize at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":113317,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.tribune.com.pk\/media\/images\/untitled-design-751789283386-0\/untitled-design-751789283386-0-640x480.webp","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-113316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t