Israeli film-makers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor will release their award-winning Gaza documentary NAZA across more than 50 territories globally, starting this September. The film investigates military systems behind civilian casualties in Gaza and has drawn international theatrical deals alongside fierce political backlash in Israel.
Global Theatrical Rollout and Free Digital Streaming Plans
The international distribution plan follows an unprecedented reception at the Venice Film Festival earlier this month, where the award-winning documentary from Israeli film-makers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor picked up the Special Jury Prize and a festival-record 25-minute standing ovation. Paris-based sales agent mk2 Films has secured theatrical distributors across 56 markets, including France, the UK, Germany, Japan, Brazil, Australia, and the Middle East. After screenings in Bologna and at the San Sebastián film festival, the film will receive its North American premiere on Saturday at the New York film festival before opening four days later at the IFC Center in New York City. On 9 October it will expand to Los Angeles and other key US cities before a national rollout.
North American audiences will see the film debut at the New York Film Festival before it opens at the IFC Center in New York City. Screenings will expand to Los Angeles and other U.S. cities on October 9 ahead of a national rollout. In an unusual distribution move, The Guardian will make NAZA available for global audiences for free on its website in late November following the theatrical run, as part of the news organisation’s commitment to the dissemination of independent journalism. A number of distributors and cinemas in Israel have been offered the film, and the Guardian is exploring ways by which NAZA can be seen in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Journalistic Origins and Intelligence Testimony inside NAZA
The documentary builds upon years of investigative reporting. The project expands on journalism first published between 2023 and 2025 by The Guardian, the Israeli-Palestinian publication +972 Magazine, and the Hebrew-language outlet Local Call, including first-of-their-kind investigations into how Israel uses AI to identify targets in Gaza.
Shot at night on the rooftops of Tel Aviv, the film features interviews with 24 members of Israeli intelligence and military, granted on the condition of anonymity. The documentary reveals the systems behind Israel’s calculated mass killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza. The film’s title, NAZA, comes from a military acronym euphemistically used by Israeli intelligence to indicate the number of civilians that it expects will be killed in an airstrike. Filmmakers Abraham and Szor previously won the best documentary Oscar for No Other Land, along with their two Palestinian co-directors, Basel Adra and Hamdan Ballal. NAZA is produced by The Guardian and James Wilson of JW Films, with Jonathan Glazer, the Oscar-winning film-maker of The Zone of Interest and Under the Skin, executive producing.
“NAZA is grounded in rigorous journalism published over the past three years,” said Harry Davies, a Guardian investigations correspondent and one of NAZA’s producers. “But it is also a powerful piece of cinema that will soon be available on screens, large and small, around the world.”
Political Backlash and International Solidarity
While international audiences prepare for screenings, the documentary has been attacked by Israeli politicians including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has threatened to strip the directors of their Israeli citizenship even though he has no power to do this under the country’s laws.
“We made this film out of a sense of obligation to use our position as Israelis to examine the systems behind the mass killing of Palestinian civilians for which our country is responsible. The threats from the Israeli government to revoke our citizenship and the death threats do not change that and will not stop the film. We thank our colleagues for the solidarity and look forward to sharing NAZA all over the world very soon,” Abraham and Szor said in a statement.
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