The Venice Film Festival is set to hand out its top awards on Saturday, bringing to a close two weeks of screenings, with “NAZA”, a documentary exposing the mass killing of Palestinians in Gaza, emerging as a leading contender for the Golden Lion.
“NAZA”, directed by Oscar winners Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, received a record 25-minute standing ovation following its premiere on Thursday and has become the festival’s highest-rated film among international critics, according to Screen magazine.
The documentary is based on testimony from 24 Israeli whistleblowers whose identities were digitally altered. They provide first-hand accounts of Israel’s AI-assisted targeting and relentless bombing of besieged Gaza, where Israeli attacks have killed more than 73,500 Palestinians since October 2023.
One interviewee describes operating the targeting system as being “like a video game” because attacks are carried out remotely.
The film’s reception has placed Gaza once again at the centre of attention at Venice. Last year, the docudrama “The Voice of Hind Rajab”, about the killing of five-year-old Palestinian girl Hind Rajab by Israeli forces in Gaza, received a then-record 23-minute standing ovation.
Despite its powerful reception, the film finished second, with the Golden Lion going to Jim Jarmusch’s “Father Mother Sister Brother”.
“NAZA” faces several other contenders for the Golden Lion, including South Korean filmmaker Lee Chang-dong’s “Possible Love”, Martin McDonagh’s “Wild Horse Nine” and Hirokazu Kore-eda’s “Look Back”.
The line-up also includes “DAU”, centred on Soviet nuclear physicist Lev Landau; Danny Boyle’s “Ink”, examining British tabloid The Sun; and “Primetime”, starring Robert Pattinson as an ambitious television presenter who hunts paedophiles.
The Golden Lion is among world cinema’s most prestigious prizes and can significantly boost a film’s prospects during Hollywood’s awards season.
A victory for “NAZA” would also carry political weight, rewarding a film built around Israeli insiders’ accounts of the Israeli genocidal war in Gaza and placing Palestinian suffering at the centre of one of the international film industry’s biggest stages.
The closing ceremony begins at 7 pm local time (1700 GMT).
