The 83rd Venice International Film Festival has added “Naza,” a documentary about Gaza, to the official roster of films in competition. Directed by Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, it is the only doc to compete for the Golden Lion at this year’s fest, which runs Sept. 2-12. The film will make its world premiere on Sept. 10.
Abraham and Szor are two of the four directors of “No Other Land,” the documentary about the destruction of a Palestinian community in the West Bank, which won the 2025 Oscar for best documentary. The new film is produced by The Guardian and James Wilson and executive-produced by Jonathan Glazer. (The latter two previously worked together on the Academy Award-winning international film “The Zone of Interest.”)
A synopsis of “Naza” provided by the festival reads, “Shot at night on the rooftops of Tel Aviv, the film reveals in detail the systems behind Israel’s calculated mass killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza.”
“Naza” will join films in competition that include Martin McDonagh’s “Wild Horse Nine,” with John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell; Werner Herzog’s “Bucking Fastard,” starring sisters Rooney and Kate Mara; Florian Zeller’s “Bunker,” with Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz; Lance Oppenheim’s “Primetime,” starring Robert Pattinson as “To Catch a Predator” host Chris Hansen; and Casey Affleck’s “Company,” with Nick Nolte and Ben Mendelsohn. “Ink,” a newspaper drama directed by Danny Boyle and starring Jack O’Connell, Guy Pearce and Claire Foy, opens the festival on Sept. 2.
Maggie Gyllenhaal heads this year’s Venice jury, whose members include Kaouther Ben Hania and Daniel Blumberg.
“Naza” isn’t the only headline-grabbing documentary at the fest: Playing out of competition is “Musk,” Alex Gibney’s four-hour look at the controversial entrepreneur behind Space X and Tesla.
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