“No Other Land” made history, winning the award for Best Feature Documentary at the Oscars on March 2, despite having no U.S. distributor and a limited viewing audience. The impact of this powerful film was obvious, however, when a significant number of audience members stood for an ovation as Palestinian director Basel Adra and Yuval Abraham, the Israeli journalist who supported the project, took the stage to accept.
“No Other Land” directors Basel Adra (left) and Yuval Abraham pose with the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature Film, March 2, 2025. (Reuters/Mike Blake)
Co-filmmakers Rachel Szor, Israeli, and Hamdan Ballal, Palestinian, also received awards. An estimated 1 billion people worldwide watched some or all of the Oscar ceremony.
This was not the first time a political film won an Oscar, but it was the first time that one dealing with Israel’s ongoing violent, repressive occupation of Palestinian land did. It was also the first time that the film’s country of origin was stated as Palestine.
Adra and Abraham took turns addressing the significance of their project in their acceptance remarks. Adra, “No Other Land” director, stated: “We call on the world to take serious actions to stop the injustice and to stop the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian people.”
Adra, who became a father two months ago, said: “My hope to my daughter is that she will not have to live the same life I’m living now, always fearing violence, home demolitions, forced displacements that my community Masafer Yatta is facing every day under Israeli occupation.”
He stressed, “‘No Other Land’ reflects the harsh reality we have been enduring for decades and still resist as we call on the world to take serious actions to stop the injustice and to stop the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian people.”
Abraham, a supportive Israeli journalist, stated: “When I look at Basel, I see my brother. But we are unequal. We live in a regime where I am free under civilian law, and Basel is under military laws that destroy lives that he cannot control. … There is a different path, a political solution without ethnic supremacy, with national rights for both of our people.” To wide applause Abraham ended by stating, “The foreign policy in this country is helping to block this path.”
To date, “No Other Land” has won dozens of prizes since its release last year, including at the Berlin Film Festival and the New York Film Critics Circle Awards. Filmed before October 7, 2023, the documentary is not a revolutionary film that defends the Palestinian Resistance, but it provides a moving glimpse into life under a brutal apartheid occupation.