Oscars Shortlists Include Israeli, Palestinian Films About Oct. 7 Hostage, Deceased Palestinian Girl

Four films about Israelis and Palestinians are on the various shortlists of films that will advance for the 98th Academy Awards, it was announced on Tuesday.

The shortlist for the Documentary Feature Film category features two Israeli films this year.

“Holding Liat” follows efforts to secure the release of Liat Atzili, a US-born Israeli educator who was kidnapped from her home in Kibbutz Nir Oz by Hamas-led terrorists on Oct. 7, 2023. Atzili was held captive in the Gaza Strip for almost two months until she returned home in the first ceasefire and hostage-release deal between Israel and Hamas in November 2023. Her husband, Aviv Atzili, was murdered by Hamas terrorists during the Oct. 7 massacre.

The film made its world premiere in February at the Berlin International Film Festival, where it won the annual Berlinale Documentary Award and also an Ecumenical Jury Prize. The film is directed by Brandon Kramer and co-produced by Lance Kramer and Darren Aronofsky with others. The Kramer brothers are related to Atzili.

“Coexistence, My Ass!” is the second Israeli film on the Oscars shortlist for Documentary Feature Film. It’s about Israeli activist-comedian Noam Shuster and her one-woman show, as well as her experience growing up in the Neve Shalom/”Oasis of Peace” village in Israel, where Arab Israelis and Jewish-Israeli families live together. The village was founded in 1972 by Father Bruno Hussar, who was born Jewish but converted to Catholicism. Children are taught in both Arabic and Hebrew in the village’s school. The film also mentions Shuster’s personal experiences during the start of the Israel-Hamas war.

On the shortlist for Best International Feature Film are two films that focus on Palestinian perspectives including the controversial historical drama “Palestine 36,” which is the official Palestinian submission to the Academy Awards.

The two-hour film is about the Arab Revolt against the British administrative government in what was then known as Mandatory Palestine that took place from 1936-1939. It includes archival footage but also revolves around characters that are both fictional and historical. The film was shot in both Jordan and the Palestinian territories, starting in early 2023 right before the Oct. 7 Hamas-led terrorist attack in southern Israel. It is the “only feature filmed in Palestine during the first two years” of the Israel-Hamas war, according to The Hollywood Reporter. It received a 20-minute standing ovation when it made its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival in September.

Also on the international shortlist is the drama from Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania titled “The Voice of Hind Rajab,” which is about the real-life death of six-year-old Palestinian girl Hind Rajab during the Israel-Hamas war. Rajab was trapped in a car that had allegedly come under fire by Israeli military forces in Gaza in January 2024. She was later found dead. Israel claimed its troops were not in the area at the time. The movie is based on real audio recordings of Rajab’s calls to Red Crescent volunteers, pleading for help. Her death sparked international outrage and resulted in violence at Columbia University, where anti-Israel students broke into the academic building Hamilton Hall and symbolically renamed it “Hind’s Hall” in April 2024.

“The Sea,” a controversial Hebrew and Arabic-language drama, won Best Film at the Ophir Awards and was Israel’s own entry into the best international film category for the Oscars, but it did not make it on any shortlist announced on Tuesday.