Israeli filmmakers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, two of the four directors of the Oscar-winning Palestinian-Israeli documentary No Other Land, will premiere a new film about the killing of civilians in Gaza at the Venice Film Festival.
Naza has been added to the festival’s main competition and will have its world premiere on September 10. The late addition completes the 21-film line-up and makes it the only documentary feature competing for the Golden Lion.
“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,” the official synopsis states.
The title is a military acronym used by Israeli intelligence to indicate the number of civilians expected to be killed in a planned air strike, according to the filmmakers.
Naza draws on investigations published between 2023 and 2025 by Israeli-Palestinian publication +972 Magazine, Hebrew-language outlet Local Call and The Guardian. The production announcement does not specify which findings will feature in the documentary.
Abraham wrote several of those reports. One 2024 investigation, based on interviews with six Israeli intelligence officers, alleged that the military used an AI-powered system called Lavender to generate a list of 37,000 potential targets with apparent links to Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group.
The report claimed that officers performed only minimal checks on the system’s selections, with one saying he spent about 20 seconds reviewing each target. The report also alleged that suspected militants were frequently attacked inside family homes despite the expected civilian casualties. The Israeli military rejected the claims at the time.
Naza is produced by The Guardian and British producer James Wilson, with Jonathan Glazer as executive producer. Wilson and Glazer previously worked together on The Zone of Interest, which won the 2024 Academy Award for Best International Feature Film.
Abraham and Szor made No Other Land with Palestinian filmmakers Basel Adra and Hamdan Ballal. The documentary chronicles the struggle against the forced displacement of Palestinian communities in Masafer Yatta in the occupied West Bank and became the first Palestinian production to win an Oscar when it received Best Documentary Feature in 2025.
Naza joins a Venice programme that already includes two works by Palestinian directors. Ahmed Hassouna’s Gaza documentary Citizen Osama will screen out of competition, while Muayad Alayan’s Jerusalem-set drama Conversation With the Sea has been selected for Venezia Spotlight.
Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania, whose Gaza drama The Voice of Hind Rajab won the Silver Lion last year, will serve on the main competition jury. The 83rd Venice Film Festival runs from September 2 to 12.
