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Rachel Szor and Yuval Abraham’s NAZA, a documentary on Israel’s alleged use of AI-assisted military systems to target and kill Palestinian civilians in Gaza, received what’s being called a record-breaking 24.5-minute ovation at its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival on Thursday.
Video posted to social media captured the Israeli filmmakers looking solemn — with Abraham appearing to wipe away tears — as the room erupted for the film, which is based on the anonymized testimony of 24 Israeli military insiders.
According to Deadline, it marks the longest-ever standing ovation in Venice, surpassing the near 24-minute rapturous reception for The Voice of Hind Rajab at last year’s festival, and beating the 22-minute ovation for Guillermo del Toro’s dark fantasy piece, Pan’s Labyrinth, when it premiered at Cannes in 2006.
The Voice of Hind Rajab director Kaouther Ben Hania, who is serving as a juror this year, and its producer Nadim Cheikhrouha were also in attendance for the ovation.
Also in the room were some audience members who unfurled Palestinian and Lebanese flags as the lights came up, according to video posted to social media.
Shot clandestinely under the cover of night from the rooftops in Tel Aviv over a three-year span, NAZA delivers interviews with Israeli military subjects whose identities are obscured. The interviews describe the surveillance systems and AI intelligence the film alleges are being used to identify Hamas targets to bomb their homes, regardless of whether civilian families, including women and children, were inside.
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said in a statement that it “categorically rejects” the allegations, and criticized the use of anonymous testimonies which it said “cannot be verified.” Regarding the allegations of AI use, it said decisions to strike are made by humans only, and “the IDF strikes military targets and makes unprecedented efforts to minimize harm to civilians.”
The film, titled after an acronym the Israeli military used as a shorthand for civilian casualties, is a companion piece to Abraham and Szor’s No Other Land, which won the Academy Award for best documentary in 2025.
NAZA is also executive produced by Jonathan Glazer, who faced intense backlash following his March 2024 Oscar acceptance speech for The Zone of Interest. In the speech, he spoke out against the Israel-Hamas war and stated he and his co-producers stood as men “who refute their Jewishness and the Holocaust being hijacked by an occupation which has led to conflict for so many innocent people.”
When Hamas-led militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, some 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken hostage.
Since then, more than 73,422 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza in Israel’s ensuing offensive, according to Gaza’s Health ministry. While the ministry does not differentiate between civilians and militants, it says women and children make up half of all casualties.
And civilians are still being killed inside Gaza, Abraham told The Associated Press on Friday.
“What we are showing is something that is very much ongoing,” said Abraham.
“I think our film is showing that this is not some mistake. It’s not an accident. It’s something very, very systemic … and this should have been apparent to everyone, I think, from the start. But we are showing it from the inside, with insider testimony.”
