No Other Land, directed by Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Basel Adra & Hamdan Ballal, won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature at the 97th Academy Awards, held March 2 in LA.
In the film, Basel Adra, a young Palestinian activist, befriends Yuval Abraham, a Jewish Israeli journalist who helps Basel in his struggle to resist the forced displacement of his people by the Israeli military. The pair form an unexpectedly strong bond, but nevertheless there is an enormous disparity between their living conditions. As Basel faces constant oppression and violence, Yuval enjoys freedom and security.
“We call on the world to take serious actions to stop the injustice and to stop the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian people,” said Adra on accepting the Academy Award. “About two months ago, I became a father, and my hope to my daughter that she will not have to live the same life I’m living now… No Other Land reflects the harsh reality that we have been enduring for decades and still resist.”
Co-director Yuval Abraham commented: “We live in a regime where I am free under civilian law and Basel is under military laws that destroy his life and he cannot control…There is a different path, a political solution without ethnic supremacy, with national rights for both of our people.”
“We made this film, Palestinians and Israelis, because together, our voices are stronger. We see each other, the destruction of Gaza and its people, which must end, the Israeli hostages brutally taken in the crime of Oct. 7, which must be freed,” Abraham added.
No Other Land won the European Film Award for Documentary in December 2024, and both the Best Feature Documentary and Best Director Awards at the International Documentary Association Awards Ceremony in Los Angeles (December 5). The film world premiered at Berlinale 2024, where it picked up the Panorama Audience Award and Documentary Award.
The Business Doc Europe review described No Other Land as “a powerful, provocative and moving film, made with passion by a Palestinian-Israeli collective of four young activists offering creative resistance in the continuing hope that justice will prevail.”
Best Short Documentary
The Only Girl in the Orchestra by Molly O’Brien won in the Best Short Documentary category of the 97thOscars. The Netflix film is about double bassist Orin O’Brien, the director’s aunt.
Orin O’Brien is the daughter of Hollywood stars, but she never craved the limelight herself, opting instead for a life of anonymity as a humble musician. But when, in 1966, she joined the New York Philharmonic under the baton of none other than Leonard Bernstein, she was the only woman in the orchestra, at which point the spotlight was unavoidable.
“It’s remarkable. I feel like I won the lottery,” Molly O’Brien told Business Doc Europe after receiving her Oscar nomination. “We made a film about an 87-year-old woman who plays the double bass. I never ever in my life thought that it would be resonating with so many people and speaking across the generations…I set out to make a film about Orin’s philosophy of life and her philosophy of music. I didn’t think it would resonate this widely. And I’m absolutely thrilled that it has. It means that that little niggly thought in the back of my head in the morning saying, ‘make this film, make this film, make this film’ was correct. I’m glad I listened to it.”
