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A PALESTINIAN FILM IS AN OSCARS FAVORITE − SO WHY IS IT SO HARD TO
SEE?  
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Drew Paul
February 21, 2025
The Conversation
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_ It is unusual for a film like “No Other Land,” which has
garnered critical acclaim and has been recognized at various film
festivals and award shows to be unable to find a distributor. Would
even a win at the Oscars be enough to break through? _

Basel Adra and Yuval Abraham on No Other Land at NYFF62, screen grab

 

[Watch a trailer
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for No Other Land or find it in a theater near you
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-- moderator]

For many low-budget, independent films, an Oscar nomination is a
golden ticket.

The publicity can translate into theatrical releases or rereleases,
along with more on-demand rentals and sales
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However, for “No Other Land
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nominated for best documentary at the 2025 Academy Awards
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unlikely to translate into commercial success in the U.S. That’s
because the film has been unable to find a company to distribute
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it in America.

“No Other Land” chronicles the efforts of Palestinian townspeople
to combat an Israeli plan to demolish their villages in the West Bank
and use the area as a military training ground. It was directed by
four Palestinian and Israeli activists and journalists: Basel Adra
[[link removed]], who is a resident of
the area facing demolition, Yuval Abraham
[[link removed]], Hamdan Ballal and
Rachel Szor. While the filmmakers have organized screenings
[[link removed]] in a number of U.S. cities, the lack of a
national distributor makes a broader release unlikely.

Film distributors are a crucial but often unseen link in the chain
that allows a film to reach cinemas and people’s living rooms. In
recent years it has become more common for controversial award-winning
films to run into issues finding a distributor
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Palestinian films have encountered additional barriers.

As a scholar of Arabic
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who has written about Palestinian cinema, I’m disheartened by the
difficulties “No Other Land” has faced. But I’m not surprised.

The role of film distributors

Distributors are often invisible to moviegoers. But without one
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film to find an audience.

Distributors typically acquire rights to a film for a specific country
or set of countries. They then market films
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theaters, cinema chains and streaming platforms. As compensation,
distributors receive a percentage of the revenue generated by
theatrical and home releases.

The film “Soundtrack to a Coup D'Etat
[[link removed]],” another finalist for best
documentary, shows how this process typically works. It premiered at
the Sundance Film Festival
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in January 2024 and was acquired for distribution just a few months
later by Kino Lorber
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a major U.S.-based distributor of independent films.

The inability to find a distributor is not itself noteworthy. No film
is entitled to distribution, and most films by newer or unknown
directors face long odds.

However, it is unusual for a film like “No Other Land,” which has
garnered critical acclaim and has been recognized
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festivals and award shows. Some have pegged it as a favorite
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to win best documentary at the Academy Awards. And “No Other Land”
has been able to find distributors in Europe
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where it’s easily accessible on multiple streaming platforms.

So why can’t “No Other Land” find a distributor in the U.S.?

There are a couple of factors at play.

Shying away from controversy

In recent years, film critics have noticed a trend: Documentaries on
controversial topics have faced distribution difficulties
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These include a film
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campaign by Amazon workers to unionize and a documentary
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Kinzinger, one of the few Republican congresspeople to vote to impeach
Donald Trump in 2021.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict, of course, has long stirred
controversy. But the release of “No Other Land” comes at a time
when the issue is particularly salient. The Hamas attacks of Oct. 7,
2023 [[link removed]],
and the ensuing Israeli bombardment and invasion of the Gaza Strip
have become a polarizing issue in U.S. domestic politics, reflected in
the campus protests and crackdowns
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in 2024. The filmmakers’ critical comments about the Israeli
occupation of Palestine have also garnered backlash
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in Germany.

Yet the fact that this conflict has been in the news since October
2023 should also heighten audience interest in a film such as “No
Other Land” – and, therefore, lead to increased sales, the metric
that distributors care about the most.

Indeed, an earlier film that also documents Palestinian protests
against Israeli land expropriation, “5 Broken Cameras
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finalist for best documentary at the 2013 Academy Awards. It was able
to find a U.S. distributor. However, it had the support of a major
European Union documentary development program called Greenhouse
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organization like Greenhouse, which had ties to numerous production
and distribution companies in Europe and the U.S., can facilitate the
process of finding a distributor.

By contrast, “No Other Land,” although it has a Norwegian
co-producer
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received some funding from organizations in Europe and the U.S., was
made primarily by a grassroots filmmaking collective.

Stages for protest

While distribution challenges may be recent, controversies surrounding
Palestinian films are nothing new.

Many of them stem from the fact that the system of film festivals,
awards and distribution is primarily based on a movie’s nation of
origin. Since there is no sovereign Palestinian state – and many
countries and organizations have not recognized the state of Palestine
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how to categorize Palestinian films has been hard to resolve.

In 2002, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences rejected the
first ever
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Palestinian film submitted to the best foreign language film category
– Elia Suleiman [[link removed]]’s
“Divine Intervention
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because Palestine was not recognized as a country by the United
Nations. The rules were changed for the following year’s awards
ceremony.

In 2021, the cast of the film “Let It Be Morning
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director but primarily Palestinian actors, boycotted the Cannes Film
Festival
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in protest of the film’s categorization as an Israeli film rather
than a Palestinian one.

Film festivals and other cultural venues have also become places to
make statements
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about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and engage in protest
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For example, at the Cannes Film Festival in 2017, the right-wing
Israeli culture minister wore a controversial
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– and meme-worthy [[link removed]]
– dress that featured the Jerusalem skyline in support of Israeli
claims of sovereignty over the holy city, despite the unresolved
status
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of Jerusalem under international law.

At the 2024 Academy Awards
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a number of attendees, including Billie Eilish, Mark Ruffalo and
Mahershala Ali, wore red pins in support of a ceasefire in Gaza, and
pro-Palestine protesters delayed the start of the ceremonies.

So even though a film like “No Other Land” addresses a topic of
clear interest to many people in the U.S., it faces an uphill battle
to finding a distributor.

I wonder whether a win at the Oscars would even be enough.[The
Conversation]

_Drew Paul
[[link removed]] is Associate
Professor of Arabic, University of Tennessee
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This article is republished from The Conversation
[[link removed]] under a Creative Commons license. Read
the original article
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_The Conversation is a nonprofit, independent news organization
dedicated to unlocking the knowledge of experts for the public good.
Get fact-based journalism written by experts in your inbox each
morning with a Conversation newsletter
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* documentary
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* West Bank
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* Palestine
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* Palestinians
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* Israel
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