Venice Winner 'NAZA' Sets Global Rollout: Free Guardian Release in November

The trailer for "NAZA," the Gaza war documentary that won a special jury prize at the Venice Film Festival, has been released by The Guardian, JW Films and French sales company MK2.

The film next screens at the New York Film Festival. From there, "NAZA" embarks on one of the most unusual distribution plans of the year: a theatrical release across more than 50 territories, followed by free global streaming on The Guardian's website in late November.

Israeli directors Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor helmed the film. The two are among the four co-directors of "No Other Land," which won the Academy Award for best documentary in 2025.

"NAZA" premiered at Venice on Sept. 10 and secured theatrical distribution through MK2 in 56 territories. Cinemas worldwide begin screening it Sept. 28.

The U.S. rollout starts Sept. 30, forgoing a sale to any studio or independent distributor. It opens exclusively at the IFC Center in New York City.

The U.S. release is "spearheaded by The Guardian and MK2, who have assembled a team of U.S. and international partners and consultants to bring the film to audiences as quickly as possible," the filmmakers said.

The documentary was shot at night on the rooftops of Tel Aviv. Through interviews with Israeli soldiers, it examines the killings of Palestinian civilians in Gaza. Its revelations build on investigative reporting published between 2023 and 2025 by the Israeli-Palestinian publication +972, the Hebrew-language outlet Local Call and The Guardian.

Abraham and Szor addressed the film's purpose directly in a statement issued Thursday, when the global distribution plan was announced.

"We made this film out of a sense of obligation to use our position as Israeli filmmakers and journalists to examine the systems behind the mass killing of Palestinian civilians for which our country is responsible," they said.

"While filming members of Israel's military on rooftops at night in Tel Aviv over the past three years, we found ourselves asking the very questions that were asked by our grandparents' generation and throughout the 20th century: how does one group of people allow the total dehumanization of another? What do the inner workings of such a system look like?"

The directors stressed that many of the film's findings appeared in print almost as soon as they emerged. "Many of the revelations in the film were published almost immediately as we learned of them, in the months following the October 7th attacks, by The Guardian (one of 'NAZA's' producers), in collaboration with reporting partners +972 Magazine and Local Call," they said.

They distinguished the film from their journalism. "The film lets us explore something deeper than we could in our investigative journalism alone: not only the words being said but also those that are not said, the silence. It is up to all of us to break that silence."

The free November release on The Guardian's site means the film will reach audiences far beyond the 56 theatrical territories — a distribution model that, by design, prioritizes maximum access over box office.