The ‘No Other Land’ War: A Timeline

The Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land has been a lightning rod for controversy. Conceived of and created by a Palestinian-Israeli collective of four directors, the film spotlights strife in the West Bank. Its chief focus is the destruction of homes in Masafer Yatta, where Palestinian co-director Basel Adra grew up. Here’s a timeline of some of the drama surrounding the film.

October 2023: Four years’ worth of dedicated filming ends. The finished documentary includes footage shot specifically for the film as well as archival footage from Adra’s family. The four directors agree that the group will collectively and unanimously approve every segment and sentiment in the final product.

Feb. 24, 2024: No Other Land wins Best Documentary at the Berlin International Film Festival, where it debuts. Adra calls for Germany to “stop sending weapons to Israel” in his acceptance speech. Co-director Yuval Abraham, an Israeli journalist, calls for an end to “this apartheid, this inequality” in his speech. Others at the festival call for a ceasefire, with one keffiyeh-clad U.S. filmmaker saying on stage “of course we stand against genocide” while accepting a different award. Berlin’s mayor is one of multiple German officials who call the discourse antisemitic, with one lawmaker lamenting: “I am ashamed to see that in my country today that people applaud accusations of genocide against Israel.”

Oct. 1, 2024: No Other Land screens at the New York Film Festival. The directors cancel a planned accompanying talk to return home to their families as fighting intensifies in the region.

November 22, 2024: The film wins the audience award at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam.

Jan. 23, 2025: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announces Oscar nominees, including No Other Land in the documentary category.

March 2: No Other Land wins the Oscar for best documentary. Co-director Abraham calls out U.S. foreign policy in his acceptance speech, insisting that “There is another way.” Rumors circulate on social media that Israeli actress Gal Gadot refused to present the documentary award; her rep says they didn’t ask her. (Gadot and fellow Snow White star Rachel Zegler presented the award for best visual effects.)

March 3: Reactions to the win vary widely. Israel’s culture minister calls it “a sad moment for the world of cinema” and the Los Angeles-based consul general to Israel slammed it in a heated X post: “If Hollywood is eager to see the truth, I suggest they binge watch the countless hours of footage Palestinians themselves recorded – slaughtering entire families, kidnapping the elderly and infants, and committing every crime against humanity. That is the real documentary!” Some Palestinian activists complain about Abraham’s longer time at the microphone on Oscar night, and that his “liberal Zionist” speech prioritized safety of Israelis over the plight of Palestinians.

March 5: The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel releases a statementcharging that No Other Land violates the terms of the Boycott, Divest and Sanctions (BDS) movement. At issue: The filmmakers got production help from Close Up, a training group for filmmakers from Southwest Asia and North Africa. PACBI maintains that Close Up encourages filmmakers to engage with Israel “as if it were a normal state.” Close Up’s Israel-born founder, meanwhile, states on the group’s website that she was born into a country that has “imposed a system of apartheid against Palestinians for decades.” PACBI also criticized Israeli workers on No Other Land for failing to say that Israel is “perpetrating a genocide.”

March 19: Miami Beach Mayor Steven Meiner drops plans to evict a non-profit cinema from city-owned property over its screening of the film, after the majority of city commission members refuse to support the idea.

March 24: Israelis confront and attack Palestinian co-director Hamdan Ballal in the West Bank. Israeli police detain him and two other Palestinians, stating that the trio were throwing rocks.

March 25: Israeli police release Ballal from detention. He tells the Associated Press that Israeli settlers kicked and beat him and that soldiers also punched him and hit him with a stick during the 20 hours he was in detention.

March 26: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ leaders put out a statement that “condemns harming or suppressing artists for their work or their viewpoints.” The letter obliquely references multiple requests for comment on Ballal’s arrest, adding, “it is important to note that the Academy represents 11,000 global members with many unique viewpoints.”

March 27: Documentarians erupt with scorn at what they term a lackluster Academy statement, with one filmmaker calling it “heinous.”

March 28: The Academy apologizes for not mentioning Ballal in its statement. “We regret that we failed to directly acknowledge Mr. Ballal and the film by name. … We abhor the suppression of free speech under any circumstances.” The apology comes after more than 600 actors, filmmakers, and other industry workers sign an open letter blasting the Academy. “It is indefensible for an organization to recognize a film with an award in the first week of March, and then fail to defend its filmmakers just a few weeks later,” charges the letter, signed by the likes of director Ava DuVernay and actors Sandra Oh, Mark Ruffalo and Elizabeth Olsen.

As debate continues to swirl, box office pundits expected ticket sales for No Other Land to hit two million dollars across the U.S. by March 31. Twenty countries have acquired the film’s theatrical rights. But in North America, it still does not have a traditional distributor like Netflix or A24, nor a streaming plan. Instead, it’s relying on grant funds for marketing and an independent film distributor the filmmakers hired.

That’s unusual, Film Forum programmer Mike Maggiore told Documentary magazine: “In most years, a film with this much acclaim would have been snapped up for its awards potential alone.”