Israel’s culture and sports minister has called the best documentary Oscar win for No Other Land on Sunday night “a sad moment for the world of cinema.”
Miki Zohar in a post on X said the filmmakers, members of a Palestinian-Israeli collective, “chose to amplify narratives that distort Israel’s image vis-à-vis international audiences.” No Other Land, which has yet to secure U.S. distribution, depicts the destruction of the occupied West Bank’s Masafer Yatta territory by Israeli soldiers and the alliance that develops between Palestinian journalist and co-director Basel Adra and Israeli journalist and co-director Yuval Abraham.
No Other Land had already racked up a host of award wins worldwide, including from the International Documentary Association and Spirit Awards. At the Oscars, the film beat out Black Box Diaries, Porcelain War, Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat and Sugarcane.
The social media statement from Zohar follows in full:
The Oscar win for the film “No Other Land” is a sad moment for the world of cinema. Instead of presenting the complexity of Israeli reality, the filmmakers chose to amplify narratives that distort Israel’s image vis-à-vis international audiences. Freedom of expression is an important value, but turning the defamation of Israel into a tool for international promotion is not art—it is sabotage against the State of Israel, especially in the wake of the October 7th massacre and the ongoing war.
This is precisely why we passed a reform in state-funded cinema—to ensure that taxpayer money is directed toward works of art that speak to the Israeli audience, rather than an industry that builds its career on slandering Israel on the global stage.