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No Other Film As Deserving Of An Oscar
In spite of suppression by the U.S. film industry, ‘No Other Land’ won Best Documentary Feature at the 97th Annual Academy Awards
When the credits rolled at the Music Box Theatre in Chicago, I could feel a heaviness in the air. The auditorium was chillingly silent after an afternoon screening of “No Other Land.”
A small group of activists in the back of the auditorium briefly pierced the silence with their message about boycott, divestment, and sanctions, or BDS, against the Israeli government. But the typical low hum of chatter that one normally hears after most screenings was absent. Everyone slowly put on their winter coats, picked up their belongings, and slowly exited as they processed the stunning images they had just seen.
Few films in recent memory are as vital as “No Other Land.” The documentary feature from first-time filmmakers Yuval Abraham, an Israeli journalist, and Basel Adra, a Palestinian journalist, was the highest-grossing documentary out of all of the documentaries nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. It won over 60 awards from critics associations and film festivals around the world, and on March 2, it became an Oscar winner.
