A scene from No Other Land. Courtesy of New York Film Festival

By Olivia Haynie March 3, 2025

At last night’s Oscars ceremony, the Israeli-Palestinian documentary No Other Land won best documentary feature film, making it the first Palestinian feature to win an Academy Award. Highly acclaimed since its initial release, the film has found distribution in more than 20 countries — but the U.S. is not among them.

The film, which also won the prize for best documentary at the 2024 Berlin International Film Festival, documents the destruction of a village in the West Bank. At the Oscars, the filmmakers used their acceptance speech to decry Israel’s war in Gaza as well as advocate for a return of the hostages. “Can’t you see that we are intertwined?” Abraham asked the audience. “That my people can be truly safe if Basel’s people are truly safe, and free?”

According to a New York Times article, challenges to find distribution have plagued many politically charged documentaries in recent years.

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No Other Land co-director Yuval Abraham told the Times that distributors’ resistance to the film “could perhaps be explained by the thought that this topic is sensitive, and, ‘Why touch it? Why take the risk?’”

On Feb. 2, the filmmakers announced on X that they would be self-distributing the film in the U.S. A spokesperson for No Other Land, told me that, with the help of independent booker mTuckman Media, they have shown the film in several indie movie theaters across the United States.

For those without access to a participating theater, it’s virtually impossible to watch No Other Land (at least legally). No streaming services are showing the film in the United States.

Speaking with Variety in January, Abraham argued that in America “there is much less space for this kind of criticism [of Israel], even when it comes in the form of a film.” The Academy’s decision to give No Other Land the highest documentary honor could signal that the conversation in the U.S. will open up — but that remains to be seen. As of now, even after its big win, there is no indication that mainstream American distributors are changing their minds about the film.

To see theaters showing No Other Land, visit its website.

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