The 2025 Academy Award for Documentary Feature Film was handed over to No Other Land, a political record keeping — and personal account — of the occupation and destruction of the West Bank village Masafer Yatta by Israeli Occupation Forces.
Both of the film’s directors — Palestinian activist and the film’s central figure, Basel Adra, as well as Israeli journalist and activist Yuval Abraham — were in attendance at the Oscars, taking to the stage to call for international intervention and peacemaking in Palestine.
“My hope for my daughter is she won’t have to live the same life I am living now,” Adra said. “Can’t you see we are intertwined? That my people can be truly safe if Basel’s people are truly safe and free?” implored Abraham to viewers and audience members alike. “There is another way… It’s not too late for life and the living…”
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Even without U.S. distribution, No Other Land still topped out as the highest-grossing documentary among the nominees. It was the product of a massive grassroots effort by its inspiring directorial duo and fervent allies to get the film to mass markets. After nearly a year, U.S. audiences finally got a chance to see the film through an independent release schedule in select cities — many called it the most politically pressing film of the year.
A year earlier, pro-Palestine protesters gathered outside the Oscars red carpet to demand attention to the atrocities in Palestine as Hollywood’s biggest and brightest took to the red carpet. Since 2023, actors and artists alike have taken to red carpets and spotlight stages to call for a ceasefire in Gaza — Best Supporting Actor nominee Guy Pearce sported a Free Palestine pin at tonight’s award show.
In 2025, the academy appears to have joined the crowd, awarding the prestigious honor to a film that sheds light on an ongoing international humanitarian crisis.
