The 2025 Academy Awards made history in many categories, and your internet/social media feeds will undoubtedly be flooded with the words ‘made history’ for the next week or so – here’s adding to that.
After premiering at the Berlin film festival last year, where it won the Berlinale documentary award, No Other Land, picked up an Oscar for best documentary feature, a historical first for Palestinian filmmakers.
The film, produced between 2019 and 2023, highlights the ongoing displacement of Palestinians from their homes in Masafer Yatta, a region in the occupied West Bank subjected to Israeli military actions. Watch their powerful acceptance speech below.
Director Basel Adra made the film with Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham, who co-directed it alongside Palestinian filmmaker Hamdan Ballal and Israeli filmmaker Rachel Szor.
“The film reflects the harsh reality we have been enduring for decades and still resist as we call on the world to take serious actions to stop the injustice and to stop the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian people” Adra said during his Oscar speech last Sunday night in Los Angeles. “About two months ago, I became a father, and my hope to my daughter is that she will not have to live the same life I’m living now.”
Addressing a crowd of the Hollywood press, Abraham said: “When I look at Basel, I see my brother. But we are unequal. We live in a regime where I am free under civilian law, and Basel is under military law that destroys his life and he cannot control. There is a different path. A political solution without ethnic supremacy with national rights for both of our people…the foreign policy in this country is helping to block this path. Can’t you see that we are intertwined, that my people can be truly safe if Basel’s people are truly free… There is another way. It is not too late.”
How to watch
As of now, the film is available to stream on Amazon UK, Microsoft, Sky Store, and AppleTV, although a VPN may be required depending on your location.