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Whenever Oscar nominees are announced, I try to watch a handful of the films that I haven’t seen yet. I was able to see “The Brutalist” and “Conclave,” along with “Anora.”
Then I attempted to watch “No Other Land,” which was nominated for best documentary. It tells the story of a group of Palestinians in the West Bank trying to prevent the Israeli military from turning their villages into a military training ground. When I couldn’t find it on any streaming services, I didn’t think much of it.
But as Drew Paul, a scholar of Arabic at the University of Tennessee, explains, it’s actually out of the norm that “No Other Land” isn’t on any streaming services in the U.S. It’s been out since early 2024 and has already won a number of awards. It’s available all across Europe.
“The fact that this conflict has been in the news since October 2023 should also heighten audience interest in a film such as ‘No Other Land’ – and, therefore, lead to increased sales, the metric that distributors care about the most,” he writes.
So what’s going on?
From self-censorship to trying to skirt controversy, Paul explores the reasons film distributors are staying away from the award-winning, critically acclaimed film.
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Directors Basel Adra, left, and Yuval Abraham on stage at the 62nd New York Film Festival on Sept. 29, 2024.
Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images
Drew Paul, University of Tennessee
Despite winning awards at festival after festival, the film has been unable to find a company to distribute it in the US.
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Politics + Society
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Anthony Pereira, Florida International University
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James L. Perry, Indiana University
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Brittany Friedman, University of Southern California; Raquel Delerme, University of Southern California
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Science + Technology
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Bill Sullivan, Indiana University
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Shirsh Lata Soni, University of Michigan
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Ethics + Religion
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Myrsini Mamoli, Georgia Institute of Technology
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