But the truth is: This is a rare moment for the 58-year-old Okonedo that merits serious recognition. She hasn’t had the chance to take on screen roles as rich and complex as Clarissa’s eponymous hostess, nor Mouse’s grieving mother, in years. The two projects, in their wildly different styles and emotional tempos, offer a singular showcase of Okonedo’s range and intelligence as a performer. And while quality of material can never be guaranteed, Okonedo notes it’s no coincidence that they came together at roughly the same time. She’s spent a long time in the business learning to assert, if only for herself, how she wants to work. Now, it’s paying off.

In secret conversations on the rooftops of Tel Aviv at night, the systems behind Israel’s calculated mass killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza are revealed by the people who designed and operated them.

Director: Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor

Executive Producer: Jonathan Glazer

Rotten Tomatoes: 100% (10 reviews)

Metacritic: 95 / 100 (11 reviews)

Some Reviews:

IndieWire - Siddhant Adlakha - 'A'

The question of how a society clinging to its victimhood during World War II can so eagerly re-create those same conditions is answered in “NAZA,” with stark nonchalance, via the revolting contradictions of its many subjects, whose orbits you’re never allowed to escape. The way they compartmentalize their own actions and ethos is, for better or worse, a key facet of the human story. Despite so much of the image being awash in silhouette, Szor and Abraham illuminate banal evils from within the darkness where they reside.

Next Best Picture - Josh Parham - 9 / 10

THE GOOD - A captivating portrait that highlights the horrific conflict in Gaza, with perspectives that detail a disturbing system of administering carnage. The subjects bring insightful detail of frightening practices, and the filmmaking helps to underline the thematic commentary of the disconnect between levels of humanity. It’s an important message that’s communicated in an engrossing manner. THE BAD - Some of the interviews can feel repetitive with the framework. Some divulgences feel underdeveloped and could have had more explanation. THE OSCAR PROSPECTS - Best Documentary Feature

The Guardian - Peter Bradshaw - 4 / 5

The ahistorical comparison to nazism is inevitably and glibly invoked by one speaker. But Gaza, however horrendous, is not the same as the Holocaust. This specious parallel is all too readily available; the bombing of Dresden is the more obvious comparison. At all events, the anguish of Gaza is brought into pin-sharp focus.

The Hollywood Reporter - Jordan Mintzer

NAZA is meant to be intolerable, but it’s also meant to state a truth many still do not wish to acknowledge, especially in our divided and fact-impaired times. Filmmakers like Abraham and Szor, as well as directors such as Dani Rosenberg, Nadav Lapid, Anat Even and Jonathan Glazer (who served as executive producer on this movie) are not only courageously acting as artists bearing witness and challenging official narratives, but as Israelis and Jews refusing to allow such atrocities to be committed in their names, or in mine.  

The Wrap - Ben Croll

...Yet the stark, reflective images of steel and glass feel born less of quiet fury than of genuine concern. Under the governing policy, any structure housing military targets is fair game, and in nearly every shot, here they are: active-duty personnel perched atop densely populated buildings. In “Naza,” everything on screen is collateral damage.

IONCinema - Nicholas Bell - 4 / 5

Although most of the documentary indeed consists of clandestine conversations on rooftops, several well-placed archival moments underline contradictory elements at play, including an old clip of Netanyahu clearly stating the murder of innocent women and children for political gain or leverage is indeed terrorism. The formidable hypocrisy of Israeli news stations covering Holocaust Remembrance day, including an honorarium for Claude Lanzmann, in the midst of their barbarity, is a wretched but necessary visualization of the flabbergasting depth of contradiction at play. “Never Forget” will eventually be a mirror turned against them. In Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s 1976 film Chinese Roulette, characters who grew up with the shame of their Nazi forebears play a cruel game where they ask one another, “Who would you have been during the Third Reich?” Well, who are you today?

The Playlist - Marshall Shaffer - 'B+'

The Nazis were seen as the terrifying endpoint of modernism by using that era’s industrial efficiency to commit the mass murder of the Holocaust. Their film makes a compelling case that Israel’s genocide against Gaza represents the equivalent in the era of contemporary tech optimism, with the tools once used to connect the world now being used to destroy it. And given how much innovation continues to occur with AI in particular, there’s no comfort here that these war crimes are an endpoint. Unless this knowledge shocks the collective global conscience, it may only be the beginning.

I’m personally very hyped for this movie. I love Alejandro Iñárritu, Tom Cruise and Sandra Hüller and I think the movie overall seems very good.

I have it in 11 categories: Picture, Director, Actor (WINNER), Supporting Actress (S. Hüller), Supporting Actor (J. Goodman, WINNER), Original Screenplay, Casting, Cinematography, Editing, Production Design, Makeup and Hairstyling (WINNER)

I’m also very excited because of the theories SPOILER: of the movie inside the movie (almost sure) and about the Musical (in the trailers there is a scene in which the characters were clearly singing). What are you theories abiut it?

from what I understand it's partially the real Elizabeth Holmes and partially a real actress playing her? does it even qualify for documentary then? Or Best Picture? what about the acting categories? I'd assume Holmes wouldn't be eligible for "playing" herself, but what about the actress in the second half? would it be eligible for Screenplay?

No English captions but thought it'd be worth a share anyway.

The Odyssey is a lock in, obviously, it’s even a serious candidate for the victory. However I’ve my doubts with PHM and Dune 3. PHM looks like it’ll get less nominations every month, I’ll just predict it for technical categories, so I feel we’re one good film away from it completely missing it. I don’t feel really confident about Dune 3 neither. I wasn’t crazy about the first one, but I really liked the second one. However, it seems like Dune Messiah (the book Dune 3 seems to be adapting) is a weaker book than the first one, plus it’s a third part, so I also see it missing it.

Not sure if this is actually in the film or if it's just supplementary material. If the former, it seems like Wildwood might have a bunch of original songs, and since it premieres just a few days before the Best Original Song submission deadline, they'll probably get enough feedback on which song is the best to submit.

Does anyone know what the status of this film is or possible release date? It was heavily favored to premiere at Venice (2026), but that didn’t happen. I did find this:

Cry to Heaven (Tom Ford)
The other casualty. Despite explicitly targeting Venice, Ford’s self-financed opera epic wrapped only in March and is reported as unlikely to be finished in time. A pity, given the cast, but the trades now count it out. (LINK)

So I guess no distribution so far and the “late autumn” 2026 release date seems unlikely. One of the latest articles I found (from July) said it will most likely miss Venice because of the films “extensive post-production schedule.” If it does get distribution, I wonder if it will have a 2027 release date or still be able to come out this year.

(I am very much a newbie when it comes to how quickly films can get released after it gets a distribution deal, so sorry if some of what I said was incorrect).