GPC Member Kim Brizzolara Honors Both Israeli and Gaza Films in Shared Award

This year, GPC member and Vice Chair of the Hamptons International Film Festival Kim Brizzolara, who founded the festival's section Films of Conflict & Resolution 26 years ago, split her award between an Israeli documentary and a narrative feature based in Gaza.

Holding Liat (dir. Brandon Kramer) and The Voice of Hind Rajab (dir. Kaouther Ben Hania) were joint awardees amongst a field of five films. New Israel Fund's Libby Lenkinski commented in her newsletter, "In honoring both an Israeli and a Palestinian narrative, HIFF made space for a level of nuance and empathy that is often difficult to hold in moments of ongoing violence. At a time when many institutions are navigating these issues with caution, this acknowledgment stands out as a meaningful gesture." The filmmakers met at the festival and have been supporting each other’s films since.

Holding Liat follows the October 7th kidnapping of Liat Beinin Atzili and the fight by her Israeli-American family, facing their own conflicting perspectives, for her release. The film premiered at Berlinale, where it won Best Documentary, and is currently supported by an impact campaign focused on fostering dialogue beyond politics.

The Voice of Hind Rajab tells the true story of a six-year-old girl trapped in a car during a military strike in Gaza. The film is based on the real voice recording of her emergency call. The film has become a significant point of reference for those seeking to center humanitarian concerns in the face of conflict, and has sparked calls for greater international attention to civilian impact. It won the Grand Jury prize at the Venice Film Festival.

Also featured in the program was The Eyes of Ghana, directed by Ben Proudfoot, which received the festival’s Documentary Audience Award, and has gone on to receive great recognition and other awards. A “love letter” to Ghana’s cinema, the film showcases a fascinating chapter in the country’s history, the rise of the leader Kwame Nkrumah, through the eyes of Chris Hesse, 93-year-old film pioneer and former journalist. Other notable films were Love+War, about Pulitzer prize-winning war journalist Lynsey Addario, and Cover-Up, by Laura Poitras and Marc Obenhaus, about Pulitzer-prize winner investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, who notably uncovered the US Army scandals during the Vietnam and Iraq wars.

For more information on the award and this year’s selected films, please visit the festival's website.