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A handful of haunting images connect the 22 short films in From Ground Zero, Palestine’s poignant Academy Award submission: the eerie hum of drones patrolling Gaza’s airspace; bodies trapped beneath piles of rubble dotting once bustling neighborhoods; and clusters of tents housing people forced into itinerancy. Startling in their familiarity, these scenes have become a shorthand for an ongoing nightmare. Anyone following Israel’s unrelenting and escalating bombardment of Gaza over the last 16 months — whether through the eyes of journalists like Bisan Owda (who won an Emmy for her reporting) or civilians asking for support to escape the besieged enclave — will recognize those images.

But they function differently in From Ground Zero, an anthology work produced by the Palestinian filmmaker Rashid Masharawi and distributed by Watermelon Pictures. They do not define life in Gaza. They are an entry point, a means through which these filmmakers process their painful present...

On September 25, Bisan Owda won the 2024 News and Documentary Emmy for Best Hard News Feature Story: Short Form for “It’s Bisan from Gaza and I’m Still Alive,” from Al Jazeera despite earlier calls to rescind her nomination. Check out the list of Emmy winners here.

Since the October 7, 2023, attacks against Israel, the nation has embarked on a military campaign in the Gaza Strip that has killed more than 40,000 people according to the Hamas-run Ministry of Health. Owda, a Palestinian filmmaker, has covered the campaign on social media since it began.

But upon her nomination for the News and Documentary Emmy, there were calls to take away her recognition by more than 150 members of the entertainment industry. Speaking as the Creative Community for Peace, they said, “NATAS must decide — they can either condone the murder of innocent civilians or they can listen to the entertainment community, and stand in opposition to hatred and violence.

AMC+’s “Lakota Nation vs. the United States,” executive produced by Mark Ruffalo, won Best Documentary on the second and final night of the 45th Annual News & Documentary Emmy Awards, which took place Thursday at the Palladium Times Square in New York City and focused on the documentary categories. “ABC World News Tonight With David Muir,” CNN’s “The Whole Story With Anderson Cooper” and Palestinian journalist Bisan Owda were among the winners in the news categories, which were the focus during Wednesday’s ceremony.

During the event, which was hosted by W. Kamau Bell, “Lakota Nation vs. the United States,” which details the 1876 seizure of Black Hills and the indigenous Lakota people’s fight to reclaim the land, and Netflix’s “World War II: From the Front Lines,” narrated by John Boyega, each took home two trophies apiece. All other docs won one.

Netflix was the top winner among...

“It’s Bisan From Gaza and I’m Still Alive,” the Aj+ news story from Palestinian journalist/activist/filmmaker Bisan Owda that sparked controversy after earning a News and Documentary Emmy nomination earlier this year, has now won that Emmy.

The report won the outstanding hard news feature story—short form category on Wednesday during the news portion of the two-day 45th Annual News & Documentary Emmys, held by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. After the project’s nomination, there were calls by the U.S.-based nonprofit Creative Community For Peace for the nomination to be rescinded, with a letter signed by the Hollywood notables including of Debra Messing, Sherry Lansing, Haim Saban and others accusing Owda of having ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (Pflp), a United States-designated terrorist group.

“It’s Bisan From Gaza and I’m Still Alive,” which had previously won a Peabody,...