Holding Liat
Shortlisted for the 2026 Oscar for Documentary Feature Film.
In the weeks unfolding after his daughter is kidnapped, a father resists efforts to use her captivity to justify escalating violence in Gaza, exposing rifts within his family.
On the morning of October 7, 2023, Israeli-American Liat Atzili and her husband Aviv were at home when Hamas attacked their kibbutz. By nightfall, Liat and Aviv are captives in Gaza along with 250 other people—12 of whom, like Liat, are American citizens.
Caught between international diplomacy and a rapidly escalating war, their family must face their own uncertainty and conflicting perspectives in the pursuit of Liat and Aviv’s release. This agonizing process, and the ultimate fate of their loved ones, challenges how the members of the family understand themselves and their place in the conflict.
Through the intimate lens of a family’s experience, Holding Liat poses complex questions of identity across generations, as the family is thrust into the epicenter of a global conflict rapidly unfolding in real-time.
