{"id":405403,"date":"2026-01-11T03:16:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T03:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/405403\/"},"modified":"2026-01-11T03:16:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T03:16:09","slug":"oscar-shortlisted-holding-liat-launches-independent-theatrical-run","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/405403\/","title":{"rendered":"Oscar-Shortlisted ‘Holding Liat’ Launches Independent Theatrical Run"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tEXCLUSIVE: Oscar-shortlisted documentary Holding Liat<\/a> is kicking off its U.S. theatrical run just ahead of the start of Academy Award nomination voting.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe film directed by Brandon Kramer<\/a>, winner of the top prize<\/a> for documentary at the Berlin Film Festival last February, opened at Film Forum<\/a> in New York on Friday. It opens next week in Los Angeles, with additional cities to follow nationwide. The Film Collaborative is coordinating the independent theatrical release, but the filmmakers retain rights; sales agent MetFilm is pursuing opportunities for North American streaming and broadcast.<\/p>\n

\n\tWatch an exclusive clip from Holding Liat below.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe documentary unfolds in real time just days after the Hamas terror attack on Israel in October 2023 when an Israeli American woman, Liat Beinin Atzili, was seized at a kibbutz and spirited off to Gaza. Liat\u2019s parents, Yehuda Beinin and Chaya Beinin, sprang into action, soon traveling to Washington DC to liaise with Biden administration officials trying to win Liat\u2019s release. Yehuda Beinin, as documented in the film, insisted that the kidnapping of his daughter \u2013 and the real possibility she might never make it out alive \u2013 not be used as the impetus to dehumanize Palestinians. He ardently spoke against the mass killing of civilians in Gaza under Israel bombardment and expressed harsh criticism of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his conduct of the war.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Yehuda<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tYehuda Beinin in \u2018Holding Liat\u2019<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMeridian Hill Pictures<\/p>\n

\n\tOscar-shortlisted films like Holding Liat and Coexistence, My Ass!<\/a> that relate to the Israeli Palestinian conflict have received a cold shoulder from U.S. distributors apparently uneasy about backing politically sensitive material. No Other Land<\/a>, the film set in the occupied West Bank that won the Oscar<\/a> for Best Documentary Feature last year, self-distributed after receiving no significant U.S. distribution offers.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn contrast to the U.S. market, Holding Liat has earned international distribution in the UK (BBC Storyville); Germany (ZDF + Arsenal); Netherlands (VPRO); France (L\u2019Atelier D\u2019Images); Spain (Filmin); Japan (United People), and Israel (YES Docu).<\/p>\n

\n\tHolding Liat is the rare film that counters polarization by reaching the hearts of viewers regardless of their sympathies toward Israel or Palestine.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Director<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tDirector Brandon Kramer (R) and producer Lance Kramer<\/a> accept the Berlinale Documentary Award at the 75th Berlinale on February 22, 2025.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJOHN MACDOUGALL\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\n\tDirector Brandon Kramer tells Deadline exclusively, \u201cOver the past ten months, we have found that this film transcends many of the barriers in place for an indie doc or politically-themed film, and have pursued a distribution strategy that allows us to bring the film to as wide an audience as possible even without a U.S. distributor on board.\u00a0While the distribution struggle is real \u2013 and often frustrating \u2013 we have discovered that when people actually watch the film they cannot help but be moved by Liat\u2019s empathy first message, and witnessing how the film really opens up a dialogue around this charged topic has fueled our push to bring the film the US audiences even without a distributor.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tKramer adds, \u201cWe hope opening at Film Forum continues the path we started at Berlin last February, engaging audiences, encouraging open conversation and delivering for our partners.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile pursuing longer term streaming and broadcast distribution possibilities, the filmmakers have focused on impact initiatives with the aid of Impact Producer Albi. Albi, \u201ca new fund, institute and lab that uses cultural vehicles to establish paradigm-shifting narratives by and about Palestinians and Jews,\u201d has concentrated on developing grassroots audiences in the U.S. and globally for Holding Liat. To that end, Albi has established partnerships with Parents Circle Families Forum, \u201cmobilizing directly impacted Palestinian and Israeli family members who have lost their loved ones to speak at selected screenings.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAs part of the Albi initiative, J Street, New Israel Fund and Truah are \u201cmobilizing their local chapters and leaders to attend theatrical screenings and host parallel community dialogues.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tParents Circle tells Deadline, \u201cAmerican Friends of the Parents Circle is honored to partner with Holding Liat.\u00a0The film presents an extraordinary example of the mission of our bereaved Israeli and Palestinian members with a deep understanding of what it takes to make progress towards peace. Through Liat\u2019s story, we learn that choosing empathy, humanization and nonviolence are the most courageous choices that will lead us towards peace. We are deeply moved that Liat chose to become a member of our organization. She has been an inspiration for the Israeli and Palestinian members of our organization.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBrandon Kramer and his brother Lance Kramer, who produced the film, are distant relations of the Beinins, the protagonists of Holding Liat.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhen we found out that Liat and Aviv went missing, we called the [family] as relatives, not at all thinking we were going to make a film,\u201d Brandon explained in an interview<\/a> as part of Deadline\u2019s For the Love of Docs screening series. \u201cIn that conversation they told us that they were getting no response from the Israeli government, and they were planning to come to our hometown, Washington DC, to try to advocate for her release because Liat is an American citizen as well. And in that conversation, we decided that we should pick up our camera.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBrandon continued, \u201cOur relatives had been thrust into the center of a geopolitical crisis, and as we began to film, we saw that what they were going through was so different than any of the narratives that we were seeing in the media and on social media and felt this responsibility to see their experience through.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLiat Beinin Atzili\u2019s husband, Aviv Atzili, grabbed by Hamas at the same time as Liat but kept in a separate location from her in Gaza, was killed not long after his abduction. Liat, with the critical effort of her parents, was freed after 54 days of captivity.<\/p>\n

\n\tWith the permission of the Beinin family, Kramer filmed the moment when Liat and her loved ones were reunited. Watch that scene here:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EXCLUSIVE: Oscar-shortlisted documentary Holding Liat is kicking off its U.S. theatrical run just ahead of the start of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":405404,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[64,63,132700,134,132701,132702,344],"class_list":{"0":"post-405403","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-brandon-kramer","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-holding-liat","13":"tag-lance-kramer","14":"tag-movies"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=405403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405403\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/405404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=405403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=405403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=405403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}