Palestinian filmmaker Hosam Abu Dan’s debut narrative feature Thirteen in Gaza has won the prestigious NETPAC Award at the 51st Toronto International Film Festival, where it made its world premiere in the festival’s Centrepiece programme. The announcement is accompanied by the debut of the project’s international trailer. Shot entirely on location within the Gaza Strip under active wartime conditions with a local Palestinian cast and crew, the 77-minute drama represents the first local narrative feature produced in the territory since the start of the conflict.
Written by Khalil Al-Muzayyen with contributions from Abu Dan and Hussein Al-Dash, the story follows 13-year-old Raghad (Mary Ziyara), who loses her home and most of her immediate family in an airstrike. Relocated to an overcrowded displacement camp alongside her surviving father (Firas Al-Masri), the narrative examines the quiet, domestic toll of war as Raghad navigates adolescence, grief, and the absence of bodily privacy, while her father is forced into compromising moral decisions to ensure their basic survival. The NETPAC (Network for the Promotion of Asia Pacific Cinema) jury—composed of Mara Matta, Richard Fung, and Panos Kotzathanasis—praised the production for refusing to reduce wartime suffering to spectacle or passive victimhood, citing its intimate, dignified visual language.
Unable to travel to Toronto due to regional border closures, Abu Dan addressed the festival audience via a pre-recorded video message beside the rubble of destroyed infrastructure. During his remarks, the filmmaker noted the severe physical risks faced by the team, revealing that a nearby strike on the fourth day of shooting critically injured a production crew member. The feature marks Abu Dan’s narrative directorial debut following his 2024 documentary Gaza Sound Man and the 2017 short Six Miles Out. Thirteen in Gaza was produced by New Scene for Media Production with development and production support from the Doha Film Institute and the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture (AFAC).
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