Switzerland picks a Gaza documentary as its 2027 Oscar entry
The film had to be shot in South Africa, because the nine Palestinians who speak in it could not get visas to reach Switzerland.
Switzerland will send a film about Gaza to the 2027 Academy Awards. "Who Is Still Alive", by the director Nicolas Wadimoff, is the country's official submission in the category for best international feature.
The film is a Swiss, French, Palestinian and British co-production, and it documents the Gaza Strip without picturing it. A black map of the Strip stands as the backdrop, and over it nine Palestinians who left Gaza give their accounts of bombardment, of displacement, of losing family, and of what the war has done to them.
It was shot in South Africa. The nine were unable to obtain visas to travel to Switzerland, so the production moved to a country they could reach — which means the refusals that kept them out of the state now submitting the film are part of the reason it looks the way it does.
The documentary has taken prizes at Swiss and international festivals through 2026, including at Venice, Tbilisi and Solothurn.
An Oscar entry is a national submission, so the choice puts Palestinian testimony at the centre of Switzerland's award campaign rather than alongside it.