‘Inside Gaza’ wins best documentary at Montreal’s Cinemania film festival

“Inside Gaza,” a documentary that follows journalists from global news agency AFP after the October 7, 2023, attack, received the Best Documentary Film award at Montreal’s Cinemania Film Festival yesterday.

Directed by Helene Lam Trong, the 72-minute film follows the daily lives of four AFP journalists who bear witness to the difficulties of reporting in a war-torn territory largely closed off to international media.

The film is compiled from material produced by the team on the ground, as well as from interviews conducted after they left.

Adel Zaanoun, AFP’s Gaza bureau chief and one of the film’s four protagonists, accepted the award in Montreal.

He dedicated the win to all the journalists “killed in this crazy and dirty war in Gaza” and to those “who still work on the ground without food, without water, without internet, without anything.” He called on people worldwide to “continue to support journalists not only in Gaza,” but “everywhere for media freedom.”