A timely subject, rave reviews (97% on Rotten Tomatoes), festival accolades, an acclaimed director, the longest ever festival ovation, and a host of A-list supporters would normally all-but guarantee a movie U.S. distribution. Plenty of films this year have found a home with less in their corners.

And yet, The Voice of Hind Rajab, the Venice Film Festival Silver Lion winner directed by two-time Oscar nominee Kaouther Ben Hania, remains without a U.S. home.

A quick U.S. sale was expected by sources at seller CAA Media Finance. This is a boom-time for foreign films. We understand there have been a couple of proposals but little so far that has approached the norm for a film of this status. The fact it hasn’t sold yet has left many surprised. “Has that movie really not sold yet?” one leading producer messaged.

The Arabic-language film, Tunisia’s Oscar entry, tells the story of six-year old Palestinian girl Hind Rajab, who was killed by Israeli forces last year. She and her family were fleeing Gaza City when their vehicle was shelled, also killing Rajab’s uncle, aunt, and three cousins. Rajab and another cousin initially survived the attack and contacted the Palestine Red Crescent Society by phone from their car seeking aid. But the car was later found with Rajab and the paramedics who had come to help her all dead.

The incident sparked global protests, including at Columbia University, where students renamed Hamilton Hall as Hind’s Hall. In her film, Tunisian filmmaker Ben Hania weaved in the original recording of Rajab’s final phone call to what critics described as devastating effect.

The killings took place some three months into Israel’s ongoing military operation in the Gaza Strip, sparked by the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 terror attacks, which killed 1,200 people. The Palestinian death toll now stands at 67,000 people, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, and Gaza is in ruins. The U.N. has denounced Israel’s actions as genocide. There is renewed hope today of a ceasefire and return of remaining hostages.

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The Voice Of Hind Rajab isn’t a starry project, but Brad Pitt, Joaquin Phoenix, Rooney Mara, Alfonso Cuaron and Jonathan Glazer are among heavyweights to get behind the feature as executive producers. Following a record 23-minute ovation at its emotionally charged Venice premiere, the film has gone on to play at festivals around the world, including in the U.S.

International buyers have flocked to it. Italian distributor I Wonder Pictures launched the film locally two weeks ago to a fourth-place opening and $500,000 from 400 screens, a strong debut for a foreign-language film. It has now crossed $1M and took a similar box office in its second frame to Margot Robbie and Colin Farrell new release A Big Bold Beautiful Journey and Neon’s horror breakout Together.

“Buyers Are Passing Out Of Fear”

So why hasn’t The Voice of Hind Rajab been picked up stateside? All three of Ben Hania’s previous films got U.S. distribution from established buyers. We spoke to a dozen U.S. and international distributors, financiers and producers to get their take. None wanted to speak on the record.

One leading U.S. buyer, who expressed strong interest in the film, claimed: “Buyers are passing out of fear and/or they disagree with the film’s politics. I am very surprised.”

This buyer cited “a full slate” as the reason they couldn’t take it on.

A key arthouse outfit explained: “We have been very interested in the movie, but it just got to the point where it seemed futile for us to make a thoughtful offer based on our calibration of what the potential was, with the expectation that a sale to a major pay-one streamer was unlikely…in addition to that, the awards season is already well underway. Trying to position this film properly in such a short amount of time is very difficult.”

The asking price is understood to be in the mid-six figures, which isn’t an insignificant amount. And it’s certainly true that the wariness of streamers is a problem for many “challenging” films these days. And yet Oscar winner No Other Land, about the occupied West Bank, made $2.5 million in U.S. theaters alone last year, suggesting there is an audience for Palestinian stories.

Another U.S. buyer proffered: “While everyone acknowledges it is essentially an automatic ticket to the awards race, it feels almost cynical to acquire it purely for that reason. And no matter one’s politics, it will be a lightning rod that will overshadow anything else a given distributor will be handling this season.”

A company like Mubi would seemingly be a good fit. But that company has been fighting a PR battle for months over the Israeli military connections of its latest financial backer Sequoia. A film like this could intensify that existing glare or see that glare turned on the film to negative effect. Sources at the company declined to comment.

One European distribution vet posited: “For a U.S. distributor, acquiring a film like The Voice of Hind Rajab isn’t just about believing in the quality of the work — it also means committing resources to defend it against inevitable attacks from multiple sides. That requires not only money for marketing and publicity, but also a team that’s ready to handle controversy in a very polarized environment. Many distributors simply don’t have the bandwidth or the appetite for that kind of battle.”

A source close to the movie contended: “You can dress it up all you like, but ultimately the film hasn’t been picked up due to fear. In my view, it’s an unfounded fear, when counterbalanced with the artistic merit and commercial prospects of the film.”

A Hollywood financier we spoke with refuted the notion of a silent boycott of the film. “It’s just not true that there is a campaign in Hollywood or within the country at large to censor Palestinian stories or voices. I don’t believe it.”

Whose Context Is It Anyway

While there aren’t many Palestinian films to test that theory against, the recent returns are mixed. No Other Land went down the self-distribution route after the filmmakers supposedly didn’t get a deal they liked (despite sources telling us there were offers). Cannes 2025 movie Once Upon a Time in Gaza hasn’t found a home yet. There do remain those willing to stick their necks out: Watermelon Pictures, which specializes in Palestinian and Arab stories, is releasing Annemarie Jacir’s Palestine 36 and Cherien Dabis’ lauded Sundance drama All That’s Left of You (which has a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes), while Kino Lorber acquired Cannes documentary Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk about photojournalist Fatma Hassouna’s life in Gaza. Hassouna was tragically killed by an Israeli airstrike in April 2025, shortly before the film was selected for Cannes. Richard Lorber’s company is understood to be high on the film’s chances of cutting through.

One U.S. distributor contended that Hind Rajab’s subject matter would be off-putting to a non-Hollywood audience: “I think in general it speaks to distributors realizing that despite the noise inside the bubble of Hollywood, moviegoers don’t want to be proselytized to on a topic they can readily engross themselves in, if they choose to, via a variety of media from their home or on their device of choice.”

They added about potential industry reservations over the film: “Hollywood is an industry in part built by Jews fleeing the Holocaust, so there being resistance to the film should not come as a surprise. The film doesn’t contextualize the events depicted as part of a response to a murdering, raping, kidnapping spree of religious-motivated terrorist violence generated by the democratically elected governing power in Gaza. I’m shocked anyone is shocked the film hasn’t been warmly received by the Hollywood industry outside of a few reflexively anti-Zionist and anti-Israel actors.”

October 7 was also brought up by a Hollywood producer we spoke to: “You cannot tell a story right now of anything post-October 7 without contextualizing October 7. You can’t skip it or minimize it, because it’s not a small part of the context.”

In response to this, a source close to the movie countered: “I think there is ideology in the suggestion that this film should address October 7. The heinous, appalling and unjustifiable massacre of October 7 followed decades of violence. The region has seen a very long cycle of violence and oppression. There is a broader political conversation about what qualifies as context, but how many films about events in war lead with title cards detailing longer political histories? Did Warfare open with title cards detailing the history or context of the Iraq War? Did American Sniper?”

We hear there’s still a chance the film finds a buyer but at the moment there’s a stronger likelihood it goes down a self-distribution route after raising a P&A fund.

Meanwhile, the question of whether a U.S. streamer or studio would countenance The Voice of Hind Rajab today is a pertinent one. In recent years, filmmakers have expressed growing concerns about studios and streamers shying away from “challenging” material.

Twenty years ago, the political and industry landscapes were different; not without their own challenges, but different. Palestinian director Hany Abu Assad’s acclaimed and nuanced psychological drama Paradise Now, about two childhood friends preparing a suicide attack in Israel, was picked up by studio division Warner Independent in 2005. While there was criticism from some corners about the film’s subject, Warners stood by the film, which took $1.5 million theatrically in U.S. and went on to win a Golden Globe and be Oscar nominated. Eight years later, the same director’s similarly acclaimed film Omar, about a young Palestinian who agrees to work as an informant after being wrongly implicated in an Israeli soldier’s death, found a home with New York-based Adopt Films whose campaign also propelled it to an Oscar nomination.

America’s Shift To The Right

For a film such as Paradise Now to find a studio buyer today feels an outlandish notion.

Former Lionsgate film chief Patrick Wachsberger, speaking on a recent Deadline-moderated film distribution panel at the Zurich Summit, told the audience that he doubted whether in this political climate even a movie such as Bowling For Columbine could get a theatrical release.

America’s shift to the right under Donald Trump is not the deep wound to Hollywood leaders that many assumed it would be. We’ve entered a new reality where a vaunted comedian can be yanked off air following criticism from conservatives and Trump officials. How many studio bosses have publicly lamented Trump’s erosion of DEI? Doing side deals with the President is now seen as a necessary evil in order to focus on “the things that matter.” These seemingly include greasing the wheels for other deals with his administration and installing executives favorable to the President and his culture wars agenda.

One studio boss we spoke with privately in recent weeks admitted to being “terrified” to do or say anything that might incur Trump’s wrath.

This is the backdrop to a movie like Hind Rajab not getting a deal: a backdrop of increasing fear of political reprisal [see The Apprentice’s journey], social media toxicity and studio realignment. It’s not the only reason it hasn’t been bought, but many we spoke with believe it’s a contributing factor.

“The suspension of Jimmy Kimmel, the indictment of James Comey and the use of troops in Portland and other U.S. cities is indicative of a culture in which there is growing pressure to boycott dissent against the current American administration,” one festival executive lamented. “Playing a film where a director has said ‘Just as people know the name of Anne Frank, they should know Hind Rajab’, is going to fall into that category. Tech bros are doing their best to accommodate the President; is it any wonder that indie distributors may be similarly minded given their financial survival is under even greater threat?”