A film about the Nova festival massacre recorded a historic win at last night’s News and Documentary Emmy Awards.
Surviving October 7: We Will Dance Again, the 90-minute film directed by Yariv Mozer, picked up the prize for Outstanding Current Affairs Documentary at the ceremony in New York.
The film chronicles the stories of the survivors and victims at the rave near Re’im, where more than 360 people were murdered and dozens were kidnapped by Hamas.
It was aired by the BBC in the UK and Paramount+ internationally in 2024, though at the time Mozer claimed the British version had seen all references to Hamas as “terrorists” removed at the corporation’s insistence, saying it was “a price I was willing to pay so that the British public will be able to see these atrocities”.
The documentary uses videos recorded from the partygoers’ mobile phones, Hamas bodycam footage and survivor testimony to stitch together a minute-by-minute account of a festival celebrating life that was transformed into a bloodbath.
As Mozer accepted the award on stage, he wore a yellow hostage pin badge and a yellow tie.
"As of tonight, [it has been] 620 days that the Israelis and Palestinians in Gaza have experienced a catastrophic pain because of the war triggered by Hamas on October 7,” he said in his acceptance speech. “We Will Dance Again is a document of history recording events as they happened.”
The director noted in his speech that his producer, Michal Weits, was injured this week when an Iranian ballistic missile hit her residence in Tel Aviv. “Michal is hospitalised and we wish her a full recovery,” he told the audience.
He went on: "Above all, we dedicate this award to the safe and immediate return of the hostages who are still in Gaza.
“We want this cycle of bloodshed to end. This war should end. This war should not serve the interests of the Israeli government and the Hamas terror group.”
Of the 3,500 partygoers who attended the Nova music festival, 364 were murdered, and 44 were taken hostage by Hamas.
According to the Times of Israel, 15 of the 50 hostages still held in Gaza were abducted from the site of the rave.
Israeli authorities believe the following individuals are still alive: Elkana Bohbot, Rom Braslavski, Evyatar David, Guy Gilboa-Dalal, Maxim Herkin, Segev Kalfon, Bar Kuperstein, Eitan Mor, Yosef-Haim Ohana, Alon Ohel and Avinatan Or.
The acclaimed documentary previously scooped the Honour Award for Most Impactful Film to Society at the International Emmy Awards in May.
In an interview with the Times of Israel, Mozer revealed how he came up with the idea for the film just hours after the attack at the rave began, and was granted access to visit the site just two days later.
He immediately started collating any clips he could find of the massacre, uploaded by survivors on social media.
"They were in a situation where no one was answering them, no one was helping them,” Mozer said. “So they picked up their phones to have a kind of communication with the world, to connect, because they thought: ‘I may not be alive in another minute, and everyone will see and understand that I was in this situation.’”
On Wednesday, the documentary came out on top against four other entries in its category, including PBS’ A Year of War: Israelis and Palestinians.
The night also saw wins for several pieces of news coverage related to the war in Gaza, presenting prizes to Business Insider for its long-form feature “The Man Who Feeds Gaza’s Children,” and to The New York Times for both its report, “She Survived an Airstrike that Killed Her Entire Family in Gaza”, and its analysis piece “Two Weeks Inside Gaza’s Ruined Hospitals”.
