Miami Beach Mayor Threatens To Close Down Cinema For Showing Oscar Winner ‘No Other Land’; Director Says Banning Doc “Won’t Work”

UPDATED with new statement from O Cinema and details on a Wednesday, March 19 Miami Beach city commission meeting to vote on the cancellation of the cinema’s lease. Earlier: The mayor of Miami Beach, FL is threatening to shut down an arthouse movie theater for showing the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land, branding the film as “antisemitic.”

Mayor Steven Meiner issued a draft resolution calling for his city to terminate a lease agreement with O Cinema, located at Old City Hall, a property owned by the city. The resolution, to be debated at a city commission meeting Wednesday, March 19, also would eliminate about $40,000 in grants provided by Miami Beach to the nonprofit that runs the theater. O Cinema began screening No Other Land last Friday, five days after it won Best Documentary Feature at the Academy Awards.

The film, directed by a collective of four Israeli and Palestinian filmmakers, provides a ground-level view of life for Palestinian residents of the rural Masafer Yatta area of the occupied West Bank who live under an expulsion order by the Israel Defense Forces, which wants the land for a military training zone. The documentary shows IDF forces knocking down Palestinian homes and schools pursuant to the expulsion order, as well as violent attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians.

In addition to the Oscar, the film has won more than 60 awards around the world, including the top prize for documentary at last year’s Berlin Film Festival. In an Associated Press review, critic Mark Kennedy described the film as “a piece of resistance but also humanization.” He wrote, “It is a wrenching movie to see: Soldiers, with vague permission from a court that Palestinians have no say in, push old women and children, not answering their pleas to stop and merely waving away residents whose families have lived in the region since the 1830s.”

In a newsletter distributed to his constituents, however, Mayor Meiner offered a sharply different take. Noting “I watched the film,” he wrote No Other Land “can best be described as a false one-sided propaganda attack on the Jewish people that is not consistent with the values of our City and residents.” Meiner continued, “I am a staunch believer in free speech. But normalizing hate and then disseminating antisemitism in a facility owned by the taxpayers of Miami Beach… is unjust to the values of our city and residents and should not be tolerated.”

In a letter of March 6 to the mayor, Vivian Marthell, CEO of O Cinema, appeared to concede Meiner’s point, writing, “Due to the concerns of antisemitic rhetoric, we have decided to withdraw the film from our programming.”

But the next day, O Cinema reversed course. In a statement sent to Deadline Thursday night, Marthell explained, “My initial reaction to Mayor Meiner’s threats was made under duress. After reflecting on the broader implications for free speech and O Cinema’s mission, I (along with the O Cinema board and staff members) agreed it was critical to screen this acclaimed film.”

Marthell’s statement added, in part, “Our decision to screen No Other Land is not a declaration of political alignment. It is a bold reaffirmation of our fundamental belief that every voice deserves to be heard.

“The ability to present diverse perspectives without fear of political retribution is the cornerstone of a free and democratic society. Efforts to pressure or censor artistic expression set a dangerous precedent that threatens the creative and intellectual freedoms of all.”

At the Oscars, No Other Land received a standing ovation from the audience in the Dolby Theatre when it was announced as winner of Best Documentary Feature. Filmmakers Basel Adra, who is Palestinian, and Yuval Abraham, who is Israeli, spoke on behalf of the quartet of directors. “About two months ago, I became a father,” Adra said, “and my hope to my daughter [is] that she will not have to live the same life I’m living now — always fearing settlers’ violence, home demolitions and forceful displacements that my community, Masafer Yatta, is living and facing every day under the Israeli occupation. No Other Land reflects the harsh reality that we have been enduring for decades and still resist, as we call on the world to take serious actions to stop the injustice and to stop the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian people.”

Abraham added, “We made this film, Palestinians and Israelis, because together our voices are stronger. We see each other — the atrocious destruction of Gaza and its people, which must end; the Israeli hostages, brutally taken in the crime of October 7th, which must be freed.”

Deadline has reviewed a letter Mayor Meiner wrote to Marthell on March 5, in which he wrote, “The film director’s comments at the Oscars prove the antisemitic nature of the film using Jew-hatred propaganda and lies such as ‘ethnic cleansing.’ Unfortunately, Jews for thousands of years have heard this antisemitic rhetoric; I am just surprised that O Cinema, utilizing Miami Beach taxpayer funding, would willingly disseminate such hateful propaganda.”

Deadline received a statement from Abraham reacting to Meiner’s threat to shut down O Cinema. He wrote, “When the mayor uses the word antisemitism to silence Palestinians and Israelis who proudly oppose occupation and apartheid together, fighting for justice and equality, he is emptying it out of meaning. I find that to be very dangerous. Censorship is always wrong. We made this film to reach US audiences from a wide variety of political views. I believe that once you see the harsh reality of occupation in Masafer Yatta in the West Bank, it becomes impossible to justify it, and that’s why the mayor is so afraid of No Other Land. It won’t work. Banning a film only makes people more determined to see it.”

O Cinema has added screenings of No Other Land on March 19 and 20. The film, which is being self-distributed in the U.S., has made over $1 million domestically, with a worldwide total of $1.3 million.

The documentary was shot between 2019 and 2023 and completed before Hamas, which governs occupied Gaza, launched its terror attack of October 7^th, 2023 on Israel (Hamas does not govern the West Bank; a portion of it is ruled by the Palestinian Authority, with the rest under Israeli military and civilian control).

In his newsletter, Mayor Meiner said, “Hate under the banner of ‘culture’ is still hate; perhaps even more dangerously so. Nazi Germany used its advanced culture to disseminate and mainstream Jew hatred culminating in mass murder. Hamas and Hezbollah indoctrinate hatred to justify its attacks on Jewish civilians, including woman [sic], children and the elderly. The 9/11 terrorists were indoctrinated to hate innocent Americans who were just going to work to help feed and support their families.”

In her statement Thursday night, Marthell, the O Cinema CEO, said, “Now, we call on our friends, colleagues, and allies in the arts community to stand with us to continue to bring unrestricted and uncensored arts and dialogue to this community. Join us at the Miami Beach City Commission meeting on Wednesday, March 19, at 8:30 AM as we affirm our right to tell stories that matter.”