On October 7, Hamas militants fired 3,000 rockets into Israeli territory, invaded dozens of border towns, and stormed the Supernova psychedelic trance festival in the Negev desert, killing more than 1,400 people in total and abducting an estimated 200 hostages. In response, Israel embarked on a bombing campaign of the Gaza Strip ahead of a planned ground invasion that in the first 11 days has killed more than 3,000 people and displaced nearly half of the territory’s two million residents.

Amid the devastation, regional artists have become victims of war. Thirty-six-year-old Israeli filmmaker Yahav Winner was found among the dead in the kibbutz Kfar Aza; he died protecting his wife and one-month-old daughter from Hamas militants. Winner’s films include Neurim, which was screened at the Cannes Film Festival in 2020, and The Boy (2023), which was awarded the Best Cinematography prize at the Tel Aviv International Students Film Festival in 2023. A film-festival volunteer, 25-year-old Maya Puder, was also killed at the Supernova rave. The Hong Kong Jewish Film Festival will feature The Boy, which centers on the Gaza conflict, for its opening night of November 11.