Four films related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict made Oscar shortlists this year, while another — Israeli-made “The Sea,” about a Palestinian boy from the West Bank trying to travel to the ocean for the first time — was left in the cold.

“Palestine 36,” a controversial historical drama about the 1936-1939 Arab Revolt against the British mandate government, was selected as the Palestinian entry for the Best International Feature Film.

The two-hour epic follows a young boy from the countryside who gets a job in Jerusalem for a centrist newspaper, and is radicalized by the attitude of the British colonial administration. With Jewish immigration from Europe increasing and Palestinian villagers concerned about further loss of land, Arab support for armed revolt against the British surges. The film details the British crackdown launched to contain the violence.

The film was shot primarily in Jordan and the West Bank in the year immediately following the Hamas terror group’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.

It has advertised itself as “the only film shot in Palestine in the last two years.”

It received a 20-minute standing ovation at the Toronto Film Festival.

Also on the international shortlist is Tunisia’s “The Voice of Hind Rajab,” which tells the story of a five-year-old Palestinian girl who was killed amid the current Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.

The film, which dramatizes the effort by Palestinian Red........

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