Sharqiya, the final Israeli feature film shown in competition at the 29th
Jerusalem Film Festival, which concluded on Saturday, ended up winning the
Haggiag Award. Directed by Ami Livne, it tells the story of a Beduin man and his
family whose home is slated to be demolished. Sharqiya’s director will
receive an award of NIS 100,000.
Dana Goldberg’s Alice, about a troubled
nurse who works with juvenile delinquents, won an honorable mention. Alice also
won the Gottlieb Award for Best Screenplay.
The Haggiag Award for Best
Actress was awarded jointly to Rivka Gur for her role in Epilogue and to Ilanit
Ben-Yaakov for her performance in Alice. The Haggiag Award for Best Actor went
to Yosef Carmon for Epilogue.
The Pirchi Family Award in Memory of Anat
Pirchi for Best First or Second Israeli Feature was awarded to director Meni
Yaesh, for the film God’s Neighbors, about a newly religious man who uses
violence to try to make his community more religious. Roy Assaf, the star, won a
special mention in the Best Actor category.
The Van Leer Group Foundation
Award for Best Documentary Film was awarded to directors Emad Burnat and Guy
Davidi for Five Broken Cameras, about a Palestinian who documents his
life.
Ran Tal won the Best Director of a Documentary Award for The Garden
of Eden, a portrait of a national park.
The In the Spirit Award in Memory
of Wim van Leer went to Here and There, a feature film about rural life in
Mexico. The Ostrovsky Family Foundation Award went to the documentary The
Tiniest Place, from El Salvador.
The Lia Award, presented by the Joan
Sourasky-Constantiner Holocaust Multimedia Research Center of the Jerusalem
Cinematheque, went to Papirosen.