Israeli cinema takes top prizes at European Film Awards

Israeli films, 'Fill the Void,' wins the cinematography award, and 'The Congress,' wins best animated feature.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
'The Congress' at the European film awards (photo credit: Courtesy Facebook)
'The Congress' at the European film awards
(photo credit: Courtesy Facebook)
Israeli director Ari Folman took home the award for best animated feature at the European film awards on Saturday night in Berlin for his film, The Congress.
The film is a collaboration between 270 artists from 6 different countries - Israel, Germany, Poland, Luxembourg, France and Belgium, Folman said.
"The film, The Congress, takes 3-D computer images one step further, developing them into a chemical formula that every customer may consume through prescription pills," says the film's website. "The Congress is primarily a futuristic fantasy, but it is also a cry for help and a profound cry of nostalgia for the old-time cinema we know and love."
Another top contender at Saturday night's event in Berlin was Israeli film, Fill the Void, which tells the story of an Orthodox Hassidic family from Tel Aviv, and took home the prize for best cinematography.
No Israeli film has aroused as much curiosity as Rama Burstein’s Fill the Void, which discusses the controversy of marriage within the Orthodox community. This film was slated to have its premiere at the Jerusalem Film Festival in July, but then it was accepted into the extremely prestigious Venice Film Festival.
The organizers of that festival asked Burstein to choose between Jerusalem and Venice, and she chose the European film festival.
Hannah Brown contributed to this article.