‘Tel Aviv on Fire’ wins top prize at Haifa film festival

By HANNAH BROWN
(photo credit: PATRICIA IBANEZ)
(photo credit: PATRICIA IBANEZ)
The recently concluded 34th Haifa International Film Festival announced its winners, with Sameh Zoabi’s Tel Aviv on Fire awarded the prize for Best Film in the Israeli Feature Film Competition. The movie is a comedy about a Palestinian who gets a job writing a soap opera. This prize comes with an award in the amount of NIS 100,000.
The judges wrote: “A film that is a humorous and original breakthrough on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from a surprising point of view.” Tel Aviv on Fire also won the Script Award – in collaboration with the Scriptwriters’ Guild in the amount of 10,000 NIS for Sameh Zoabi and Dan Kleinman.
The Danny Lerner Award for Best Feature Debut in the amount of NIS 50,000 went to Joseph El-Dror’s No Blood. The Michael Shvily Award for Best Actor and Best Actress in a Feature Film in the amount of NIS 5,000 went, respectively, to Naveh Tzur for Marco Carmel’s Noble Savage and Laliv Sivan for Yaron Shani’s Love Trilogy: Stripped.
The Anat Pirchi Award for Editing in a Feature Film in the amount of NIS 5,000 went to Shani for his Love Trilogy: Stripped. The Anat Pirchi Award for Cinematography in a Feature Film in the amount of NIS 5,000 went to Daniel Miller for the film Fig Tree by Alamork Davidian. The Rozalia Katz Award for Best Documentary Film in the amount of NIS 40,000 went to Army of Lovers in the Holy Land by Asaf Galay. The movie looks at the Swedish band Army of Lovers and its popularity in Israel.
The winner of the Carmel International Film Competition for Best Film in the amount of NIS 40,000 (sponsored by Haifa Mayor Yona Yahav) went to Dead Women Walking by Hagar Ben Asher. The film is about women on death row.
The Tobias Szpancer Award for Best Film in the Between Israeli and Jewish Identity Competition in the amount of NIS 20,000 went to The Interpreter, directed by Martin Sulik. The jury called the film, “a tragic-comic journey film that emphasizes the struggle of the second generation of Jewish survivors and Nazi war criminals, to remember and understand.”
A special mention in this category went to the film The Hebrews, by Yair Qedar. The Golden Anchor Competition for Balkan and Mediterranean Cinema in the amount of NIS 40,000 went to Daughter of Mine by Laura Bispuri.
For the first time, a post-production grant of 90,000 euros was awarded by BCL Finance Group to an Israeli production company participating in the Israeli film competition for an upcoming film, and it was given to producers Naomi Levari and Saar Yogev of Black Sheep Productions. BCL also gave prizes in a pitching competition for proposed feature films and works in progress.


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