'7 Days' wins Jerusalem Film Fest prize

'7 DAYS' is about conflict in a mourning Moroccan family.

By HANNAH BROWN
film good 88 (photo credit: )
film good 88
(photo credit: )
In a closing ceremony on Friday, the Jerusalem Film Festival announced its awards, although the festival itself continued until Saturday night. The Wolgin Award for Best Full-Length Feature Film, in recent years a highly competitive category, was muted this year by the fact that only four films were entered. But the honor, and the cash award of the higher-than-ever sum of NIS 140,000, went to 7 Days, a film about conflict during the shiva ceremony held by a large Moroccan family. The film, which was written and directed by Ronit Elkabetz and Shlomi Elkabetz, was also honored with the Best Actress award, which went to Hana Azulay Hasfary. The Best Actor Award was shared by Moshe Ivgy and Alon Aboutboul for their work on the urban fairy tale, Out of the Blue. Actor John Malkovich, who was honored at this ceremony with an Achievement Award, presented the veteran Israeli stars with their awards. The Wolgin Award for Best Israeli Documentary went to David Ofek's Nicolai & the Law of Return, a film about a Romanian foreign worker who finds a creative way to stay in Israel (and the film that generated the most positive buzz of anything at the festival this year). A special mention in this category went to Amikam Shossberger's Nuran, a movie about the abduction of a child. In the Wolgin Short film category, the top prize went to Gur Bentwich for Round Trip, with special mentions to The Repentance of Rachamim Hanuka, directed by Ariel Benbaji and Bait, directed by Michal Vinik. The most competitive awards this year were unquestionably the Anat Pirchi Prizes for dramas made for television. For the first time this year, a prize was given for Best Television Series, and it went to Arab Labor, created by Daniel Paran, Sayed Kashua and Roni Ninio, with a special mention to A Taste of Conflict, created by Uri Barbash and Ronit Weiss-Berkowitz. The award for Single Television Drama went to Chaim Elbaum for his drama And Thou Shalt Love, with a special mention to Anthem, directed by Elad Keidan. In the In the Spirit of Freedom Category - awards given to films, fiction or documentaries that deal with issues of human and civil rights, freedom of speech and expression - director Steve McQueen won for the film Hunger, about an IRA prison revolt, and Peng Tao won a prize for Little Moth, about street children in China. A special mention went to the film Under the Bombs, directed by Philippe Aractingi, a feature film set in Lebanon during the 2006 war. Two awards are given for films in the Jewish Experience category. This year, the Lia Award went to Daniel Espinosa for his film Outside Love, about a Jewish man in Denmark who falls in love with a Pakistani woman. The Avner Shalev Yad Vashem Chairman's Award went to Tal Haim Yoffe for his film The Green Dumpster Mystery, a documentary about a family saga that unfurls after the director found some documents that were being thrown away.