The Israeli Academy of Film and Television announced the nominees for the Ophir Awards, Israel’s Oscar equivalent, on Sunday morning, and The Sea, the story of a Palestinian child who sneaks into Israel to visit the beach for the first time, led the nominations with 13.
The winner of the Ophir Best Picture Award automatically becomes Israel’s choice for consideration for an Oscar nomination for Best International Feature. This year for the first time, the winner in the Best Short Film category will also be eligible for Oscar consideration. A category for animated short films has been added, which spotlights the wealth of talent among animated film directors in Israel.
Nominee highlights
The hostages and the war feature prominently in several of the nominated films. Tom Shoval’s A Letter to David, a portrait of hostage David Cunio and his family, is nominated for a Best Documentary Award. Guygu, directed by Jordan Barr and Chen Heifetz, a depiction of hostage Guy Gilboa-Dalal and his love of Japanese culture, is nominated in the Best Animated Film category.
This year, the five nominated films in the Best Picture and Best Director categories are by women and men equally: two films were directed by women, two by men, and one co-directed by a husband-and-wife directing team. The nominees for Best Director and the Best Picture nominees match up exactly, which is logical but rarely happens.
In addition to its Best Picture nomination and Best Director nomination for Shai Carmeli-Pollak, The Sea’s nominations include one for Best Screenplay, by Carmeli-Pollak, and for its two main actors, young Mohamad Ghazawi, nominated in the Best Actor category, and Khalifa Natour, who plays his father, a construction worker who searches for his child after he goes missing, nominated for Best Supporting Actor.
Marlen Bajali, who plays the boy’s grandmother, is nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Award.
The other Best Picture nominees are Netali Braun’s Oxygen, which won the Haggiag Award for Best Picture at the Jerusalem Film Festival last month and which tells the story of a mother who goes to extreme lengths to stop her son, who is a soldier, from being deployed to the front lines.
Its lead actress, Dana Ivgy, who has won three previous Ophir Awards, is nominated for Best Actress for Oxygen and also for Tom Shoval’s Life Without Credit, in which she plays a troubled woman who flees a religious care home. Marek Rozenbaum, who is one of Israel’s leading producers, is nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Oxygen.
Nadav Lapid’s Yes, a critique of Israel’s leadership that presents Tel Aviv as a Fellini-esque horror show, is nominated for Best Picture and Best Director. Its lead actor, Ariel Bronz, is nominated for Best Actor, and Naama Preis is nominated for Best Supporting Actress.
Dead Language, directed by Mihal Brezis and Oded Binnun, an expanded version of their Oscar-nominated short film, Aya, about a woman who impulsively pretends to be the driver for a stranger at the airport, is also nominated for Best Picture. Sarah Adler, reprising her lead role, is nominated for Best Actress, an award she previously won for The Cakemaker. Yehezkel Lazarov is nominated for Best Actor for his role as her husband.
Other nominated actors and actresses
Eti Tsicko’s Nandauri, which won the award for Best Debut Film at the Jerusalem Film Festival, is also nominated for a Best Picture Ophir. Its star, Neta Riskin, is nominated for Best Actress for her role as a Georgian-born woman turned Israeli lawyer who returns to the rural region where she hated growing up in order to work on a case.
The movie Cuz You’re Ugly received nominations for both of its young actresses, Riki Reif Sinai, for Best Actress, and Ori Avinoam for Best Supporting Actress, as well as for Yossi Marshek in the Best Supporting Actor category. Director Sharon Angelhart received a Best Screenwriting nomination.
Evgenia Dodina and Hilla Vidor are nominated in the Best Supporting Actress category for Houses and Youthful Grace, respectively.
The other actors nominated in the lead category are Ido Tako for Youthful Grace and Shai Avivi for Burning Man, and in the Supporting Actor category, Amitay Shulman for Youthful Grace and Yaakov Zada-Daniel for Estate.
Cinematographer Shai Goldman scored three nods in the Best Cinematography category, for Nandauri, Yes, and The Sea. He has three previous wins in this category.
The date and location of the Ophir Awards ceremony will be announced soon.