The Israeli Academy of Film and Television held its annual Television Awards ceremony at Expo Tel Aviv on Sunday night, honoring the best television of 2025, hosted by actors/comedians Tom Yaar and Shira Naor.
The awards ceremony included a whopping 47 prizes, so few series walked away empty-handed. The competition among Israeli networks and producers is fierce, and at the end of the evening, KAN, Israel’s government broadcaster, led with 27 prizes, followed by Yes with 12, and Keshet with six. KAN has come under fire recently from politicians such as Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi, who want to close it down.
For the first time in two years, the awards were held without special categories devoted to broadcasting during a crisis and wartime. But the shadow of the past year lingered throughout the evening, as the ceremony included moments of sadness and remembrance for industry members who died during the year.
Alon Aboutboul, one of Israel’s leading actors, passed away suddenly last year and received two posthumous awards for his performance in the drama The German as a Mossad officer and for his work on the comedy sketch show Universes, which demonstrates his versatility.
His sister-in-law accepted his award for The German and read a moving message from his children, in which they said, "Thank you for choosing our father - he really was something, and we miss him very much." His Universes co-star and series creator, Roy Kafri, praised his co-star’s talent as he accepted the late actor's second award.
Another actor who died this year, Rami Heuberger, was remembered when The Cameri Quintet, a comedy group of which he was a member, received a lifetime achievement award. The other members of the quintet, Keren Mor, Dov Navon, Shai Avivi, and Menashe Noy, and several of the writers and producers, accepted the award and spoke about the loss of their colleague. Heuberger’s son was in the audience.
The popular thriller series Tehran from KAN won two gala awards: one for artistic direction, for Yoel Herzberg, and another for original music, for Mark Eliyahu. Tehran’s producer, Shula Spiegel, referred in her speech to her late producing partner, Dana Eden, who was found dead in Athens in February, as the two were prepping the fourth season.
Spiegel: We will produce dramas 'just as we did together'
"I take advantage of every stage to commemorate my beloved partner," Spiegel said, "On Wednesday, I went on stage alone for the first time - again reality hit me. You were not there, dear and beloved Dana. Almost 20 years of wonderful partnership, years of joint creation... The Eden family, I promise - we will continue to create, to produce dramas in Israel and around the world, just as we did together.”
The children of the late singer Corinne Allal, Omer and Ben, together with her partner, Ruti Allal, went onstage with the production team to accept the award for documentary series of the year for Corinne Allal: Farewell Tour. The series won six awards in total.
The big winner of the night was the KAN series, Happy Place, which took 10 awards, including Drama Series, Lead Actor in a Drama for Aviahu Pinhasov, Lead Actress in a drama for Noa Koler, Supporting Actress in a Drama for Tiki Dayan, Drama Directing for Ram Nehari, and Drama Writing for Koler.
The comedy Bloody Murray from Yes won five awards: Best Comedy-Drama or Sitcom; Supporting Actress in a Comedy for Rotem Sela; Lead Actress in a Comedy for Naomi Levov; Comedy Directing for Stav Idisis; and Comedy Writing for Idisis.
Eretz Nehederet, the comedy series from Keshet, won four awards, including satire and sketch program, and writing for a satire and sketch program.
The night featured several memorable speeches, notably one by Lucy Aharish. Aharish, an Arab Israeli journalist, presented the award for best investigative program to Fact (Uvda), which runs on Keshet and is produced and hosted by Ilana Dayan. Aharish is married to Jewish actor Tsahi Halevi, and she has come under frequent and intense harassment by right-wing extremists who have protested outside her home recently.
"Unfortunately, the last few years have been marked by the weakening of the media, the undermining of trust in it, and especially what the role of the media is in a democratic country… The last few years since October 7 have required all of us to reflect - on what is important here, on what we decided to focus on, on what we neglected, on the questions we did not ask, and especially on what we have normalized by virtue of the platform we have been given…
“Unfortunately, we have not normalized the morals and values on which the country was founded. We have not normalized the good people in it, we have not normalized justice and integrity… We have normalized the distortion that the bully and the victim have become an object of admiration, and the victim is an object of ridicule and violence.
"We have given a platform to who and what we have become in recent years - because of ratings, clickbait, because of virality. The responsibility for what is happening here is not only on the leadership that led us, but it is also on us. It's on us what we say, what we broadcast - and especially for what we want to leave here for our children. It is in our hands.”
The ceremony was broadcast on KAN 11 and can be viewed on its website at kan.org.il