Internationally, the Israeli film industry is one of the most respected in the business.
In the past four years, Israel has received three Oscar nominations for the best foreign language film (with favourite Waltz With Bashir controversially losing out to the Japanese film Departures at the 2008 ceremony) along with a slew of awards at major international film festivals.
Joseph Cedar
Graduate of the New York University’s film school, writer/director Joseph Cedar has become a major player in the recent renaissance of the Israeli film industry.
His four films in a little over a decade have collected numerous awards both locally and internationally. A Time of Favour (HaHesder, 2000) and Campfire (Medurat HaShevet, 2004) won Ophirs for best film and screenplay, with his second film providing Cedar with the best director award as well as the FIPRESCI at the Chicago International Film Festival.
Oscar nomination for Beaufort
With the controversial disqualification of the internationally acclaimed The Band’s Visit for consideration as best foreign language film Oscar due to the inclusion of too much English, Cedar’s Beaufort represented Israel at the Academy. Its subsequent nomination was the country’s first since Beyond the Walls in 1984. It lost out to the Austrian Holocaust film The Counterfeiters.
Beaufort was Cedar’s first not to win the Ophir for best film, losing as it did to The Band’s Visit at the 2007 ceremony. In a particularly strong year that featured Jellyfish (a winner at Cannes), My Father, My Lord (best narrative feature at Tribeca) and Noodle (Grand Jury Prize at Montreal), the Israeli Academy voted Beaufort, which had won the Silver Bear at the Berlinale earlier in the year, as runner-up.
The 2011 Ophirs
With 13 nominations, Footnote is certainly regarded as the hot favourite. But Cedar will be taking nothing for granted. Last year, Intimate Grammar led the field with 10 nominations and several international awards to its name and walked away empty-handed.
Its main competition is likely to come from Restoration, winner of the best film at the Karlovy Vary and Jerusalem Film Festivals, with its 11 nominations and the special jury prize winner at the recent Locarno Film Festival, Policeman (HaShoter) with seven.
Veteran film, stage and television actor Sasson Gabai (Restoration) and popular stage comedian Shlomo Bar Aba playing against type in Footnote battle against each other for best actor, but Jerusalem Film Festival award-winner and occasional screen actor Gur Bentwich (Off-White Lies) will be hoping to cause an upset in a film that, like Policeman, collected seven nominations.
It’s Gabai’s fourth Ophir nomination, having previously won best actor for The Band’s Visit. The role of Elizier Shkolnik marks Bar Aba’s return to the silver screen after more than 20 years.
Youth dominates both the actress and supporting actress nominations, although the female acting tour-de-force My Lovely Sister and its 11 nominations is well-placed to see Evelyn Hagoel and Reymond Ansalem dominate the categories on the night.
The supporting actor award pits stars Zachi Grad (Off-White Lies), Lior Ashkenazi (Footnote) and Uri Gavriel (Simico’s Big Fantasy) against each other. All three have won before, with both Ashkenazi (Late Marriage) and Gavriel (What A Wonderful World) having previously won best actor awards, whilst Grad’s nomination is his seventh in 10 years.
The ceremony to present the awards will be held in late September during the Haifa International Film Festival.
Keith Lawrence - Published writer of articles in magazines, newspapers and websites, predominantly on culture, alongside ghostwriter/editor/copywriter.
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