Coming-of-age tale ‘Tell Me Everything’ wins best film as it dominates Ophir Awards

The feature film “Tell Me Everything” won 10 Ophir Awards on Wednesday night, including for best film, best director and best screenplay.

The movie, written and directed by Moshe Rosenthal, had received 16 nominations, a new record for a film in the history of the awards.

“Tell Me Everything” (titled “Independence” in Hebrew) tells the story of a young boy in 1987 grappling with the discovery of the shocking news that his father is gay. The movie premiered in January at the Sundance Film Festival and saw its Israeli premiere at the Jerusalem Film Festival in July.

Rosenthal’s film was also awarded by the Israel Academy of Film and Television with the Ophir Awards for best cinematography, best editing, best design, best costume design, best makeup, best casting and best sound recording and design.

The award for best film marked Rosenthal’s second such win at the Ophirs, after his 2022 debut film “Karaoke” received four awards, including for the acting performances of Sasson Gabay and Rita Shukrun.

The second big winner of Wednesday night was “Where To?” — an Israeli-German film that centers on a Palestinian Uber driver living in Berlin who picks up a young lost Israeli. Ehab Salami took home the best actor award for his role in the film while Ido Tako won best supporting actor.

Yevgenia Dodina won the best actress award, having previously been nominated on seven previous occasions, this time for her role in “Mama,” which is about a Polish woman who returns to her family after years of working as a housekeeper in Israel.

Veteran actress Tiki Dayan was named best supporting actress for “Farewell to Dough,” about the mother of a bachelor who is attached to his morning pastries and then has to give up his carbs.

Orit Fox Rotem won the best short narrative film award for “Another Body,” a 29-minute drama about a young musician paralyzed in his limbs.