At his alternative film awards, Miki Zohar calls to ‘free cinema from politics’

The controversial alternative film awards ceremony was held tonight at the International Convention Center in Jerusalem, hosted by Culture Minister Miki Zohar as his response to the Ophir Awards that gave prizes to films he said were pro-Palestinian and cast the IDF in a negative light.

Hundreds of protesters stood outside the event hall, protesting the ceremony, while another protest was held earlier in the day outside Zohar’s home.

During his opening speech, Zohar says: “It is time to free cinema from politics and creators from the need to please anyone who does not care about the well-being of Israel and its soldiers.”

Zohar says he regretted the “storm” of controversy surrounding the alternative ceremony, and that there is room for more than one awards show.

“The State of Israel is a country with a diversity of opinions — there are different and varied views, and space needs to be given to everyone,” says Zohar.

On Sunday, several leading film professionals who had withdrawn their films from Zohar’s alternative awards ceremony agreed to reverse their decision and take part in today’s event, following an intervention by producer Moshe Edery.

The prize for Best Feature went to “Burning Man,” a film about an anxious father awaiting his son’s army draft, which was nominated for an Ophir Award as well.

The Lifetime Achievement Award at the ceremony was awarded to producer Shula Spiegel, who had told Hebrew media outlets that she decided to accept the award despite heavy pressure from fellow filmmakers urging her to decline it.

In her speech on stage, Spiegel says: “Mr. Minister, good art depends on freedom of creation, and creators need a safety net that cannot coexist with fear that their freedom to think, to speak, to express, and yes — to criticize — will be taken away. The role of writers, poets, theater people and filmmakers is to speak reality as they understand it and to do so with honesty, passion and faith.”