Spurning Ophir Awards, government announces alternate film awards ‘to tell our story’

After halting funding for the Ophir Awards after it gave its top prize to a film about a Palestinian boy in a September ceremony, Culture Minister Miki Zohar announced this week an alternative film award ceremony that will take place on December 30 at Jerusalem’s International Convention Center.

The highlight of the event is the prize money to be awarded to the winners, amounting to NIS 1 million, with cash prizes of NIS 100,000 (about $26,000) to be handed out in major categories including Best Feature Film, Best Documentary, Best Short/Animation Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography and Best Editing. In addition, prizes will be awarded for Best Actor, Best Actress and a special Lifetime Achievement Award.

The finalists in the various categories will be announced in the coming days.

“We are proud to hold for the first time the new state ceremony designed to give the Israeli film industry a central stage and recognition for excellence,” said Zohar.

The nomination process for the new film awards included public submissions, while a professional panel of film industry experts compiled the final list.

Zohar said he sees great significance in strengthening Israeli creativity and highlighting the voices “that tell our story. This is another step in reinforcing the film industry and supporting works that express the Israeli spirit at its best. Cinema is returning to the people.”

Zohar took steps to sideline the Ophir Awards after its most recent ceremony, when Best Feature went to “The Sea,” a film by Shai Carmeli-Pollak about Khaled (Mohammed Gazaoui), a Palestinian boy on his way to visit the sea in Tel Aviv for the first time in his life as part of a class trip.

At an IDF checkpoint, the soldiers deny Khaled entry. He then sneaks into Israel and embarks on a journey to the sea, while his father (Khalifa Natour) tries to trace his whereabouts, putting himself at risk of being arrested and losing his job.

Following the Ophir win for “The Sea,” Zohar said the film presents the Palestinian perspective, casting IDF soldiers and the State of Israel in a negative light.

At the time, Zohar said that his new ceremony would serve as a state-sponsored and official alternative to the Ophir Awards of the Israeli Academy of Film and Television, “which in recent years does not represent the Israeli public and the majority of Israeli citizens, but instead serves as a platform for extreme and delusional voices on the fringes of Israeli society that harm the social fabric.”

The Culture Ministry is sponsoring the new awards ceremony, while the Ophir Awards are organized by the Israeli Academy of Film.

While the feature that wins Best Film each year at the Ophir Awards is selected to represent Israel in the competition for an Oscar nomination, the same will not be true of the Culture Ministry’s new awards ceremony.

After Zohar announced he would revoke funding from the Israeli Academy of Film, an anonymous senior figure in Israel’s tech industry offered financial backing to allow the Academy to continue holding its annual Ophir Awards in the future, according to the Kan public broadcaster.