‘The Bibi Files’ makes Academy Awards shortlist for best documentary

“The Bibi Files,” a documentary film featuring leaked footage of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his family being grilled by police as part of a sprawling graft investigation was shortlisted for an Academy Award Tuesday, alongside two other movies that cast a critical eye on Israel and its hawkish government.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announcement put Alex Gibney’s hard-hitting expose on the legally entangled premier, who took the stand for the first time this month, one step closer to a coveted Oscar nomination, joining 14 other films hoping to be among the five competing for a statuette in the Documentary Feature Film category.

Also advancing to the next round of voting was Norwegian-Palestinian production, “No Other Land,” about settler violence and the expulsion of Palestinians from their West Bank villages.

In the International Feature Film category, academy voters gave the nod to “From Ground Zero,” an anthology by 22 different Palestinian directors about the situation in Gaza after October 7. Tom Nesher’s “Closer to Me,” Israel’s submission for the category, did not make the shortlist, extending a streak of X straight years that Israel has been without a nominee.

Uniquely for a major motion picture, Gibney’s film is still mired in legal muck and is banned from being viewed in Israel, due to privacy laws regarding police interrogations.

The film also had trouble finding a streaming platform, as many potential backers and distributors were also nervous about getting involved, especially once the war in Gaza was sparked by Hamas’s thousands-strong attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which killed some 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage.

The film has made a predictable splash, just as Netanyahu became the first sitting Israeli leader to take the stand as a criminal defendant last week.

Netanyahu is on trial for fraud and breach of trust in three separate cases filed in 2019, with one case also carrying a bribery charge. The proceedings are expected to take years to wrap up, especially given delays after the trial was temporarily suspended along with all other non-urgent cases due to Hamas’s shock October 7 incursion and the ensuing war in Gaza.

Netanyahu denies any wrongdoing in the cases and claims that the charges were fabricated in a witch hunt led by the police and state prosecution, and facilitated by a weak attorney general.

Reviews in Israeli media for “The Bibi Files” have mostly been positive, while noting that Netanyahu is portrayed in a harsh light. Not surprisingly, public reaction reflects longstanding divisions over the polarizing leader. He and his supporters say he’s the subject of a witch hunt orchestrated by a hostile media and biased justice system out to topple his rule.

The final nominees for the Oscars will be announced on January 17, and the awards ceremony will be held on March 2 in the Dolby Theater in Hollywood, California.