Tom Nesher’s ‘Come Closer’ wins Ophir, becomes Israel’s choice for Oscar nomination
Awards spread among nine different films at annual ceremony, which is overshadowed by ongoing war and hostage situation
Jessica Steinberg, The Times of Israel's culture and lifestyles editor, covers the Sabra scene from south to north and back to the center
This year’s Ophir Awards took place Monday night, with Tom Nesher’s “Come Closer” winning four prizes, and others going to nine other films in the competition.
Nesher, daughter of director Avi Nesher, received 12 nominations for her debut film, which won Best Feature Film, Best Director, Best Leading Actress award for Lia Elalouf, and Best Editing.
“Come Closer” will be Israel’s choice for an Oscar nomination for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film.
Amit Ulman’s film “The City,” a Hebrew rap musical, won for best music, art design, costumes and soundtrack. At the same time, Lee Gilat’s “Girls Like Us” scored a Best Supporting Actress award for Batel Moseri and Best Supporting Actor for Yaakov Zada-Daniel.
Shadi Mar’i won the best actor award for “Eid” while Maya Kenig won best screenplay for her film “The Milky Way.”
Shaylee Atary, the widow of the filmmaker Yahav Winner, who was killed by Hamas terrorists on October 7 in his Kfar Aza home, received a posthumous award for his last film, “The Child.”
While several documentary films about the Hamas attack were nominated for awards, the winning documentary film was “Grandma’s Dunam,” about a Tel Aviv comic’s struggle over his real estate inheritance in the West Bank.
Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai presented the award for best documentary and commented that it’s been nearly a year that Israelis have been living in what feels like a movie, using a familiar Hebrew slang term.
“An entire country is housed in a horror film and the reality is beyond imagination and worse than any nightmare,” said Huldai. “Tel Aviv-Jaffa, a city whose DNA is dreams and deeds, became the nerve center of the struggle for the return of the hostages.”
Huldai added that Tel Aviv-Jaffa became the country’s center during the last year, representing the life that Israelis promised themselves and their children.
“Culture, art and cinema will have a significant part in the process of rising out of the pain to heal and observe what is happening and mark points of compassion, hope and bravery,” he said.
For the first time in 32 years, the Israeli Academy of Film and Television decided not to award a Lifetime Achievement Award and instead chose to pay its last respects to those whose lives were lost on October 7 and during the continuing war.
The Israeli Academy of Film and Television did not invite Culture Minister Miki Zohar to the ceremony, in what was widely interpreted as a protest over a fiercely criticized industry reform that would push government money toward commercially oriented movies, rather than artistic films and documentaries that shed light on Israel’s periphery and minorities, with financing going to films based on audience numbers and ticket sales.
Sam Sokol contributed to this report.
