Ophir Awards: Last News

Ayelet Menahemi’s family comedy Seven Blessings swept the board at Israel’s Ophir Awards on Sunday evening, triumphing in nine categories including in best film.

EXCLUSIVE: Cohen Media Group has set a February U.S. theatrical rollout for Eran Kolirin’s Let It Be Morning, which was Israel’s entry for the 94th Academy Awards. The picture will open on February 3 at the Quad Cinema in New York and at the Laemmle Royal in Los Angeles before expanding to select cities around the country on February 10 and nationwide on February 17.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Ari Folman (“Waltz With Bashir”), Nadav Lapid (“Ahed’s Knee”) and Hagai Levi (“Our Boys”) are among a group of 250 Israeli filmmakers that has signed an open letter to protest against the recently launch of the Shomron (Samaria/West Bank) Film Fund. The Fund, which held its inaugural film festival in the occupied West Bank in July , was founded by Miri Regev, the controversial former culture minister of Israel who was highly criticicized within the local film community for her right-wing views. Regev was believed to have put pressure on the Israel Film Fund to ban films that were critical of Israel from receiving subsidies. The signatories of the public letter said they will not seek funding from, nor cooperate with the Shomron (Samaria/West Bank) Film Fund and have urged the Israeli Academy of Film and Television not to partake in “whitewashing the Occupation” ahead of the Ophir Awards, the country’s version of the Academy Awards, later this month. The filmmakers claim that the Shomron (Samaria) Film Fund has one goal: inviting “Israeli filmmakers to actively participate in whitewashing the Occupation in exchange for financial support and prizes.”