Fill The Void, directed by Rama Burshtein and produced by Asaf Amir, and Out in the Dark, directed by Michael Mayer and produced by Lihu Roter and Michael Mayer, were jointly awarded the Haifa Cultural Foundation Feature Film Award at the 28th Haifa International Film Festival in a ceremony that took place in the festival garden on Saturday, October 6, 2012.
Members of the jury: independent director and producer Juli Shlez (Israel), producer Ehud Bleiberg (US), film critic Professor Gerald Peary (US), director/screenwriter/producer Isaac Zepel Yeshurun (Israel), and cinematographer Amnon Zalait (Israel).
Out in the Dark tells the story of Nimer (Nicholas Jacob), a Palestinian psychology student who is close to realizing his dream of graduate studies abroad, when he falls in love with Roy (Michael Aloni), a Jewish Israeli lawyer. As their relationship develops, the bonds between the two are severely tested by the harsh political reality in which they live, confronting the prejudices within both cultures and the enmity between them.
The jury praised the film as a “brave and relevant drama, with a commitment to human rights, humanitarian values, freedom, and freedom of sexual orientation in both the Israeli and Palestinian cultures.
Fill The Void depicts a young woman torn between her dreams and her duty to her family, in the Ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) community in Tel Aviv. 18 year old Shira (Hadas Yaron) is in shidduchim, looking forward to an engagement to a young Torah scholar, when her older sister dies in childbirth, leaving the family heartbroken and the widower Yochai (Iftach Klein), with an infant to raise. The film follows Shira on her journey, as she grows to understand what it might mean “to follow her heart.”
The jury described Fill the Void as “an enchanted poetic fable of life, death, marriage and renewal within the Haredi community. A moving work that is the director’s first feature.
Asaf Sudry received the Jack Naylor Award for Cinematography in a Feature Film, for his work on Fill the Void.
Evgeny Ruman’s Igor and the Cranes received an Honorable Mention for its “moving and sensitive treatment of family relationships and the acceptance of a Russian immigrant into the community of Israeli children, with the cinematic use of nature’s beauty as a unifying theme.”
Six Acts, directed by Jonathan Gurfinkel, received the Best Debut Feature Film Award. An intensely disturbing film, inspired by actual events, an uncompromising reflection of the cruelty and hierarchy of contemporary teen culture, an indictment of our society in which adults have abandoned all responsibility in their refusal to see, acknowledge and address the issues.
Rona Segal received the Miki Albin Script Award in collaboration with the Scriptwriters Guild for the screenplay, and Sivan Levy received the Best Actress Award in collaboration with NU Image, USA, for her poignant portrayal of Gili, a teenager trying to gain acceptance in a new school.
Moshe Ivgy received the Best Actor Award in collaboration with NU Image, USA for his portrayal of Gabi in Idan Hubel’s The Cut-Off Man.
The Lesson, directed by Anat Zuria, received the Documentary Film Award in collaboration with the Second Authority for Television and Radio.
Lola, directed by Eytan Harris, received the Other Israel Award to an Israeli Documentary Film.
Asia Naifeld received an award for Artistic Achievement in Israeli Cinema for her role in Room 514, directed by Sharon Bar Ziv.
Among the international films screened at the festival, Les neiges du kilimandjaro, directed by Robert Guédiguian received the Golden Anchor Award. Alain Resnais’ Vous n’avez encore rien vu received an Honorable Mention.
The Filmmakers of Tomorrow Fedeora Competition prize was awarded to Christian Mungiu for Beyond the Hills. The film Olso, August 31, directed by Joachim Trier, received an Honorable Mention.
[…] 514 was screened at the Haifa International Film Festival, where actress Asia Naifeld received an award for Artistic Achievement in Israeli Cinema for the role of […]
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