“Cinema is the heart of Israel,” said Eitan Evan, President of the Israel Academy of Film and Television, during the Ophir Awards ceremony that took place yesterday, Friday, September 21, 2012, “our story is here in all its complexity.” Exciting, funny, warm, moving, intimate, with moments of confrontation and an eclectic juxtaposition of glamour and casual ease – the ceremony had a very Israeli vibe, while the films and their creators bear out Even’s words.
Rama Burshtein’s Fill The Void took the spotlight with 7 awards: Best Feature Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, Best Cinematography and Best Costumes. The New York born Burshtein, a graduate of the Sam Spiegel Film and Television School, Jerusalem, brings an intimate knowledge of the Israeli Ultra Orthodox (Haredi) community to the film, offering a glimpse into a world that is rarely accessible to outsiders, and remains obscured from view; especially the lives, thoughts and emotions of women within the community.
Shlomo Bar Aba was the perfect host – elegant, charming and fun. Hadas Yaron was overcome with emotion on winning Best Actress on home turf (after winning Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival), and took the podium smiling through her tears. Screenwriter Eli Tavor (1970s & 80s cult classics Eskimo Limon, Charlie Ve’hetzi, and Alex Chole Ahava) received the 2012 Lifetime Achievement Award – the first time the Academy has given the award to a screenwriter. The witty Tavor, who has written over 40 screenplays, said he started writing in the 6th or 7th grade when his English teacher assigned book reports to the class, and being too impatient to read a book all the way through, he began to invent.
The awards podium was a good place for expressing opinions on Israel’s New Cinema Law, passed in 2001, and currently up for review. Haifa Mayor Yona Yahav said, “I initiated the cinema law…I beg you, don’t touch it except to expand and enhance it.” Minister of Culture and Sport Limor Livnat spoke of the need to “re-examine” the cinema law and the criteria, while Assaf Amir responded, “Israeli cinema comes from the ground, the streets, and the trenches; that is where the cinema law grew… When something works – don’t fix it.” While the future of the cinema law is up for debate, there can be no argument concerning the success of Israeli film. There is only one prize awarded in each category, but there were many strong contestants, and all are strongly recommended. (See the complete list of this year’s nominees here.)
Roy Assaf accepted the award for Best Actor with style, recognizing the talents of his fellow nominees, saying, “It is a great honor to stand with actors I grew up on, Uri Gavriel and the legendary Yosef Carmon… Yosef, your role in Ashkava ( referring to the Cameri production of the play Requiem by Hanoch Levin) will be in my heart until my ashkava.”
The 2012 Ophir Awards:
Best Feature Film
Fill the Void – Producer: Assaf Amir
Best Fringe Feature Film
Joe + Belle – Producers: Roni Kedar, Amir Fishman
Best Documentary Film
Life in Stills – Producer: Barak Heiman, Director: Tamar Tal
Best Director
Rama Burshtein – Fill the Void
Best Actor
Roy Assaf – God’s Neighbors
Best Actress
Hadas Yaron – Fill the Void
Best Supporting Actor
Gal Friedman – God’s Neighbors
Best Supporting Actress
Irit Sheleg – Fill the Void
Best Cinematography
Asaf Sudri – Fill the Void
Best Screenplay
Rama Burshtein – Fill the Void
Best Editing
Isaac Sehayek – Rock the Casbah
Best Casting
Orit Azulay – The World is Funny
Best Production Design
Eyal Elhadad – The Ballad of the Weeping Spring
Best Costume Design
Debora O’Hana – The Ballad of the Weeping Spring
Best Makeup
Eti Ben Nun – Fill the Void
Best Original Music
Mark Eliyahu – The Ballad of the Weeping Spring
Best Original Soundtrack
David Lis, Gil Toren – The Ballad of the Weeping Spring
