The Israeli culture and sports minister Miki Zohar has vowed to cut the funding for the Ophir Awards which gave the top prize to “The Sea,” an Arabic-language drama about a Palestinian boy from the West Bank who risks his life to go to the beach in Tel Aviv.
Israeli’s top film honors, the Ophir Awards are voted on by the Israeli Academy of Film and Television which brings together nearly 1,100 filmmakers, producers and actors. In winning the Ophir’s best film nod, “The Sea” automatically qualified to represent Israel in the Oscars’ international feature race. “The Sea,” directed by Shai Carmeli Pollak and produced by Baher Agbariya, also won best screenplay, best actor for the 13-year old Palestinian star Muhammad Gazawi, best supporting actor for Khalifa Natour and best original score.
“The scandalous victory of (‘The Sea’) at the ceremony sparked outrage among many Israeli citizens and IDF soldiers who dedicate their lives to defending the homeland,” Zohar wrote in a statement reported in the newspaper Hareetz. He added, “There is no greater spit in the face of Israeli citizens than the embarrassing and disconnected annual Ophir Awards ceremony. The fact that the winning film depicts our heroic soldiers in a defamatory and false way, while they are fighting and risking their lives to protect us, surprises no one anymore.” The funding cut will be effective in 2026, he said.
Last night’s Ophir ceremony was emotionally and politically charged as many on stage urged the Israeli government to end the war in Gaza. Nearly every winner sported a black t-shirt with an anti-war message such as “a child is a child is a child,” while others had pictures of the hostages.
In a statement issued after last night’s Ophir ceremony, the chairman of the Israeli Film and Television Academy, Asaf Amir, addressed the relentless pressures from the Israeli government over the left-leaning cultural sector and calls for boycott from the international community. Just last week, nearly 4,000 entertainment industry names, including Hollywood stars like Emma Stone and Joaquin Phoenix, signed a petition calling for a boycott of Israeli film institutions “complicit in war crimes” in Gaza.
“In the face of attacks by ministers in Israel’s government on Israeli cinema, and calls from parts of the international film community to boycott us, the selection of this film is a resounding and decisive answer,” said Amir. “I am proud that an Arabic-language film, born out of collaboration between Jewish and Palestinian Israelis, has been chosen to represent Israel in the Oscar competition.”
One of the institutions threatened by the boycott call is the Israel Film Fund which stands as the biggest local source of financing and has also been attacked by the Israeli government for funding a number of anti-war movies, such as “The Sea” and Nadav Lapid’s “Yes” which played at Cannes’ Directors Fortnight.