Honorary Awards
The Jerusalem-based Filmmaker Award is Granted to Director Anat Zuria
Jerusalem native, Anat Zuria, has been actively creating films in the city for three decades. Zuria studied art at Beit Berl's HaMidrasha Art School, and film at Ma'aleh School of Television, Film and the Arts. Her films are groundbreaking, both in content and in form, deal with socially-taboo topics, provoke discussion, and encourage action and change. Zuria was awarded prizes at many international festivals, including Hot Docs, YAMAGATA, and FIPA Film Festivals. Among other prizes, she was awarded the Most Promising Director Award from the French Artists Association for her trilogy: Purity, Sentenced to Marriage, and Black Bus. After winning First Prize at the Haifa Film Festival for her film The Lesson, Zuria also won the Landau Prize. In 2017, together with Shira Clara Winther, she directed Conventional Sins, which won first prize at the Jerusalem Film Festival and a commendation at the CPH:DOX Festival in Copenhagen. 2018 marked the premiere of her film Reinvestigation, dealing with the economic oppression of women and children.
Honorary Award for an Outstanding Member of the Israeli Film Industry
The Jerusalem Film and Television Fund in coordination with the Jerusalem Film Festival will award a certificate of appreciation to Israeli filmmakers, for the fourth successive year, in a category that is not included in the list of awards given at festivals and academic ceremonies. These creators are an integral part of the success of the Israeli cinema and therefore, we wish to honor them with a certificate of appreciation.
This year, 2020, the award will be presented to Mrs. Zehava Shekel for her exceptional contribution to the Israeli film industry. The award will be presented to her by director Nadav Lapid at the Festival's award ceremony.
Zehava Shekel is undoubtedly one of the pillars of Israeli cinema. Shekel actively produced Israeli and international films that achieved recognition and acclaim in Israel and abroad for over twenty years. With her virtuosic command of production, Shekel identifies the challenges in advance and finds creative and professional solutions well ahead of time. Shekel leads the production to perfection through arduous work, with her professional approach, captivating personality, and sincere concern for all the artists, team members, and actors.
In previous years, the award was given to the following artists:
2017 – Mrs. Michal Engel. Assistant Director. The award was presented by producer Moshe Danon.
2018 – Mr. Avraham Leib. Lighting. The award was presented by photographer David Gurifnkel.
2019 – Mr. Yitzhak (Itzik) Ben-Aroyah. Grip. The award was presented by director Uri Barabash.