2014 Festival

10-20.07.2014

Opening film: Dancing Arabs, dir.: Eran Riklis

The Haggiag Award for Best Israeli Feature has been granted to 2 Films:

Gett, The Trial of Viviane Amsalem, directed by Ronit Elkabetz and Shlomi Elkabetz and Princess, directed by Tali Shalom Ezer

The Van Leer Award for Best Israeli Documentary Film has been granted to The Decent One, directed by Vanessa Lapa

Gett, The Trial of Viviane Amsalem, directed by Ronit Elkabetz and Shlomi Elkabetz is also the recipient of the Festival’s Audience Favorite Award

The 31st Jerusalem Film Festival Awards were granted this evening, July 19. The Festival will close tomorrow night. More than 60,000 viewers, chose, in spite of the security situation, to experience excellent local and international cinema. The Festival was one of the few Israeli cultural events that was not cancelled over the past week.

Among the 100 guests who attended this year’s Festival: David Mamet, Park Chan-wook, Martina Gedeck.

Over 200 films were screened, including numerous premieres of award-winning films hailing from the best of the international film festival circuit. The films were screened within the following categories: In the Spirit of Freedom, The Jewish Experience, Festival Debuts, Gala, Panorama, JFF Kids, and more.

In addition, various Festival events included: workshops, the Jerusalem Pitchpoint, master classes, conversations with filmmakers, receptions for film industry guests from Israel and abroad, the Jerusalem International Film Lab, and more. For the first time, Screen International magazine covered the Festival with daily publications highlighting the Festival’s films and its Israeli premieres.

The 31st Jerusalem Film Festival Winners

The Haggiag Competition for Full-Length Feature Films

Members of the Jury:

Martina Gedeck, Georges Goldenstern, Professor Eva Ilouz, and Assaf Amir

The Haggiag Award for Best Israeli Feature has been granted to 2 Films:

Gett, The Trial of Viviane Amsalem, directed by Ronit Elkabetz and Shlomi Elkabetz

Modern societies take for granted that one loves freely and stops loving freely. Yet, as the remarkable movie by Shlomi & Ronit Elkabetz suggests, that freedom is denied to women in modern Israel by the rabbinical tribunals.  If cinematographic tradition has made us used and even tired of seeing love as the sole and ultimate object of desire, Viviane Amsalem, the central character of this story desires the opposite of love: she passionately desires a Gett - or the religious Jewish act of divorcing which can only be granted by a man to a woman. In a very convincingly and beautifully crafted script, Viviane desires to stop being the object of a man’s desire. But this passionate desire for stopping to be the object of desire of a man who will not set her free, meets with the resistance of powerful and invisible social machinery made of the various men who control her life and that of the women who appear in front of the tribunal court.  The movie represents a stunning twist on the genre of courtroom drama as it shows the subtle continuity between the court judges and the structure of the patriarchal family.  As the emotionally intense and restrained performance of Menashe Noy suggests, this powerful social machinery  is defeated not so much by the force of the better argument or by justice but by the relentless attack on a system determined to subdue the feelings and desires of women.  With this film, Shlomi & Ronit Elkabetz conclude their superb trilogy on the Israeli-Moroccan community, never romanticizing them, never yielding to any facile political reductionism. This is art at its best.

Princess, directed by Tali Shalom Ezer

Princess is an outstanding, breathtaking film; its director Tali Shalom-Ezer a strong unique new voice in World Cinema. When we saw her film, we were totally absorbed by its immense power and at the same time its transparency and sensitiveness. Slowly, the spectator is drawn into the structure of sexual child abuse and is held so close to the protagonist, young Adar (played by a fantastic Shira Haas), that she finds herself imprisoned just like her and feels the strong desperation of repression and of having no way out. By placing a boy by her side, showing Adar’s dissociation as a result of the abuse, where her mind invents a second self - or, as it is, also possible, establishing a first real adolescent love, Shalom-Ezer creates a different level of reality that intertwines with the girl’s real situation and helps her to survive and finally free herself.  Shalom-Ezer sticks to the story in an intense and direct way, eliminating anything that could be superfluous, and thus unfolding the mechanism of repression in a disturbing yet almost accidental way, where we would like to escape or wish desperately to put an end to the suffering, but have to go along with Adar all the way. All other characters are strong and unpredictable, extraordinary in their acting, creating a believable dark family life which shines yet bright and phony.  The aesthetics are beautiful, creating a painful air of seduction on the surface and on a deeper level showing the incredible pain and torture, her vulnerability by exploring the girls face in close up.  The film is like a slow explosion and makes you say, after leaving the cinema - and that is, what we were looking for - "Come on, let’s change the world!” Congratulations, and may this prize encourage you to go on with sincere and profound filmmaking.

The Haggiag Award for Best Israeli Actor, in the sum of 10,000 NIS, is granted to Menashe Noy for his role in the film Gett, The Trial of Viviane Amsalem, directed by Ronit Elkabetz and Shlomi Elkabetz

The Haggiag Award for Best Israeli Actress, in the sum of 10,000 NIS is granted to Shira Haas for her role in the film Princess, directed by Tali Shalom Ezer

The Haggiag Award for Best Editing, in the sum of 10,000 NIS, is granted to Nili Feller for her editing of the film Self Made, directed by Shira Geffen

The Haggiag Award for Best Music, in the sum of 10,000 NIS, is granted to Ishai Adar, for the soundtrack of the film Princess, directed by Tali Shalom Ezer

The Van Leer Award for Best Cinematography, in the sum of 10,000 NIS, is granted to Radek Ladczuk, for the cinematography of the film Princess, directed by Tali Shalom Ezer:

Radek Ladczuk’s cinematographical work builds a precise aesthetic which stands in absolute opposition to the chilling content of the plot. The polished frames function as a honey trap – they allure the viewer and draw her into the cracked world of the characters. The cinematographer and director’s unique visual language moves between fantasy and reality, creating an attractive and delicate package in which the most horrible events are possible.

The Anat Pirchi Award for Best First Film, in the sum of 20,000 NIS, is granted to Red Leaves, directed by Bazi Gete

The Anat Pirchi Award for Best Script, in the sum of 10,000 NIS, is granted to Shira Gefen for her film Self Made

The Audience Favorite Award: Gett, The Trial of Viviane Amsalem, directed by Ronit Elkabetz and Shlomi Elkabetz

The Van Leer Competition for Israeli Full-Length Documentary Films

Members of the Jury:

Karen Cooper, Oeke Hoogendijk, Scott Foudas, Noemi Schory, Arnon Goldfinger

The Van Leer Award for Best Israeli Full-Length Documentary Film, in the sum of 35,000 NIS, is granted to The Decent One, directed by Vanessa Lapa:

With exhaustive and profound research, precise editing, and a multilayered soundtrack, the film weaves a complex and thought-provoking portrait, of surprising intimacy, which sheds a very troubling light on the Everyman hidden within a mass murderer.

The Van Leer Award for Best Director of a Documentary Film, in the sum of 20,000 NIS, is granted to Robby Elmaliah for his film The Unwelcoming:

The Competition for Israeli Short Films

Members of the Jury:

Laurence Herzberg, Alexandros Avranas, Vanya Heyman

The Van Leer Award for Best Animation Film, in the sum of 10,000 NIS, is granted to Shouk, directed by Dotan Moreno

The Van Leer Award for Best Documentary Film, in the sum of 10,000 NIS, is granted to Mirror Image, directed by Danielle Schwartz

The Van Leer Award for Best Independent Feature Film, in the sum of 10,000 NIS, is granted to Vow, directed by Netalie Braun

The Van Leer Award for Best Student Feature Film, in the sum of 10,000 NIS, is granted to April Fool’s, directed by Jonathan Dekel

In the Spirit of Freedom Awards in Memory of Wim van Leer

Members of the Jury:

Zeinep Özbator Atakan, Jane Wells, Makram Khoury

The Ostrovsky Award for Best Documentary Film, in the sum of 6,800 NIS is granted to Watchers of the Sky, directed by Edet Belzberg

A brilliant film, which reminded us that even in the face of despair there is always hope.

The Cummings Award for Best Feature Film, in the sum of 13,500 NIS, is granted to Timbuktu, directed by Abderrahmane Sissako:

Unanimous selection for the excellence of its craft and the power of its warning to humanity: a film both modest and magnificent.

Honorary Mention: Tangerines, directed by Zaza Urushadze

The Jewish Experience Awards Courtesy of Michaela and Leon Constantiner

Members of the Jury:

Irit Sheleg, Isaac Zablocki, Dr. Ofer Ashkenazi

The Lia Award, in Honor of Jerusalem Cinematheque Founder Lia van Leer for Films dealing with Jewish Heritage, in the sum of 10,000 NIS, is granted to 24 Days, directed by Alexandre Arcady:

This suspenseful drama manages to avoid clichés and intricately presents the experience of anti-Jewish violence in France. This is a film of great social significance that shows the tragic consequences that arise when violence is ignored and when racist stereotypes are accepted.

The Avner Shalev-Yad Vashem Chairman’s Award for Artistic Achievement in Holocaust-Related Films, in the sum of 10,000 NIS, is granted to Radical Evil, directed by Stefan Ruzowitzky

The film turns the issue of mass murder during the Holocaust and the behavior of the murderers into a matter relevant to viewers today. Through a clever combination of archival footage, dramatic sequences, and interviews, the director reveals the inner makeup of "regular people" who became murderers.

Honorary Mention: Night Will Fall, directed by André Singer

FIPRESCI Debuts Competition

Members of the Jury:

Eithne O’Neill, Andrzej Kolodynski, Pablo Utin

Two Awards were granted in this competition:

International First Film: Güeros, directed by Alonso Ruizpalacios

Israeli First Film: Red Leaves, directed by Baze Gete

The Israeli Film Critics Forum Prize (Israeli Cinema)

Is granted to The Kindergarten Teacher Directed by Nadav Lapid

The Israeli Art and Experimental Film Competition

Members of the Jury:

Heinz Hemingolz, Ruti Direktor, Irit Batsri

The Ostrovsky Family Fund Award for Best Experimental Film, in the sum of 8,000 NIS, is granted to For the Record, directed by Ruti Sela:

The video presents the artist drawing the portraits of the lawyers of the Jerusalem Municipality and documents the painting sessions and the conversations they held during these sessions – bringing forth quite a few clichés and prejudices about art. At the same time, as the video proceeds, its conceptual depth is revealed. The outlandish situation of a video artist carefully painting portraits in the City Hall is revealed as a situation that exposes the vulnerability of both the model and she who looks at him (and is being looked at by the camera).

The Mamuta Art and Media Center Award for Second Prize, is granted to The Right to Leave, directed by Sharon Paz. Paz will hold a one-person exhibit at the Mamuta Art Gallery:

Sharon Paz’s short film speaks in a subtle way about borders and migration – both in life and in art. The video presents in a rich visual language multiple layers of images and interchanging landscapes in a constant move in the background.

A deep awareness of the cinematic medium and its precedents is felt here; the use of Tableaux Vivants, early photography, animation, and the voyeuristic situation itself.

The Alex Bernstein Grant for Outstanding Student Final Project

In the sum of 40,000 NIS, is granted to Elia Schwartz, of Minshar for Art School, for her film Pandora

Courtesy of the Bernstein Family and a joint initiative of the Jerusalem Foundation and the Jerusalem Cinematheque

From the international lineup:

הרוח העולה THE WIND RISES

הון אנושי HUMAN CAPITAL

ילדה נצחית OBVIOUS CHILD

מהלכי לילה NIGHT MOVES

פרנק FRANK

רובר THE ROVER

התאומים THE SKELETON TWINS

לבנבים GUEROS

להרוג אדם TO KILL A MAN

צל לבן WHITE SHADOW

מאידאן MAIDAN

טימבוקטו TIMBUKTU

תעוזה DIFRET

יירד הלילה NIGHT WILL FALL

רשע קיצוני RADICAL EVIL

50 שנים של פולמוס THE 50 YEAR ARGUMENT

בברקלי AT BERKELEY

כלבים משוטטים STRAY DOGS

מחול המציאות THE DANCE OF REALITY

מים שקטים STILL THE WATER

טווח קצר 12 SHORT TERM 12

טום בחווה TOM AT THE FARM

מלחמה ממבט ראשון LOVE AT FIRST FIGHT

הפלאים THE WONDERS

כביש קדוש SACRO GRA

הבבדוק THE BABADOOK

סטוקר STOKER

מבנים מדברים בשלושה ממדים CATHEDRALS OF CULTURE