The 42nd Jerusalem Film Festival announced the competition winners in a ceremony that took place on Thursday, July 24, 2025, at the Jerusalem Cinematheque. The total value of prizes awarded this year reached approximately one million NIS.
International Competition
Jury: Lawrence Bender, Matthias Glasner, Julia von Heinz
Nechama Rivlin Award for Best International Film:
The Secret Agent, Director: Kleber Mendonça Filho (Brazil)
Best Director Award:
Bálint Szimler (Hungary) – Lesson Learned
Honorable Mention:
Sound of Falling, Director: Mascha Schilinski (Germany)
International Debuts Competition (sponsored by GWFF)
Jury: Bruno Nahon, Tom Shoval, Dani Rosenberg
GWFF Award for Best International Debut Film:
Little Trouble Girls, Director: Urška Djukić (Slovenia)
Honorable Mention:
Urchin, Director: Harris Dickinson (UK)
In the Spirit of Freedom Competition
Jury: Eran Riklis, Teddy Leifer, Tal Granit
Cummings Award for Spirit of Freedom Competition Winner:
The Best Mother in the World, Director: Anna Muylaert (Brazil)
OFF Experimental Documentary Competition in honor of Chantal Akerman
Jury: Ori Levin
OFF Prize for Experimental Documentary in honor of Chantal Akerman:
Tell Her that I Love Her
Director: Romane Bohringer (France)
Haggiag Competition for Full-Length Israeli Feature Films
Jury: Tiina Lokk, Julie Shles, Menashe Noy
Haggiag Award for Best Feature through the Jerusalem Foundation:
Oxygen, Director: Netalie Braun, Producers: Aviv Ben Shlush, Adi Bar Yossef, Netalie Braun
Jury Statement:
“A radical reading of Israeli existence centered on a mother who boldly chooses to stop being a victim of the Israeli ethos, no matter the cost. The film is layered with endless facets of Israeli reality, presented from a new perspective, giving an almost biblical dimension to the story of a mother facing the sacrifice of her son. Director and screenwriter Netalie Braun deconstructs this ethos—from the liberation of Jerusalem to crawling on the carpet as a result of PTSD—dismantling the image of the Israeli hero. A film with an inner rhythm, powerful and tumultuous, conveyed through the eyes of an empathetic protagonist, with a marvelous performance by Dana Ivgy that almost physically conveys the country’s collective helplessness.”
Honorable Mention:
The Sea, Director: Shai Carmeli-Pollak, Producer: Baher Agbariya
Jury Statement:
“A poetic journey that manages to capture the nuances of our harsh reality and conveys the dissonance within the experience of Israel’s impossible labyrinths of occupation, military, and police. The film moves back and forth between tunnels, fences, towers, buses, and motorcycles, and a child’s simple yearning to see the vast sea, depicted here as a chance for redemption.”
GWFF Award for Best Israeli Debut Feature:
Nandauri, Director: Eti Tsicko, Producers: Ayelet Kait, Amir Harel, Flavia Oertwig, Vladimir Kacherba
Jury Statement:
“In her first feature film, Eti Tsicko demonstrates remarkable talent, taking us on a powerful journey. The director constructs an artistic, cinematic, female, and unique world, creating a collision between tradition and modernity. Tsicko’s protagonist emerges from patriarchal environments yet relentlessly strives to change reality. The film presents a fascinating intersection: a strong woman returning to the oppressive worlds she escaped – a place that silenced her but also crushed men under the weight of social conventions. A film entirely freed from the male cinematic gaze, yet neither adversarial nor gender driven. Eti Tsicko reveals herself as a director with a distinct and powerful voice, a steady hand, and exceptional abilities already evident in her first film.”
Anat Pirchi Award for Best Script:
Mihal Brezis, Oded Binnun, Tom Shoval, Amital Stern – Dead Language
Jury Statement:
“A brilliant, original, and sophisticated screenplay, full of surprises and moments of magic, effortlessly moving between a realistic world and an internal, emotional one. The familiar conflict of marital erosion is taken to original places using cinematic and narrative devices that reveal true emotion. Through characters that at times spin out of control to extreme emotional states, the film exposes a hidden world of intimacy and relationships, showing how partners can be both closest and farthest at the same time.”
Anat Pirchi Award for Best Performance:
Riki Reif Sinai – Cuz You’re Ugly
Jury Statement:
“A brave performance by Riki Reif Sinai, a young actress who throws herself into the part and masterfully creates a unique character. Riki Reif Sinai successfully walks the line between a tough, confident, and aggressive exterior while conveying fragility and vulnerability.”
Best Ensemble Award:
The Sea
Jury Statement:
“An authentic and impressive performance by an ensemble of actors, including both professionals and non-actors, skillfully presenting a fully realized world of a an oppressed population. The numerous supporting characters create a sense of true, believable life unfolding before our eyes, from the father, who stands out as vulnerable and human within a constraining patriarchy, to the child whose gaze is at once angry and tender, brave and defiant.”
Diamond Competition for Full-Length Israeli Documentary Films
Diamond Award for Best Documentary Film:
Malachi, Directors and Producers: Ido Bahat and Noam Demsky
Jury Statement:
“Ido Bahat and Noam Demsky’s film presents a sharp and powerful human drama without judging its protagonists, who bare their most fragile and profound places. Malachi touches upon the very core complexity of family roles and unconditional parental love, examining how we relate to those who are different. It bravely confronts a major social taboo alongside a unique human conflict and an ethical, moral dilemma. The film leaves viewers unable to escape the question of how they would act in the same situation. The result is a film that highlights the human spirit at its finest.
Diamond Award for Best Director of a Documentary Film:
Israela Shaer-Meoded – Looking for Yadida
Jury Statement:
“Director Israela Shaer-Meoded approaches a sensitive and volatile affair that has haunted the country for nearly seventy years with a unique and personal perspective. Through powerful investigative work, she takes us into her family’s personal story and, through it, delves into a national controversy that has shaken, and continues to shake, Israeli society. By uncovering new details and revelations about the past, she demonstrates extraordinary determination in her filmmaking, even at a heavy personal and familial cost.”
Aaron Emanuel Award for Best Cinematography:
Shai Goldman – Nandauri
Jury Statement:
“Shai Goldman’s cinematography is mesmerizing. From Georgia’s breathtaking landscapes to intimate interior scenes in homes and offices, he elevates the film to the level of epic cinema. Through remarkable lighting and a fearless approach to intimate scenes where passion and alienation intertwine, he bridges the gap between the protagonist’s displacement and the stunning yet harsh world to which she returns. In addition to Nandauri, Goldman’s work on The Sea successfully presents a completely different world closer to home, the restless, bustling movement of Tel Aviv, where the protagonist appears almost crushed by the city itself.”
Aliza and Micha Shagrir Award for Best Editing:
Ido Bahat and Ido Haar – Malachi
Jury Statement:
“The complex editing of Malachi builds a dramatic story out of human dilemmas, presented from different perspectives and allowing viewers to empathize with different characters at different stages. The film unfolds like a puzzle, taking the audience on a turbulent emotional journey, peeling back layer after layer until the late reveal of its protagonist, a powerful cinematic decision that creates an unforgettable experience.”
Yossi Mulla Award for Best Original Score:
Avi Belleli – The Sea
Jury Statement:
“Avi Belleli’s score turns a journey from Ramallah to the sea into an emotionally rich experience. The music never overwhelms the film or its audience, organically giving the film an additional voice. His composition allows us to access the inner world of the child protagonist, with its rhythm providing a steady pulse amidst the noise and chaos.”
Diamond Competition for Israeli Shorts
Jury: Evgeny Ruman, Orit Fouks Rotem, Yuval Scharf
Diamond Award for Best Live Action Film:
Tongue Behind Teeth, Director: Ira Eduardovna, Producer: Naama Pyritz
Diamond Award for Live Action Film, Second Prize:
Dalia’s Tea Casts a Shadow on Mount Fuji, Director: Oren Gerner, Producers: Oren Gerner and Lihi Nachmani
Aliza and Micha Shagrir Award for Best Student Film:
The Things We do for Love and a Foreign Passport
Director: Ayal Sgerski, School: Sam Spiegel Film & Television School
The Best Performance Award:
Hilly Yossef Zada, for her performance in Before Anyone Else, Director: Ziv Mamon
Best Animated Film:
A Bird’s Wish, Director: Gan De Lange, Producers: Gan De Lange and KM Productions
Honorable Mention:
Home Base, Director: Amit Kra, School: The Steve Tisch School of Film and Television, Tel Aviv University
The Israeli Video Art and Experimental Film Competition
Jury: Maayan Sheleff, Hila Ben Ari, Elham Rokni
OFF Awards
First Prize:
Escape Will Get You Tonight, Director: Noa Simhayof Shahaf
Jury Statement:
“From within a dense fog emerges a brilliant performance that intertwines timelines, portraying an Israeli Elvis impersonator stuck in his parents’ home during a war. Noa’s original film brings a young and unique voice, engaging with the history of cinema and video art while touching, in a moving, intriguing, and at times amusing way, on a sense of collective despair. Screen within screen, room within room, stage, shelter—enigmatic spaces unfold before the viewer, poetically reflecting a failed attempt at escape.”
Second Prize:
Orientations, Director: Daniel Kiczales
Jury Statement:
“A meditative work, seemingly simple yet complex in its precision and profound in the way it touches upon political, cultural, and gender conventions. The film exhibits the space between Ben-Gurion Airport and Jerusalem as a reversed escape route—a pilgrimage to the heart of conflict. The female voice is the body, the id, a wordless space, a tragic chorus dragged to its fate, while the unseen male voice attempts to put words to the space to no avail. In Daniel’s artistic language, sound drives the image, as though sculpting video through sound.”
Jerusalem Pitch Point 2025 Awards
Jury: Michel Franco, Michel Zana, Maya Amsellem
The Jerusalem Film Festival Awards for Full Length Films and Works-In-Progress
Grand Prize:
Where To, Director: Assaf Machnes, Producers: Tomer Mecklberg, Haim Mecklberg, Oren Rogovin, Guy Shani
Jury Prize:
Maybe It’s Love, Director: Henya Brodbeker, Producers: Tami Cohen, Adar Shafran
Edit & D.B. Post Production Grant: Al-Barzakh, Director: Hamad Sharoof, Producers: Shlomi Elkabetz, Galit Kahlon, Michal Giladi
The Gesher Multicultural Film Fund Award for Best Short Script
Jury: Rana Abu-Fraiha Assayag, Eliran Elya, Ruth Diskin
The Gesher Multicultural Film Fund Award for Best Short Script & Edit & DB Studios Post-Production Grant:
Dad in the Room, Writer & Director: Dotan Moreno, Producer: Lev Orlov
IMPACT Pitch in collaboration with CoPro – The Van Leer Impact Campaign Award on Behalf of the Jerusalem Film Festival
Jury: Hilly Hirt, Yifat Kedar, Roy Kimchi
Love in Hard Places, Director: Brachi Haisherik, Producers: Tami Cohen, Adar Shafran
