\u201cThis has been an exceptional year in terms of quantity and quality,\u201d said Ilana Sharon, director of the Israeli Film and Television Academy as she announced the finalists for the Ophir Award competition today. 25 features and 42 documentaries were screened in this year\u2019s competition \u2013 a record number. The five finalists for both Best Film and Best Director are:<\/p>\n
\u00a0\n<\/param><\/param><\/param><\/embed><\/object>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\nAjami, directed by Yaron Shani and Scandar Copti\nA Matter of Size, directed by Sharon Maymon and Erez Tadmor\nLebanon, directed by Samuel Maoz\nThe Loners, directed by Renen Schorr\nThose Were the Nights, directed by Roni Ninio<\/p>\nThe winner usually represents Israel in the American Academy Awards best foreign film category, notable exceptions have been \u201cWaltz with Bashir\u201d and \u201cThe Band\u2019s Visit.\u201d Once the finalists have been selected in each of the 14 categories, they will be screened once more for the academy members and the results of the final vote will be announced in September 2009. All five films nominated this year for \u201cBest Film\u201d received the support of the Israel Film Fund.<\/p>\nNominated for Best Actor are: Sasha Agronov for \u201cThe Loners\u201d, Dror Keren for \u201cFive Hours from Paris,\u201d Yoav Donat for \u201cLebanon\u201d, Izik Cohen for \u201cA Matter of Size\u201d and Ofer Schecter for \u201cPhobidilia.\u201d Best Actress nominations went to: Ethel Kobinska for \u201cValentina\u2019s Mother,\u201d Rita Zohar for \u201cMrs. Moscovitz and the Cats\u201d, Irit Kaplan for \u201cA Matter of Size\u201d, Raymonde Amsalem for \u201c7 Minutes in Heaven\u201d and Dana Ivgy received two nominations for her performances in both \u201cJaffa\u201d and \u201cThose Were the Nights.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cA Matter of Size\u201d received the most nominations (13), followed by \u201cThe Loners\u201d (11) and \u201cLebanon\u201d (10). Assi Dayan \u2013 actor, writer and director \u2013 who has won 7 Ophir awards, will receive a lifetime achievement award from the academy. During the month of August, the nominated films will be screened in Israeli cinematheques in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa and Sderot, enabling the local audience to become acquainted with the films prior to their commercial release.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThis has been an exceptional year in terms of quantity and quality,\u201d said Ilana Sharon, director of the Israeli Film and Television Academy as she announced the finalists for the Ophir Award competition today. 25 features and 42 documentaries were screened in this year\u2019s competition \u2013 a record number. The five finalists for both Best […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-film"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1035\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ajami, directed by Yaron Shani and Scandar Copti\nA Matter of Size, directed by Sharon Maymon and Erez Tadmor\nLebanon, directed by Samuel Maoz\nThe Loners, directed by Renen Schorr\nThose Were the Nights, directed by Roni Ninio<\/p>\n
The winner usually represents Israel in the American Academy Awards best foreign film category, notable exceptions have been \u201cWaltz with Bashir\u201d and \u201cThe Band\u2019s Visit.\u201d Once the finalists have been selected in each of the 14 categories, they will be screened once more for the academy members and the results of the final vote will be announced in September 2009. All five films nominated this year for \u201cBest Film\u201d received the support of the Israel Film Fund.<\/p>\n
Nominated for Best Actor are: Sasha Agronov for \u201cThe Loners\u201d, Dror Keren for \u201cFive Hours from Paris,\u201d Yoav Donat for \u201cLebanon\u201d, Izik Cohen for \u201cA Matter of Size\u201d and Ofer Schecter for \u201cPhobidilia.\u201d Best Actress nominations went to: Ethel Kobinska for \u201cValentina\u2019s Mother,\u201d Rita Zohar for \u201cMrs. Moscovitz and the Cats\u201d, Irit Kaplan for \u201cA Matter of Size\u201d, Raymonde Amsalem for \u201c7 Minutes in Heaven\u201d and Dana Ivgy received two nominations for her performances in both \u201cJaffa\u201d and \u201cThose Were the Nights.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cA Matter of Size\u201d received the most nominations (13), followed by \u201cThe Loners\u201d (11) and \u201cLebanon\u201d (10). Assi Dayan \u2013 actor, writer and director \u2013 who has won 7 Ophir awards, will receive a lifetime achievement award from the academy. During the month of August, the nominated films will be screened in Israeli cinematheques in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa and Sderot, enabling the local audience to become acquainted with the films prior to their commercial release.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cThis has been an exceptional year in terms of quantity and quality,\u201d said Ilana Sharon, director of the Israeli Film and Television Academy as she announced the finalists for the Ophir Award competition today. 25 features and 42 documentaries were screened in this year\u2019s competition \u2013 a record number. The five finalists for both Best […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-film"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1035\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}