{"id":21877,"date":"2012-09-22T05:34:53","date_gmt":"2012-09-22T12:34:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/?p=21877"},"modified":"2012-09-24T23:51:27","modified_gmt":"2012-09-25T06:51:27","slug":"ophir-awards-2012","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/?p=21877","title":{"rendered":"Ophir Awards 2012"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cCinema is the heart of Israel,\u201d said Eitan Evan, President of the Israel Academy of Film and Television, during the Ophir Awards ceremony that took place yesterday, Friday, September 21, 2012, \u201cour story is here in all its complexity.\u201d Exciting, funny, warm, moving, intimate, with moments of confrontation and an eclectic juxtaposition of glamour and casual ease \u2013 the ceremony had a very Israeli vibe, while the films and their creators bear out Even\u2019s words.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Rama Burshtein – Fill the Void\/Photo: Elizur Reuveni<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Rama Burshtein\u2019s\u00a0 Fill The Void<\/em> took the spotlight with 7 awards: Best Feature Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, Best Cinematography and Best Costumes. The New York born Burshtein, a graduate of the Sam Spiegel Film and Television School, Jerusalem, brings an intimate knowledge of the Israeli Ultra Orthodox (Haredi<\/em>) community to the film, offering a glimpse into a world that is rarely accessible to outsiders, and remains obscured from view; especially the lives, thoughts and emotions of women within the community.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Shlomo Bar Aba and Renana Raz kick up their heels at the Ophir Awards\/Photo: Elizur Reuveni<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Shlomo Bar Aba was the perfect host \u2013 elegant, charming and fun. Hadas Yaron was overcome with emotion on winning Best Actress on home turf (after winning Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival), and took the podium smiling through her tears. Screenwriter Eli Tavor (1970s & 80s cult classics Eskimo Limon, Charlie Ve\u2019hetzi, and Alex Chole Ahava) received the 2012 Lifetime Achievement Award \u2013 the first time the Academy has given the award to a screenwriter. The witty Tavor, who has written over 40 screenplays, said he started writing in the 6th or 7th grade when his English teacher assigned book reports to the class, and being too impatient to read a book all the way through, he began to invent.<\/p>\n

The awards podium was a good place for expressing opinions on Israel\u2019s New Cinema Law, passed in 2001, and currently up for review. Haifa Mayor Yona Yahav said, \u201cI initiated the cinema law\u2026I beg you, don\u2019t touch it except to expand and enhance it.\u201d Minister of Culture and Sport Limor Livnat spoke of the need to \u201cre-examine\u201d the cinema law and the criteria, while Assaf Amir responded, \u201cIsraeli cinema comes from the ground, the streets, and the trenches; that is where the cinema law grew\u2026 When something works \u2013 don\u2019t fix it.\u201d While the future of the cinema law is up for debate, there can be no argument concerning the success of Israeli film. There is only one prize awarded in each category, but there were many strong contestants, and all are strongly recommended. (See the complete list of this year\u2019s nominees here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Rivka Gur and Yosef Carmon\/Photo: Elizur Reuveni<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Roy Assaf accepted the award for Best Actor with style, recognizing the talents of his fellow nominees, saying, \u201cIt is a great honor to stand with actors I grew up on, Uri Gavriel and the legendary Yosef Carmon\u2026 Yosef, your role in\u00a0 Ashkava ( referring to the Cameri production of the play Requiem by Hanoch Levin) will be in my heart until my ashkava.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 2012 Ophir Awards:<\/p>\n

Best Feature Film<\/strong>
\nFill the Void<\/em> \u2013 Producer: Assaf Amir<\/p>\n

Best Fringe Feature Film<\/strong>
\nJoe + Belle<\/em> \u2013 Producers: Roni Kedar, Amir Fishman<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Tamar Tal and Barak Heymann – Life in Stills\/Photo: Elizur Reuveni<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Best Documentary Film<\/strong>
\nLife in Stills<\/em> \u2013 Producer: Barak Heiman, Director: Tamar Tal<\/p>\n

Best Director<\/strong>
\nRama Burshtein<\/em> \u2013 Fill the Void<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Roy Assaf and Rama Burshtein\/Photo: Elizur Reuveni<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Best Actor<\/strong>
\nRoy Assaf<\/em> \u2013 God\u2019s Neighbors<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Hadas Yaron\/Photo: Elizur Reuveni<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Best Actress<\/strong>
\nHadas Yaron<\/em> \u2013 Fill the Void<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Gal Friedman\/Photo: Elizur Reuveni<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Best Supporting Actor<\/strong>
\nGal Friedman<\/em> \u2013 God\u2019s Neighbors<\/p>\n

Best Supporting Actress<\/strong>
\n Irit Sheleg<\/em> \u2013 Fill the Void<\/p>\n

Best Cinematography<\/strong>
\nAsaf Sudri<\/em> \u2013 Fill the Void<\/p>\n

Best Screenplay<\/strong>
\nRama Burshtein<\/em> \u2013 Fill the Void<\/p>\n

Best Editing<\/strong>
\nIsaac Sehayek<\/em> \u2013 Rock the Casbah<\/p>\n

Best Casting<\/strong>
\nOrit Azulay<\/em> \u2013 The World is Funny<\/p>\n

Best Production Design<\/strong>
\nEyal Elhadad<\/em> \u2013 The Ballad of the Weeping Spring<\/p>\n

Best Costume Design<\/strong>
\nDebora O\u2019Hana<\/em> \u2013 The Ballad of the Weeping Spring<\/p>\n

Best Makeup<\/strong>
\nEti Ben Nun<\/em> \u2013 Fill the Void<\/p>\n

Best Original Music<\/strong>
\nMark Eliyahu<\/em> \u2013 The Ballad of the Weeping Spring<\/p>\n

Best Original Soundtrack<\/strong>
\nDavid Lis, Gil Toren<\/em> \u2013 The Ballad of the Weeping Spring<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cCinema is the heart of Israel,\u201d said Eitan Evan, President of the Israel Academy of Film and Television, during the Ophir Awards ceremony that took place yesterday, Friday, September 21, 2012, \u201cour story is here in all its complexity.\u201d Exciting, funny, warm, moving, intimate, with moments of confrontation and an eclectic juxtaposition of glamour and […]<\/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-21877","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\/21877","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=21877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21877\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}