{"id":29894,"date":"2014-08-12T05:23:07","date_gmt":"2014-08-12T12:23:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/?p=29894"},"modified":"2014-08-29T07:50:17","modified_gmt":"2014-08-29T14:50:17","slug":"ophir-awards-2014-nominations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/?p=29894","title":{"rendered":"Ophir Awards 2014: Nominations"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s going to be a close race for this year’s Ophir Awards with several strong films in the running. There are five finalists for Best Feature of 2014, but Eitan Even, President of the Israeli Academy of Film and Television said that this year’s crop of new films has been of such quality that his private list numbers eight films, and said, “It was very hard for me to decide.” Nominated for Best Feature are: Zero Motivation<\/em><\/strong> directed by Talya Lavie; Next to Her<\/em><\/strong>, directed by Asaf Korman; Gett, The Trial of Viviane Amsalem<\/em><\/strong>, directed by Ronit and Shlomi Elkabetz; Yona<\/em><\/strong> directed by Nir Bergman; and Mita Tovah<\/em><\/strong> (The Farewell Party) directed by Tal Granit and Sharon Maymon.<\/p>\n

\"Zero<\/a>
Zero Motivation\/Photo: Yaron Scharf<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Today’s press conference announcing the nominees began with a tribute to Menahem Golan z”l. Eitan Even, President of the Israeli Academy of Film and Television, opened with words of praise for the producer who put commercial film making on the Israeli map, thought in terms of Hollywood and international film even when making films locally, a director “of vision and achievements.”<\/p>\n

Yehuda Barkan, who will be honored with the Ophir Lifetime Achievement Award, commented that in his acting heyday, “Eitan wouldn’t have had a problem, working by elimination, Zeevik (Zeev Revach) and I were out of the running [for Ophir Awards] because we were making Bourekas films.” Barkan is well known for starring in comedies of the 70s and 80s such as Charlie vaHezi<\/em> and Hagiga BaSnooker<\/em>. These crowd pleasers are known as “Bourekas Films” – yummy, but not very nutritious. Barkan said that he is often asked ‘why don’t they make ’em like they used to?’ but added that although they drew in the crowds, with box office numbers of 700,000 – 900,000 back in the day, “we were not innovators.” Barkan fondly remembers the late Menahem Golan with gratitude, saying, “He gave me my first break. I was 26 years old and he cast me as a 60\u00a0 year old [Lupo 1970]… we went on to make five films together.”<\/p>\n

Barkan, who became a Baal Tshuva<\/em> in the early 2000s, and is a practicing Orthodox Jew, was asked if he would consider returning to film. The actor replied with charm, “I never left.” Barkan did say that he has become more selective about the films in which he appears, rejecting films that have “sexist (sic) scenes or unclean dialogues, despite my own unclean past.” Yet stated too that he is “proud of everything I have ever done.”<\/p>\n

\"Next<\/a>
Next to Her\/Photo: Amit Yasour<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

2014 Ophir Award Finalists<\/strong><\/p>\n

Best Feature Film<\/strong>
\nZero Motivation<\/em> – produced by Eilon Ratzkovsky, Yossi Ozerd, Guy Yekuel, Yohanan Credo
\nNext to Her<\/em> – produced by Haim Meckelberg, Esti-Yaakov Meckelberg; co-produced by Yigal Mugraby, Moshe Edry, Leon Edry
\nGett, The Trial of Viviane Amsalem<\/em> – produced by Shlomi Elkabetz
\nYona<\/em> – produced by Hilik Michaeli, Tami Leon, Avraham Farhi, Moshe Edry, Leon Edry
\nMita Tovah<\/em> (The Farewell Party) – produced by Haim Meckelberg, Esti Yaakov-Meckelberg, Talia Klinhandler, Osnat Handlesman-Keren, Moshe Edry, Leon Edry<\/p>\n

Best Fringe Film<\/strong><\/p>\n

Is That You?<\/em> – producer: Dani Menkin<\/p>\n

Best Director<\/strong><\/p>\n

Asaf Korman – Next to Her<\/em>
\nTal Granit, Sharon Maymon – Mita Tovah<\/em> (The Farewell Party)
\nTalya Lavie – Zero Motivation<\/em>
\nNir Bergman – Yona<\/em>
\nRonit Elkabetz, Shlomi Elkabetz – Gett, The Trial of Viviane Amsalem<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Gett,<\/a>
Gett, The Trail of Viviane Amsalem\/Photo: Tuli Chen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Best Screenplay<\/strong><\/p>\n

Talya Lavie – Zero Motivation<\/em>
\nLiron Ben-Shlush – Next to Her<\/em>
\nNadav Lapid – The Kindergarten Teacher<\/em>
\nRonit Elkabetz, Shlomi Elkabetz – Gett, The Trial of Viviane Amsalem<\/em>
\nSharon Maymon, Tal Granit – Mita Tovah<\/em> (The Farewell Party)<\/p>\n

Best Actor<\/strong><\/p>\n

Zeev Revah – Mita Tovah<\/em> (The Farewell Party)
\nYossi Marshak – Manpower<\/em>
\nMenashe Noy – Gett, The Trial of Viviane Amsalem<\/em>
\nNaveh Tsur – Valley<\/em>
\nTawfeek Barhom – Dancing Arabs<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Yona\/Photo:<\/a>
Yona\/Photo: Yarden Tavori, Hadas Peretz<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Best Actress<\/strong>
\nDana Ivgy – Zero Motivation<\/em>
\nLevana Finkelstein – Mita Tovah<\/em> (The Farewell Party)
\nLiron Ben-Shlush – Next to Her<\/em>
\nNaomi Levov – Yona<\/em>
\nRonit Elkabetz – Gett, The Trial of Viviane Amsalem<\/em>
\nShira Haas – Princess<\/em><\/p>\n

Best Supporting Actor<\/strong>
\nIlan Dar – Mita Tovah<\/em> (The Farewell Party)
\nElisha Banai – Apples from the Desert<\/em>
\nYaakov Zadeh-Daniel – Next to Her<\/em>
\nMichael Moshonov – Dancing Arabs<\/em>
\nSasson Gabai – Gett, The Trial of Viviane Amsalem<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Mita<\/a>
Mita Tovah (The Farewell Party)\/Photo: Max Hochstein<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Best Supporting Actress<\/strong>
\nDana Ivgy – Next to Her<\/em>
\nNelly Tager – Zero Motivation<\/em>
\nAliza Rosen – Mita Tovah<\/em> (The Farewell Party)
\nRaymonde Amsalem – Apples from the Desert<\/em>
\nShani Klein – Zero Motivation<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s going to be a close race for this year’s Ophir Awards with several strong films in the running. There are five finalists for Best Feature of 2014, but Eitan Even, President of the Israeli Academy of Film and Television said that this year’s crop of new films has been of such quality that his […]<\/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-29894","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\/29894","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=29894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29894\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}