Shira Haas won the Golden Nymph Jury Prize at the 63rd Monte Carlo International Television Festival on Tuesday night for her role in the upcoming series Night Therapy, from Yes Studios.
The series also stars Yousef “Joe” Sweid as a recently widowed therapist who treats patients at night, and Lucy Ayoub as his sister. Night Therapy will be released June 30 in Israel on Yes VOD and Sting+. Sweid attended the festival and said he would bring Haas her prize.
Healing and love
Speaking in a video message from America, where she is filming a new project, Haas said, “Hello everyone, thank you for this incredible honor. I wish I could be there with you right now... Night Therapy is a series about healing, about grief, about love – and I love this series so much. This role is meaningful for me on the most personal level, so thank you Raanan [Caspi], our creator and writer of the show.”
She went on to thank Sweid and the rest of the cast and crew, as well as her family, making special mention of her mother, who died in 2022. “I want to thank my mom, whom I miss every day and every moment, and like everything in my life, this incredible achievement is thanks to her and for her,” she said.
Haas is best known for the series Shtisel and Unorthodox, and won a Best Actress Award at the Tribeca Festival in 2020 for Asia. She will be playing the super-hero Sabra in the upcoming movie, Captain America: Brave New World with Harrison Ford and Anthony Mackie, which is set to be released in 2025.
The Israeli documentary Table for Eight, by Ben Shani, who made the original segment for the newsmagazine series Uvda, was nominated for the Golden Nymph Award in the News and Documentaries category, but did not win. Shani attended the festival to present it to audiences there.
Table for Eight is about Abigail Mor Edan, an American citizen who celebrated her fourth birthday in Hamas captivity after she was kidnapped from her home in Kibbutz Kfar Aza by terrorists on October 7, following the murders of her parents. Taking shelter with neighbors, Abigail was taken into Gaza along with her neighbor’s family and released following a hostage deal made in November.
The documentary tells Abigail’s story, as well as that of her two older siblings, who stayed alive by hiding from the terrorists, and her aunt and uncle, who have children of their own and who have now adopted the three Idan children.
Clips from Table for Eight with English subtitles are available on https://stand4israel.net/channel/Keshet+-+N12/320089972 It is unusual that a newsmagazine segment, rather than a documentary conceived as a standalone movie, is nominated for an international award like this, but Table for Eight is an extraordinary film.