Ophir Awards

Seven Blessings now becomes Israel’s official selection for consideration for a Best International Feature nomination at the Oscars.

Relatively few movies directed by women and few films about Mizrahi Jews have won the Ophir Award in recent years, and this will give Seven Blessings an edge.

Seven Blessings focuses on a Moroccan family in Israel and shows how tradition can be used in a particularly twisted and damaging way.

The members of Zehu Ze! began performing together on the government broadcasting channel in 1978 and continued until 1998, then returning during the pandemic.

Cinema Sabaya will now become Israel’s official selection for consideration for a nomination for the Best International Feature Oscar. 

The Ophirs will be awarded in a ceremony on September 18. 

Let It Be Morning, which was produced by Dori Media in collaboration with Films du Poisson, is based on an acclaimed novel by Sayed Kashua.

Both of those movies are fictional (or heavily fictionalized) interpretations of such a love affair, using made-up stories to pose questions about power dynamics and internalized guilt.

Kolirin doesn’t seem to me like an ally of anti-Zionism, but the actors from Let It Be Morning – his latest film – made a fuss at the Ophir awards ceremony.

Avi Nesher’s Image of Victory and Eran Kolirin’s Let There Be Morning each took 15 nominations at Israel's Ophir Awards, the prizes of the Israeli Academy of Film and Television.

This is an unusual year for the Israeli film industry, to put it mildly, because the coronavirus has forced theaters to stay shut since March.