2022 Ophir Nominees include dramedy "Karaoke" and animated "Where is Anne Frank?"

by Nathaniel R

the marital dramedy "Karaoke" might become Israel's Oscar submission

Israel's annual film awards, the Ophirs, are very hard to track. The nominations were announced yesterday but we're still searching for a full list of nominees since their website is in Hebrew (I think this is the list). Online media is historically terrible about providing full lists of nominations for anything outside Hollywood, usually opting for a couple of paragraphs about the top prize only. Such is the case this year. The only online article available at the time I'm writing this is from the Jerusalem Post which, true to form, lists only the Best Picture contenders. IMDb only lists two categories at this writing. But we finally found a list. The translation was computer generated so there may be a few errors and it reads a bit messy. Have patience.

The Best Picture nominees (one of which will become the Oscar submission)...

Ari Folman's "Where is Anne Frank?"

• 35 Downhill (Yona Rozenkier) a father/son drama at a kibbutz
• Cinema Sabaya (Orit Fouks Rotem) An ensemble piece about Jewish and Arab women joining a filmmaking class
• Karaoke (Moshe Rosenthal) a dramedy about a charismatic neighbor shaking up a marriage. This one the Audience Award at the Jerusalem Film Festival as well as the First Film Award. REVIEWED AT TRIBECA
• Valeria Gets Married (Michael Vinik) a drama about Ukrainian sisters in Israel who consider marriage
• Where is Anne Frank? (Ari Folman) an animated docu-drama

Israel always chooses the winner of the Ophirs to represent them at the Oscars unless they can't for eligibility reasons. Of these directors only Ari Folman has previously been submitted. His animated docu-drama Waltz With Bashir (2008) was famously Oscar-nominated. 

* THE REST OF THE NOMINATIONS. THIS IS COMPUTER TRANSLATED AND THEN CLEANED UP. WE DID OUR BEST. *

FEATURE DOCUMENTARY

• The Camera Corps
• Wife of Doctor Morris
• Tantura from 
• Black Friends 
• Anat Gov, about life and death

BEST DIRECTOR

• 35 Downhill - Yona Rosenkiar
• Cinema Sabaya - Orit Fors Rotem
• Karaoke - Moshe Rosenthal
• Valeria gets married - Michael Vinik
• Virgins - Maor Zagori

Virgins did well in the nominations  so one assumes it just missed the Best Picture list. IMDb translates that one as Virginity so maybe that's the correct title? It's a coming of age drama starring Maor Levi as a young boy in a remote village with no real friends his own age.

BEST ACTRESS

Dana Ivgi in "Savoy"

• Dana Ivgy - Savoy AND...
• Dana Ivgy - Cinema Sabaya (9th nomination, 3 previous wins)
• Levana Finkelstein - The silence (3rd nomination, 1 previous win)
• Lena Fraifeld - Valeria gets married
• Rita Shukron - Karaoke

A double nomintaion for Dana Ivgy who you might remember from the female soldier dramedy Zero Motivation (2014) which got a US release or as the teenage daughter in the Ronit Elkabetz drama Or (My Treasure) from 2004. She's now 40 years old.  Savoy is a true story about a housewife taken hostage in Tel Aviv in 1975.

International moviegoers might also know Levana Finkelstein as she starred in the popular export The Farewell Party (2014)

BEST ACTOR

• Yoel Rosenkier - 35 Downhill
• Yaakov Zada Daniel - Valeria gets married (3rd nomination)
• Maor Levi - Virgins
• Maurice Cohen - The Silence
• Sasson Gabay - Karaoke (9th nomination, 2 previous wins)

International audiences might know veteran Sasson Gabay who has appeared in international Israeli hits (The Band's Visit, Gett) and even one random Hollywood film (Rambo III)

SUPPORTING ACTRESS

• Aviva Ngusa - 35 Downhill
• Esti Zakheim - The Silence (4th nomination)
• Joanna Said - Cinema Sabaya
• Moran Rosenblatt - Like There's No Tomorrow (4th nomination, 1 previous win)
• Tikva Dayan - Nobody's Children (3rd nomination)

SUPPORTING ACTOR

Lior Ashkenazi in "Karaoke"

• Avraham Shalom Levy - Valeria Gets Married
• Doron Tabori - the gospel according to Yehuda
• Dean Miroshnikov - as if there is no tomorrow
• Lior Ashkenazi - Karaoke (6th nomination, 3 previous wins)
• Moni Moshunov - Everything I Can (7th nomination, 1 previous win)
• Shmuel Viluzheni - 35 Downhill

We've loved Lior Ashkenazi since Late Marriage (2001) so we're always happy to see him. We even had the privilege of meeting him once at the Toronto Film Festival at a Sony Pictures Classics dinner. 

BEST SCREENPLAY 

• Sabaya Cinema
• Savoy
• 35 Downhill
• Virgins
• Valeria gets married
• Karaoke

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

• Cinema Sabaya
• Virgins
• Valeria gets married
• Karaoke
• 35 Downhill

BEST EDITING

• 35 Downhill
• Karaoke
• Valeria Gets Married
• Sabaya Cinema
• Savoy

BEST ART DIRECTION

• June 0
• 35 Downhill
• Karaoke
• Virgins
• Valeria gets married
• Savoy

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

• Karaoke
• Valeria gets married
• Savoy
• June 0
• Cinema Sabaya

BEST MAKEUP

• Cinema Sabaya
• Karaoke
• Valeria gets married
• Savoy
• June 0

BEST CASTING

• Valeria gets married
• June 0 Hamotel Zem
• 35 Downhill
• Karaoke
• Cinema Sabaya 

BEST ORIGINAL MUSIC

• Karaoke
• Valeria gets married
• 35 Downhill
• Nobody's Children
• Cinema Sabaya

BEST SOUNDTRACK

• Karaoke
• Valeria gets married
• Cinema Sabaya
• Where is Anne Frank
• Savoy

DOCUMENTARY SHORT

• The artist's daughter
• Grossman
• Zoya Cheraksky Chaim Soviets
• Zvi says
• the seven years of Absalom

NARRATIVE SHORT

• Please wait for the representative
• It's time for me to die
• to love you I don't owe 
• a quarry 
• A letter to Rousseau 's pig 

Comments

[Lenard W]

The two music categories are Best Original Music and Best Soundtrack. I think this article may help a little: https://www.timesofisrael.com/anne-frank-arab-jewish-relations-karaoke-in-focus-at-upcoming-israeli-film-awards/

[Finbar McBride]

In a tale of cross country travel by tractor (recollections of David Lynch’s The Straight Story), 35 Downhill swept the Ophir nominations. A look at a clip from the celebrated film appears at

https://deadline.com/video/35-downhill-clip-israeli-tractor-road-movie/

[Yehon]

So, some notes as an Israeli (...which is also a new academy member):

1. Yeah, Virginty and not "Virgins"
2. 35 Downhill Starts at a Kibbutz but than goes across the country (In hebrew the name is "The Road to Eilat" - which is the southest city in Israel.
3. Valeria Gets Married is about a urkanian who married an Israeli a "marriage of convience" and who has her sister fly in in order to to the same.
4. Sasson Gabay won 3 Ophirs. not 2 - He won fro Gett. Band's Visit and Time For Cherries. If he'll win (which is most likely), he'll become the mst awarded actor in the ceremony's (short) history.
5. Weird trivia - in 4 of the 5 years Dana Ibgy was nominated, it was a double nomination.
6. June 0 was somewhat snubbed, probably partially because The academy rules against giving nominations to non-Israeli Citizens.It was directed by Jake Paltrow (brother of) and I think it was one of the better films in the running.
7. Savoy is basically a Documentary (with top notch reanecment, yes) so it's fun to see it nominated across the board (even if I didn't fall heads over heels with it).