Israel threatens national film awards after Palestinian story wins top prize

Israel’s culture minister has threatened to axe funding for the country’s national film awards after The Sea, a story about a 12-year-old Palestinian boy, won its top award.

The film, which follows a boy from the occupied West Bank who wants to travel to Tel Aviv to see the sea for the first time, won best film at the Ophir Awards – Israel’s equivalent of the Oscars.

In a statement on X, Miki Zohar said: “There is no greater slap in the face of Israeli citizens than the embarrassing and detached annual Ophir Awards ceremony.”

As winner of the best film category at the Ophir awards, The Sea now becomes Israel’s entry to the international film category at next year’s Oscars.

It is not yet clear whether Zohar has the authority to defund the awards, according to local media.

Stars of The Sea won other major prizes at the awards ceremony, including best actor award for 13-year-old Muhammad Gazawi – the youngest ever winner.

In the film, Gazawi plays 12-year-old Khaled who is denied entry to Israel at an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) checkpoint during a class trip to Tel Aviv.

Khaled then sneaks into Israel and attempts to reach the sea while his father, an undocumented labourer in Israel, tries to find him.

During the ceremony, the film’s producer Baher Agbariya said the film was about “every child’s right to live in peace, a basic right we will not give up on”.

But in his statement, Zohar described the Ophir Awards as “embarrassing and detached”.

He added: “Under my watch, Israeli citizens will not pay from their pockets for a ceremony that spits in the faces of our heroic soldiers.”

Responding to Zohar’s comments, Assaf Amir, chair of the Israeli Academy of Film and Television, said: “As the never-ending war in Gaza takes a terrible toll in death and destruction, the ability to see the ‘other’… gives small hope.”

Amir added: “In the face of the Israeli government’s attacks on Israeli cinema and culture, and the calls from parts of the international film community to boycott us, the selection of The Sea is a powerful and resounding response.”

It comes after thousands of Hollywood industry professionals signed a pledge vowing not to work with Israeli film institutions that are “implicated in genocide”.

Israel launched its war in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

At least 65,000 people have been killed in Israeli attacks since then, almost half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry.

On Tuesday, a UN commission of inquiry said Israel had committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

Israel’s foreign ministry rejected the report and denounced it as “distorted and false”.