Archive | Award

Ra’anan Alexandrowicz’s ‘The Law in These Parts’, about Israel’s legal in West Bank, awarded World Cinema Jury Prize at top gathering for independent movies made outside of Hollywood’s major studios

Another achievement for Israeli cinema: Ra’anan Alexandrowicz’s documentary, “The Law in These Parts,” has won the World Cinema Jury Prize at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, the top gathering for independent movies made outside of Hollywood’s major studios.

The film, which won the Best Documentary award at the 2011 Jerusalem Film Festival, reviews Israel’s legal system in the West Bank from Alexandrowicz’s critical point of view.

It combines interviews with senior legal experts, including former Supreme Court President Meir Shamgar and former Judge and Military Advocate General Amnon Strashnov.

The film was praised during the festival, and Alexandrowicz was even invited to write an op-ed for the New York Times about the issue discussed in the documentary.

Top honors at Sundance were given to “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” a mythical film starring an eight-year-old girl, which won the grand jury prize in the US dramatic competition, and “The House I Live In”, about the war on drugs, which won the same honor in the US documentary category.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report

Source: Ynetnews.com

The Israeli movie ‘Footnote’ is now officially nominated for the Best Foreign Film Award at this year’s Oscars, it was just announced. The movie will compete against other foreign language movies from Iran, Belgium and poland.

‘Footnote’s director Joseph Cedar is no stranger to the Oscars, as his movie ‘Beaufort’ was nominated in the very same category in 2008, and started a run of three consecutive years, in which an Israeli movie was nominated for Best Foreign Film Award at the glamorous show (‘Waltz with Bashir’ was nominated in 2009, and ‘Ajami’ was nominated in 2010). Last year Israel sent ‘The Human Resources Manager’ to compete in the Best Foreign Film category, but the movie missed the final cut and didn’t get nominated. So far, Israel has never won in this category, and ‘Footnote’ is the 10th movie nominated in this category since Israel started sending movies for Oscars consideration, in 1964.

Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2011 will be presented on Sunday, February 26, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center(r), and televised live by the ABC Television Network. The Oscar presentation also will be televised live in more than 225 countries worldwide.

The nominees for Best Foreign Film Award at this year’s Oscars are:

‘Bullhead’ (Belgium)
‘Footnote’ (Israel)
‘In Darkness’ (Poland)
‘Monsieur Lazar’ (Canada)
‘A Seperation’ (Iran)

Source: Abbanibi.com

Quebec filmmaker Philippe Falardeau has nabbed an Oscar nomination for best foreign-language film.

The francophone dramedy “Monsieur Lazhar” is about a group of Montreal elementary students grappling with the death of their teacher.

It’s up against Belgium’s “Bullhead,” Israel’s “Footnote,” Poland’s “In Darkness” and Iran’s “A Separation,” which won the Golden Globe for best foreign-language film earlier this month.

It’s the second year in a row a Quebec filmmaker is vying for an Academy Award.

Last year, Denis Villeneuve was in the running in the same category for his war drama, “Incendies.”

The Oscars will be handed out Feb. 26 on CTV.

“Monsieur Lazhar” already has nine Genie Award nominations and previously collected TIFF’s award for best Canadian feature and the Toronto Film Critics Association’s Rogers Best Canadian Film Award.

Falardeau is not Canada’s only hope in the category.

Poland’s “In Darkness” is a Canadian-Poland-German co-production written by Toronto’s David Shamoon and produced by Canadians Eric Jordan and Paul Stephens.

The film is set in Nazi-occupied Poland and is based on a true story about a Polish sewer worker who agrees to hide a group of Jewish men, women and children in the sewers.

“In Darkness” is being released in Canada on Feb. 17.

“Monsieur Lazhar” hits select cities this Friday.

Source: CTV.ca

Israeli filmmaker Joseph Cedar’s movie, Footnote, is one of nine contenders for an Academy Award nomination in the Foreign Language Film category.

The final five nominees are to be announced on January 24, ahead of the February 26 award ceremony. (Ynet)

It was a big weekend for Israeli TV formats. First on Friday, a drama based on the Israeli series Pillars Of Smokebecame the first in-cycle drama pilot picked up by NBC. And then on Sunday another Israeli drama adaptation, Showtime’s Homeland,became the the biggest TV winner at the Golden Globe Awards with two statuettes, for best drama series and best actress Claire Danes. That caps several years of a building momentum for formats from the Middle East country with strong ties to the U.S. and deep connections in Hollywood.

Exactly 3 years ago, the first of the current wave of U.S. adaptations of Israeli series, HBO’s In Treatment, landed 5 Golden Globe nominations, including best drama series, and won one, for best actor Gabriel Byrne. This year, Homelandconverted 2 of its 3 nominations. How significant is the show’s best drama series win? Israeli formats got to the coveted top award after a four-year presence in Hollywood and a handful of series, In Treatment, CBS’ The Ex List and Fox’s Traffic Light leading to Homeland. For comparison, U.S. adaptations of British series have a long-standing tradition, spanning dozens of series over four decades. And yet, I could only think of one American series based on an U.K. format that has landed a best series Golden Globe, the CBS classic All In The Family. (NBC’s The Office won for star Steve Carell in 2006 but never in the top series category.)

Israel’s opening to the U.S. TV market started several years ago when groups of local producers and representative came to Los Angeles to meet with leading Hollywood TV executives and agents. CBS Entertainment president Nina Tassler, then Chair of the Jewish Federation’s Entertainment Division, was among those spearheading the initiative, which included master classes held both in Los Angeles and Tel Aviv. Top U.S. TV agents began shopping Israeli formats to the U.S. networks. Last night, Homeland executive producer Howard Gordon began his acceptance speech by thanking “Rick Rosen at WME for bringing us this project.” Rosen is one of the leading agents handling Israeli formats, with CAA’s Adam Berkowitz also active in the arena.

As a result of the rising interest, the broadcast networks this season bought as many pitches based on Israeli formats as they did formats coming out of the U.K. In addition to Pillars Of Smoke, awaiting word on a pickup are comedy Life Isn’t Everything at CBS and drama Danny Hollywood at the CW. Additionally, one of the projects based on a British format, NBC comedy Friday Night Dinnershepherded by The Office chief Greg Daniels, revolves around a Jewish family and their regular Friday dinner experience. Because of the far smaller size of the Israeli TV market and thus series budgets that are a fraction of what U.S. shows have at their disposal, Israeli producers put stronger emphasis on storytelling and search for formats that would help them overcome the financial shortcomings, including setting up most of the action in one (In Treatment) or 2 rooms (dramaThe Naked Truth, an U.S. version of which was once set up at HBO with Clyde Phillips.)

Israel’s U.S. TV influence is not limited to scripted formats. NBC’s reality seriesWho’s Still Standing?, which aired as a strip last month, was based on a hit Israeli series, with other reality projects also in the works.

Source: Deadline.com

Israeli physicist to receive prestigious international award thanks to contribution to foundation of black hole thermodynamics; 33% of recipients have gone on to win Nobel Prize

What do the names Avram Hershko, Ada Yonath and Daniel Shechtman tell you? They are all Israeli chemists who won the Nobel Prize after being awarded the Wolf Prize.

Will physicist Jacob Bekenstein, one of the winners of the 2012 Wolf Prize go on to win the prestigious Nobel as well? Time will tell.

The Wolf Prize is an international award granted in Israel every year for achievements in the fields of science and art, and is considered the second most important award after the Nobel Prize.

The prize has been granted since 1978 for “achievements in the interest of mankind and friendly relations among peoples … irrespective of nationality, race, color, religion, sex or political views.”

As many as 33% of Wolf Prize recipients have gone on to win the Nobel Prize as well.

The list of winners for 2012 was announced Monday in a festive ceremony at the Israel Museum by Education Minister Gideon Sa’ar and the chairman of the Wolf Foundation.

Apart from Bekenstein, the award will be granted in May at the Knesset to Spanish tenor Plácido Domingo, Berlin Philharmonic Conductor Simon Rattle, and two Mathematicians, two chemists, and a medical researcher – all from the United States.

The Wolf Foundation said Tuesday that Domingo was the first vocal artist to ever win its prize. From 1962 to 1965, at the beginning of his career, he sang with the Israeli opera company

Prof. Bekenstein of Hebrew University’s Racah Institute of Physics will receive the prize for his breakthrough contribution to foundation of black hole thermodynamics. He discovered that black holes cannot just swallow light but also emit light.

At the time Stephen Hawking, one of the world’s greatest physicist, set out to prove Bekenstein wrong, but after exhausting calculations for several months he nobly admitted, “I was wrong, Israeli physicist Jacob Bekenstein was right.”

Since then, one of the physical laws regarding black holes has been named the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy.

Bekenstein told Yedioth Ahronoth on Monday, “I’m surprised, happy and proud. I didn’t expect to receive the award now, as there are many people in the world of science who have made great contributions.”

Wolf Foundation Director-General Liat Ben-David said Monday, “The Wolf Foundation heritage proves that each of the recipients dedicated his or her life to one thing: Excellence aimed at advancing humanity.

“Through this prize, the State of Israel salutes the crème de la crème in the fields of science and art around the world.”

Source: Ynetnews.com

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