Jerusalem Winners: Israeli Anti-War Film ‘Oxygen’ & ‘The Secret Agent’ Take Best Film Prizes

Netalie Braun’s anti-war drama Oxygen, a couple of single mom who takes excessive motion to forestall her 21-year-old son from returning to the entrance in Lebanon, scooped the Best Israeli Characteristic Film award on the forty second Jerusalem Film Competition on Thursday night.

The jury – comprising Tallinn Black Nights Film Competition head Tiina Lokk, Israeli director Julie Shles and actor Menashe Noy – praised Braun for her portrayal of a fancy state of affairs.

“The movie is layered with limitless aspects of Israeli actuality, offered from a brand new perspective, giving an nearly biblical dimension to the story of a mom dealing with the sacrifice of her son,” learn their jury assertion.

“Director and screenwriter Netalie Braun deconstructs this ethos – from the liberation of Jerusalem to crawling on the carpet because of PTSD – dismantling the picture of the Israeli hero,” it continued.

Braun has described her movie as “a political movie and name for revolution”, advocating for moms in Israel to standup to the obligatory conscription of their sons into the military and the concept that the one resolution is battle.

Opening with Joachim Trier’s Cannes Grand Prize winner Sentimental Worth July 17, this version of Jerusalem was the second to happen because the October 7, 2023, Hamas terror assaults on Southern Israel, sparking the Israeli invasion of Gaza, during which greater than 57,000 Palestinian folks have since been killed.

The competition unfolded amid rising worldwide condemnation of Israel’s administration of meals support distribution in Gaza, with World Well being Group head Tedros Ghebreyesus saying this week that the inhabitants confronted “mass hunger”.

There has additionally been outcry in Israel concerning the state of affairs, in addition to anger concerning the destiny of fifty hostages, who’re nonetheless unaccounted for, 20 of whom are nonetheless believed to be alive, and the rising loss of life toll amongst Israeli troopers deployed in Gaza.

The Israeli Characteristic Film Competitors jury additionally gave an Honorary Point out to Shai Carmeli-Pollak’s The Sea, a couple of Palestinian boy dwelling within the landlocked West Financial institution who embarks on a harmful journey to see the ocean, describing it as “a poetic journey that manages to seize the nuances of our harsh actuality and conveys the dissonance inside the expertise of Israel’s unattainable labyrinths of occupation, army, and police.”

The award for Best Israeli Debut Characteristic went to Eti Tsicko’s Georgia-set drama Nandauri, following an Israeli lawyer compelled to confront her previous when she travels to the nation to retrieve an deserted boy.

“A movie totally free of the male cinematic gaze, but neither adversarial nor gender pushed. Eti Tsicko reveals herself as a director with a definite and highly effective voice, a gradual hand, and distinctive skills already evident in her first movie,” mentioned the jury.

The Worldwide Film Competitors jury – comprising U.S. producer Lawrence Bender alongside German administrators Matthias Glasner and Julia von Heinz – feted Brazilian director Kleber Mendonça Filho’s Cannes Best Director and Actor winner The Secret Agent with the Best Worldwide Film Award.

Hungary’s Bálint Szimler received Best Director within the part for college drama Lesson Realized whereas a Honorary Point out went to Mascha Schilinski for her debut movie Sound of Falling.

Slovenian director Urška Djukić’s coming of age story Little Bother Women received Best Worldwide Debut Film, which was judged by French producer Bruno Nahon with Israeli administrators Tom Shoval and Dani Rosenberg, who additionally gave an Honorable Point out to Harris Dickinson’s Urchin.

Exterior of the screening program, the competition additionally held its longrunning Jerusalem Pitch Level occasion, supporting the event and completion of a collection of function tasks.

The jury, comprising director Michel Franco, distributor-producer Michel Zana and producer Maya Amsellem, awarded the Grand Prize to Assaf Machnes’s tragicomedy The place To, a couple of 55-year-old Palestinian Uber driver in Berlin, who picks up a younger, outspoken Israeli drifting by means of town as a passenger.

It’s produced by Tomer Mecklberg, Haim Mecklberg, Estee Yakov Mecklberg, Oren Rogovin, Man Shani, and Luis Singer.

The Pitch Level Jury Prize went to Henya Brodbeker’s Possibly It’s Love about an ultra-orthodox girl who wedded her husband in an organized marriage on the age of 20, and now retains testing him to determine whether or not she is in love. It’s produced by Tami Cohen and Adar Shafran.

Full 2025 Jerusalem Film Competition Awards

Worldwide Competitors

Nechama Rivlin Award for Best Worldwide Film
The Secret Agent, Director: Kleber Mendonça Filho (Brazil)

Best Director Award
Bálint Szimler (Hungary) – Lesson Realized

Honorable Point out
Sound of Falling
Director: Mascha Schilinski (Germany)

Worldwide Debuts Competitors (sponsored by GWFF)

GWFF Award for Best Worldwide Debut Film
Little Bother Women
Director: Urška Djukić (Slovenia)

Honorable Point out
Urchin
Director: Harris Dickinson (UK)

Within the Spirit of Freedom Competitors

Cummings Award for Spirit of Freedom Competitors Winner:
The Best Mom within the World
Director: Anna Muylaert (Brazil)

OFF Experimental Documentary Competitors in honor of Chantal Akerman

OFF Prize for Experimental Documentary in honor of Chantal Akerman:
Inform Her that I Love Her
Director: Romane Bohringer (France)

Haggiag Competitors for Full-Size Israeli Characteristic Movies

Haggiag Award for Best Characteristic by means of the Jerusalem Basis
Oxygen
Director: Netalie Braun
Producers: Aviv Ben Shlush, Adi Bar Yossef, Netalie Braun

Honorable Point out:
The Sea
Director: Shai Carmeli-Pollak
Producer: Baher Agbariya

GWFF Award for Best Israeli Debut Characteristic:
Nandauri
Director: Eti Tsicko
Producers: Ayelet Kait, Amir Harel, Flavia Oertwig, Vladimir Kacherba

Anat Pirchi Award for Best Script
Lifeless Language, Mihal Brezis, Oded Binnun, Tom Shoval, Amital Stern

Anat Pirchi Award for Best Efficiency
Riki Reif Sinai, Cuz You’re Ugly

Best Ensemble Award:
The Sea

Diamond Competitors for Full-Size Israeli Documentary Movies

Diamond Award for Best Documentary Film:
Malachi, Administrators and Producers: Ido Bahat and Noam Demsky

Diamond Award for Best Director of a Documentary Film:
Israela Shaer-Meoded – On the lookout for Yadida

Aaron Emanuel Award for Best Cinematography:
Shai Goldman, Nandauri

Aliza and Micha Shagrir Award for Best Modifying:
Ido Bahat and Ido Haar, Malachi

Yossi Mulla Award for Best Unique Rating:
Avi Belleli, The Sea

Diamond Competitors for Israeli Shorts

Diamond Award for Best Dwell Motion Film:
Tongue Behind Tooth
Director: Ira Eduardovna
Producer: Naama Pyritz

Diamond Award for Dwell Motion Film, Second Prize
Dalia’s Tea Casts a Shadow on Mount Fuji
Director: Oren Gerner
Producers: Oren Gerner and Lihi Nachmani

Aliza and Micha Shagrir Award for Best Scholar Film
The Issues We do for Love and a Overseas Passport
Director: Ayal Sgerski
Faculty: Sam Spiegel Film & Tv Faculty

The Best Efficiency Award
Hilly Yossef Zada, for her efficiency in Earlier than Anybody Else
Director: Ziv Mamon

Best Animated Film
A Fowl’s Want
Director: Gan De Lange
Producers: Gan De Lange and KM Productions

Honorable Point out
Dwelling Base
Director: Amit Kra
Faculty: The Steve Tisch Faculty of Film and Tv, Tel Aviv College

The Israeli Video Artwork and Experimental Film Competitors
OFF Awards
First Prize
Escape Will Get You Tonight
Director: Noa Simhayof Shahaf

Second Prize
Orientations
Director: Daniel Kiczales

Jerusalem Pitch Level 2025 Awards

Grand Prize
The place To
Director: Assaf Machnes
Producers: Tomer Mecklberg, Haim Mecklberg, Oren Rogovin, Man Shani

Jury Prize
Possibly It’s Love
Director: Henya Brodbeker
Producers: Tami Cohen, Adar Shafran

Edit & D.B. Put up Manufacturing Grant
Al-Barzakh
Director: Hamad Sharoof
Producers: Shlomi Elkabetz, Galit Kahlon, Michal Giladi

The Gesher Multicultural Film Fund Award for Best Quick Script
Dad within the Room
Author & Director: Dotan Moreno, Producer: Lev Orlov

IMPACT Pitch in collaboration with CoPro – The Van Leer Affect Marketing campaign Award on Behalf of the Jerusalem Film Competition

Love in Arduous Locations
Director: Brachi Haisherik
Producers: Tami Cohen, Adar Shafran