In a surprise decision, thejury of the 23rd Jerusalem Film Festival awarded the Wolginprize for best Israeli feature to DeadEnd, a black satire on TV reality shows directed by DrorSzabo. Szabo, who has beeninvolved in the production of reality shows, makes his feature directorialdebut with the project.

The jury, headed by actressDebra Winger, gave the best script award to writer/director ShemiZarhin for Aviva My Love, abouta harassed blue collar housewife who dreams of becoming a writer. That film'sstar, Assi Levy, won best female performance. Assi Dayan from Things Behind TheSun and Gal Zayid from Dead End shared the best male performance award.

An additional prize for bestcinematography went to Shai Goldman for his work on Three Mothers, a family saga directed byDina Zwi-Riklis.

Two documentaries about humanaspects of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Nine Star Hotel by Ido Haar and Bil'inHabibti by Shai Carmeli-Pollack, shared the best documentary award.Needless to say, their significance was underlined by recent violence whicherupted at both ends of Israel during the festival.

The Jerusalem Cinematheque, the home of the festival since its inception,will be closing down for the next 10 months, if not more, for extensive worksincluding the addition of a new wing, an additional auditorium and a new videotheque.