Marie Amachoukeli’s Ama Gloria and Juraj Lerotic’s Safe Place lead the winners of the 40th Jerusalem Film Festival, which handed out 1m ILS ($276,803) in prizes this evening (July 20).
Ama Gloria, which premiered in Critics’ Week at Cannes this year, won the best international film award. The film depicts the last summer between a six-year-old girl and her nanny Gloria, before the latter returns to Cape Verde to care for her own children.
Scroll down for the full list of feature winners
A jury led by Claire Denis and consisting of Whit Stillman, Florian Zeller, Joana Vicente and Maria Schrader selected the film “for its extraordinary poignancy, beauty and insight.”
Mexican filmmaker Lila Aviles won the best director award for Totem, which debuted in Competition at the Berlinale this year. The jury praised Aviles’ “rich and lively portrait of a family at an exceptional moment.”
The jury also awarded a special mention to the cast of Rodrigo Moreno’s Cannes title The Deliquents.
In the first feature competition, the jury of Ali Abbasi, Barbara Albert and Sebastian Meise selected Juraj Lerotic’s Croatian drama Safe Place – a Locarno 2022 premiere – as the best first feature winner, with a special mention for Zoljargal Purevdash’s If Only I Could Hibernate.
The Israeli feature film competition awrd for best Israeli feature went to David Volach’s Daniel Auerbach. A jury consisting of Kornel Mundruczo, Jasmila Zbanic, Joseph Cedar and Alexandru Belc praised a story “told in the most profound, funny, furious and hyper-Jewish way.”
Ehab Tarabieh’s The Taste Of Apples Is Red won the award for best Israeli first feature; with Asaf Saban winning the best screenplay award for Delegation.
In the In The Spirit Of Freedom Competition, the jury decided to award the best documentary to Tina Satter’s Reality starring Sydney Sweeney – a fiction film, but based on the transcript of the recording of Reality Lee Winner’s arrest by the FBI.
The 40th edition of the festival got underway last Thursday, with audience members voicing pro-democracy chants at the opening ceremony in the presence of president Isaac Herzog.
Jerusalem Film Festival 2023 winners
International competition
Best international film – Ama Gloria, dir. Marie Amachoukeli
Best director – Lila Aviles for Totem
Special mention – the cast of The Deliquents, dir. Rodrigo Moreno
First feature competition
Best first feature – Safe Place, dir. Juraj Lerotic
Special mention – If Only I Could Hibernate, dir. Zoljargal Purevdash
In The Spirit of Freedom Competition
Best first feature – Blanquita, dir. Fernando Guzzoni
Best documentary – Reality, dir. Tina Satter
Chantal Akerman competition
Chantel Akerman prize – The Echo, dir. Tatiana Huezo
Special mentions – Orlando, My Political Biography, dir. Paul B. Preciado; The Kiev Trial, dir. Sergei Loznitsa
Israeli Feature Film competition
Best Israeli Feature – Daniel Auerbach, dir. David Volach
Best Israeli First Feature – The Taste Of Apples Is Red, dir. Ehab Tarabieh
Best Screenplay – Asaf Saban for Delegation
Best Performance – Emos Ayeno for Under The Shadow of the Sun
Ensemble award – Delegation
Israeli Cinema awards
Best Cinematography – Boaz Yehonatan Yacov for Daniel Auerbach
Best Score – Yonatan Alblak for Daniel Auerbach
Best Editing – Haim Tabakman, Lev Goltser for Daniel Auerbach; Ayala Bengad for The Three Of Us – ex-aequo
Israeli Documentary Competition
Best Documentary – The Three Of Us, dir. Henya Brodbeker
Best Director – Henya Brodbeker for The Three Of Us
Best Documentary Research award – Jonathan Avrahami, Assaf Lapid for The Return From The Other Planet
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