Netalie Braun’s anti-war drama Oxygen, about a single mother who takes extreme action to prevent her 21-year-old son from returning to the front in Lebanon, scooped the Best Israeli Feature Film award at the 42nd Jerusalem Film Festival on Thursday evening.
The jury – comprising Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival head Tiina Lokk, Israeli director Julie Shles and actor Menashe Noy – praised Braun for her portrayal of a complex situation.
“The film is layered with endless facets of Israeli reality, presented from a new perspective, giving an almost biblical dimension to the story of a mother facing the sacrifice of her son,” read their jury statement.
“Director and screenwriter Netalie Braun deconstructs this ethos – from the liberation of Jerusalem to crawling on the carpet as a result of PTSD – dismantling the image of the Israeli hero,” it continued.
Braun has described her film as “a political film and call for revolution”, advocating for mothers in Israel to standup to the compulsory conscription of their sons into the army and the idea that the only solution is conflict.
Opening with Joachim Trier’s Cannes Grand Prize winner Sentimental Value July 17, this edition of Jerusalem was the second to take place since the October 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks on Southern Israel, sparking the Israeli invasion of Gaza, in which more than 57,000 Palestinian people have since been killed.
The festival unfolded amid growing international condemnation of Israel’s management of food aid distribution in Gaza, with World Health Organization head Tedros Ghebreyesus saying this week that the population faced “mass starvation”.
There has also been outcry in Israel about the situation, as well as anger about the fate of 50 hostages, who are still unaccounted for, 20 of whom are still believed to be alive, and the growing death toll among Israeli soldiers deployed in Gaza.
The Israeli Feature Film Competition jury also gave an Honorary Mention to Shai Carmeli-Pollak’s The Sea, about a Palestinian boy living in the landlocked West Bank who embarks on a dangerous journey to see the sea, describing it as “a poetic journey that manages to capture the nuances of our harsh reality and conveys the dissonance within the experience of Israel’s impossible labyrinths of occupation, military, and police.”
The award for Best Israeli Debut Feature went to Eti Tsicko’s Georgia-set drama Nandauri, following an Israeli lawyer forced to confront her past when she travels to the country to retrieve an abandoned boy.
“A film entirely freed from the male cinematic gaze, yet neither adversarial nor gender driven. Eti Tsicko reveals herself as a director with a distinct and powerful voice, a steady hand, and exceptional abilities already evident in her first film,” said the jury.
The International Film Competition jury – comprising U.S. producer Lawrence Bender alongside German directors 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 International Film Award.
Hungary’s Bálint Szimler won Best Director in the section for school drama Lesson Learned while a Honorary Mention went to Mascha Schilinski for her debut film Sound of Falling.
Slovenian director Urška Djukić’s coming of age tale Little Trouble Girls won Best International Debut Film, which was judged by French producer Bruno Nahon with Israeli directors Tom Shoval and Dani Rosenberg, who also gave an Honorable Mention to Harris Dickinson’s Urchin.
Outside of the screening program, the festival also held its longrunning Jerusalem Pitch Point event, supporting the development and completion of a selection of feature projects.
The jury, comprising director Michel Franco, distributor-producer Michel Zana and producer Maya Amsellem, awarded the Grand Prize to Assaf Machnes’s tragicomedy Where To, about a 55-year-old Palestinian Uber driver in Berlin, who picks up a young, outspoken Israeli drifting through the city as a passenger.
It is produced by Tomer Mecklberg, Haim Mecklberg, Estee Yakov Mecklberg, Oren Rogovin, Guy Shani, and Luis Singer.
The Pitch Point Jury Prize went to Henya Brodbeker’s Maybe It’s Love about an ultra-orthodox woman who wedded her husband in an arranged marriage at the age of 20, and now keeps testing him to figure out whether she is in love. It is produced by Tami Cohen and Adar Shafran.
Full 2025 Jerusalem Film Festival Awards
International Competition
Nechama Rivlin Award for Best International FilmThe Secret Agent, Director: Kleber Mendonça Filho (Brazil)
Best Director AwardBálint Szimler (Hungary) – Lesson Learned
Honorable MentionSound of FallingDirector: Mascha Schilinski (Germany)
International Debuts Competition (sponsored by GWFF)
GWFF Award for Best International Debut FilmLittle Trouble GirlsDirector: Urška Djukić (Slovenia)
Honorable MentionUrchinDirector: Harris Dickinson (UK)
In the Spirit of Freedom Competition
Cummings Award for Spirit of Freedom Competition Winner:The Best Mother in the WorldDirector: Anna Muylaert (Brazil)
OFF Experimental Documentary Competition in honor of Chantal Akerman
OFF Prize for Experimental Documentary in honor of Chantal Akerman:Tell Her that I Love HerDirector: Romane Bohringer (France)
Haggiag Competition for Full-Length Israeli Feature Films
Haggiag Award for Best Feature through the Jerusalem FoundationOxygenDirector: Netalie BraunProducers: Aviv Ben Shlush, Adi Bar Yossef, Netalie Braun
Honorable Mention:The SeaDirector: Shai Carmeli-PollakProducer: Baher Agbariya
GWFF Award for Best Israeli Debut Feature:NandauriDirector: Eti TsickoProducers: Ayelet Kait, Amir Harel, Flavia Oertwig, Vladimir Kacherba
Anat Pirchi Award for Best ScriptDead Language, Mihal Brezis, Oded Binnun, Tom Shoval, Amital Stern
Anat Pirchi Award for Best PerformanceRiki Reif Sinai, Cuz You’re Ugly
Best Ensemble Award:The Sea
Diamond Competition for Full-Length Israeli Documentary Films
Diamond Award for Best Documentary Film:Malachi, Directors and Producers: Ido Bahat and Noam Demsky
Diamond Award for Best Director of a Documentary Film:Israela Shaer-Meoded – Looking for Yadida
Aaron Emanuel Award for Best Cinematography:Shai Goldman, Nandauri
Aliza and Micha Shagrir Award for Best Editing:Ido Bahat and Ido Haar, Malachi
Yossi Mulla Award for Best Original Score:Avi Belleli, The Sea
Diamond Competition for Israeli Shorts
Diamond Award for Best Live Action Film:Tongue Behind TeethDirector: Ira EduardovnaProducer: Naama Pyritz
Diamond Award for Live Action Film, Second PrizeDalia’s Tea Casts a Shadow on Mount FujiDirector: Oren GernerProducers: Oren Gerner and Lihi Nachmani
Aliza and Micha Shagrir Award for Best Student FilmThe Things We do for Love and a Foreign PassportDirector: Ayal SgerskiSchool: Sam Spiegel Film & Television School
The Best Performance AwardHilly Yossef Zada, for her performance in Before Anyone ElseDirector: Ziv Mamon
Best Animated FilmA Bird’s WishDirector: Gan De LangeProducers: Gan De Lange and KM Productions
Honorable MentionHome BaseDirector: Amit KraSchool: The Steve Tisch School of Film and Television, Tel Aviv University
The Israeli Video Art and Experimental Film CompetitionOFF AwardsFirst PrizeEscape Will Get You TonightDirector: Noa Simhayof Shahaf
Second PrizeOrientationsDirector: Daniel Kiczales
Jerusalem Pitch Point 2025 Awards
Grand PrizeWhere ToDirector: Assaf MachnesProducers: Tomer Mecklberg, Haim Mecklberg, Oren Rogovin, Guy Shani
Jury PrizeMaybe It’s LoveDirector: Henya BrodbekerProducers: Tami Cohen, Adar Shafran
Edit & D.B. Post Production GrantAl-BarzakhDirector: Hamad SharoofProducers: Shlomi Elkabetz, Galit Kahlon, Michal Giladi
The Gesher Multicultural Film Fund Award for Best Short ScriptDad in the RoomWriter & Director: Dotan Moreno, Producer: Lev Orlov
IMPACT Pitch in collaboration with CoPro – The Van Leer Impact Campaign Award on Behalf of the Jerusalem Film Festival
Love in Hard PlacesDirector: Brachi HaisherikProducers: Tami Cohen, Adar Shafran
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