Israeli Culture Minister Miki Zohar has announced he is pulling state funding for Israel’s Ophir Awards after drama The Sea, which focused on the struggles of a Palestinian boy living under occupation in the West Bank, won the top prize.
Under Israel’s protocol, the winner of the Best Film Ophir is automatically put forward as Israel’s Oscar candidate.
The production spearheaded by Israeli filmmaker Shai Carmeli-Pollak and Palestinian producer Bahaer Agbarian, follows Khaled, a 12-year-old Palestinian boy living in the landlocked West Bank on his way to visit the sea for the first time in his life, until at the checkpoint, the Israeli authorities deny his entry.
Determined to fulfil his dream, he sneaks into Israel and embarks on a dangerous journey to the coast, dodging checkpoint, military and police..
The Israeli Culture Ministry released a statement on Wednesday morning in which Zohar called the win “disgraceful”, saying that the film portrays Israeli soldiers in a negative light.
“There is no greater slap in the face of Israeli citizens than the embarrassing and detached annual Ophir Awards ceremony,” read the statement reported by Israeli media.
“Starting with the 2026 budget, this pathetic ceremony will no longer be funded by taxpayers’ money. Under my watch, Israeli citizens will not pay from their pockets for a ceremony that spits in the faces of our heroic soldiers.”
Zohar’s defunding threat is not unexpected. The minister had previously railed against the awards – in August when the nominations were first announced and other frontrunners alongside The Sea included Nadav Lapid’s Yes and Natali Braun’s Oxygen.
The storylines of all three favorites ran counter to the politics of Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government and military campaigns in Gaza and the West Bank.
Lapid’s Yes is biting satire critiquing Israeli society against the backdrop of the ongoing military campaign in Gaza, while Natali Braun’s Oxygen about a mother fighting to pull her son out of military service.
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