Israel Submits Assassination Drama ‘Incitement’ To International Oscar Race After Ophir Awards Win

Assassination drama Incitement last night picked up the best picture prize at Israel’s Ophir Awards, the country’s primary national film awards. The win means the film becomes Israel’s submission to this year’s Best International Feature Film Oscar (renamed for 2020 from Best Foreign Language Film).

Directed by Yaron Zilberman, the feature depicts the 1995 assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, told through the eyes of his assassin Yigal Amir. It premiered at Toronto in the Contemporary World Cinema programme. Yehuda Nahari plays Amir, with the film following the two years leading up to the murder at a peace rally in Tel Aviv.

The Ophir win and Oscar submission was met with condemnation from the country’s outspoken culture minister Miri Regev. According to the Times of Israel, Regev slammed the film as having “no place” in the country due to its perceived criticism of prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. However, Regev also admitted she hadn’t watched the film.

The film had ten nominations at this year’s Ophir Awards and also took home the casting prize. Eliran Malka’s dark comedy The Unorthodox, about the founding of the country’s Shas political party, took home the most prizes with four.

Elsewhere in the International Feature Film Oscar race, India has submitted Gully Boy, Zoya Akhtar’s coming-of-age story about an aspiring rapper in a Mumbai slum. It premiered at the Berlinale in February and grossed $5.6M in the U.S. and Canada.

The shortlist for the category will be released in December, with nominations announced on January 13.

Source: Read Full Article