The Israeli Film Academy named the five movies that will be competing for the 2009 Best Picture Award, Tuesday.
The academy's Ophir Awards are the most important film awards in the Israeli film industry. The movie named best picture will be representing Israel in the 2010 Academy Awards, competing in the Best Foreign Language Film category. The Ophir ceremony will be held in September.
The five films in the running are:
- "A matter of size," by directors Sharon Maymon and Erez Tadmor
- "Lebanon," by director Shmulik Maoz
- "The lonely ones," by director Renen Schorr
- "Ajami," by directors Scandar Copti and Yaron Shani
- "The nights," by director Ronny Ninyo.
All five directors are also competing for the Director of the Year award.
"A matter of size" – the favorite (Photo: Meir Rajuan)
"A matter of size" has been nominated in 13 of the Ophir categories, followed by "The lonely ones" with 11 nominations.
Veteran actor, screenwriter and director Assy Dayan will be presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award.
"This has been a wonderful year for Israeli cinema," said CEO of the Israel Academy of Film and Television, Ilana Sharon, at the press conference presenting the various nominees.
Sharon noted further that the academy has 25 feature films and 42 documentaries competing in the 2009 Ophir Awards, which is a record number.
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