'Ajami' wins Israeli Academy film of the year

Yaron Shani and Scandar Copti receive top prize for their debut film, four other awards. 'Lebanon' wins four awards, 'A Matter of Size' gets three

Merav Yudilovitch|Published: 09.27.09 , 12:35

"Ajami", Yaron Shani and Scandar Copti's debut film, won the top prize for best picture at the Ophir Award ceremony, granted by the Israeli Academy of Film and television which were held Saturday evening in Haifa.

The other nominees for best picture were "Lebanon" by Shmulik Maoz, which recently won the Golden Lion award at the 66th Venice Film Festival, "The Loners" by Raanan Schul, "There Were Nights" by Roni Ninio and "A Matter of Size" by Sharon Maymon and Erez Tadmor.

In addition to the best film award, "Ajami" was also awarded four other prizes — for best director, best editor, best script and original music.

"The Shakshuka Method" by Ilan Abudi and Miki Rozental won the award for best documentary.

"The film is proof that we must not give up" said Rozental upon receiving the award. "Eventually, it was not censored, and was broadcasted to hundreds of thousands of people. Our biggest problem is the loss of hope, and this movie shows that there is another way."

Sasha Agranov received the award for best actor for his role in "The Loners" by Raanan Schul, while the award for best actress went to Irit Kaplan for her role in "A matter of size".

Zohar Shtrauss won the award for best supporting actor for his role in "Lebanon" and Levana Finkelstein received best supportive actress for "A Matter of Size."

'I want to thank my mother'

This year's life achievement award was given to actor, director and script writer Assi Dayan, who said "this is the second life achievement award I receive. Its time to give out dead achievement awards. So I simply thank everyone and especially my mother, who is 92-years-old."

In addition, a special prize for achievements and professional excellence was given to the late producer Uri Sabag, who passed away September 2008.

The ceremony, hosted by Moni Moshonov and Avi Kushnir, was the most impressive and suspenseful of all Israeli Academy award ceremonies to date, especially due to the large variety and close competition among nominees