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Israeli film 'Ajami' wins at Montpellier festival
Scandar Copti and Yaron Shani's film takes first prize at international film festival for Mediterranean cinema held in France
Merav Yudilovitch
Ajami, the film written and directed by Scandar Copti and Yaron Shani, won the Golden Antigone prize on Saturday at the CineMed Mediterranean Film Festival held in Montpellier. Alongside a cash prize of 15,000 euros (about $22,200) given to the film's creators, 30,000 euros (about $44,400) will be dedicated to distributing the film in France. Another 2,500 euros (about $3,700) will be invested in subtitles.
Ajami, which started commercial screenings in France in March, contended in the Montpellier competitions against 12 other films from Italy, Bulgaria, Turkey, Greece, Egypt, Slovenia, Serbia, Spain, Croatia, and Syria. Members of the production team were not present at the festival, but sent a special thanks to the international judging panel.
"To our great chagrin, we did not have representatives at the festival simply because we are dispersed in other festivals," said Mosh Danon, the film's producer. "Clearly, winning in the Mediterranean Film Festival holds special significance in the context of movie's plot. Furthermore, this is another important step towards opening screenings in Europe. All of these prizes, from our perspective, are encouraging to the viewers and distributors abroad. It is a great joy."
The film, which was awarded the Ophir prize
for best film by the Israeli Film Academy, is slated to reach screens in Germany and Spain in January, and afterwards in France and the United States. The film's creators will show the film at the Thessaloniki Festival.
Other Israeli films screened at the CineMed festival this year were Leonid Prudovsky's "Five Hours from Paris" and Emmanuel Naccache and Stéphane Bélaïsch's "Joing Venture." Neta Efrony's film "Kalandia – A Checkpoint Story" contended in the documentary category. In the short film category, Yaelle Kayam's "Diploma" won and will be broadcast on French television.
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