Israeli film ‘Ajami’ headed to the Oscars?

January 21, 2010 - 3:35 PM by

There’s something about Israeli films – they keep getting recognized for excellence. After two years in a row of Oscar nominations for Best Foreign Language film – for Beaufort and Waltz with Bashir respectively, it looks like we might get a hat trick.

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The Academy of Arts and Sciences announced on Wednesday their shortlist of nine films out of hundreds of applicants for the category – and it included Ajami, Israel’s official selection for the Oscars.

This year’s shortlist also includes films from Argentina, Australia, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Kazakhstan, The Netherlands and Peru. The final five nominees will be announced when all the Oscar nominations are revealed, in a press conference on February 2.

Hannah Brown, The film critic for The Jerusalem Post, described Ajami as a gritty drama about crime in Jaffa. It was co-directed by two first-timers, Scandar Copti, an Israeli Arab Christian, and Yaron Shani, an Israeli Jew.

The film – which is in both Hebrew and Arabic – received a special mention at Cannes, as well as winning the Ophir Award, the Israeli Oscar, which made it Israel’s official selection.

Ajami is competing for one of the five nominated movies with Germany’s “The White Ribbon,” which won the 2010 Golden Globe for best foreign movie, “El Secreto de Sus Ojos” from Argentina; “Samson and Delilah,” from Australia; “The World Is Big and Salvation Lurks Around the Corner,” from Bulgaria; “A Prophet,” from France; “Kelin from Kazakhstan; and “Winter in Wartime,” from The Netherlands, in which a Dutch boy aids a downed British pilot during World War II.

Maybe this will be the year – following the nomination of nine Israeli films in past years – that one of ours – especially a ‘coexistence’ project like ‘Ajami’ will walk away with Israel’s first Oscar.

Tags: , , , , • Category: A New Reality, coexistence, Crime, General, Movies, Pop Culture 

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