Lights, camera, Shalom

May 19, 2009 - 8:43 PM by David · Leave a Comment
Filed under: General, Movies, Travel 

Academy Award nominee Waltz With Bashir

Academy Award nominee Waltz With Bashir

Israel’s film industry has grown in leaps and bounds, both in quality and quanitity in recent years. Two local films – 2007’s Beaufort and last year’s Waltz with Bashir – were both nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

But one area where the local film industry hasn’t done so well is in attracting foreign film producers to shoot their movies here. It’s a shame, because Israel has such cinematic locations – the beach, the desert, the Golan, the old cities of Jerusalem and Acre.

But until now, it’s been too expensive to bring a huge crew and equipment over, so foreign productions have been few and far between. I was an extra once in 1988 in Appointment with Death, an adaption of an Agatha Christie novel, starring Peter Ustinov, Sir John Gielgud and my personal favorite, David (Starsky) Soul that was filmed in Jerusalem. My portrayal of a British soldier in Palestine circa 1930s did irreparable damage to the reputation of Israeli actors, and since then, we’ve been suffering.

Even Adam Sandler’s Zohan filmed the scenes that are supposedly in Israel in some other location like Hawaii.

But now, things may change. The Industry, Trade and Labor Ministry has announced that Israel will offer foreign film producers tax breaks of 20 percent if they collaborate with Israeli production companies.

The announcement was made a day ahead of the opening of the Cannes Film Festival, and one of the sessions there featuring producers will focus on Israel as a location for making movies and TV shows. The ministry will also man a booth at the festival distributing pamphlets listing the advantages of filming here.

The Jerusalem Post reported that according to the pamphlet to be distributed at Cannes, Israel has several selling points: a vast pool of actors and extras of varying ethnicities representing more than 100 countries, many different types of locations within easy driving distance, and 120 production companies, 10 production studios and 30 post-production facilities.

Israeli producer Gal Uchovsky, the business partner of director Eytan Fox (Walk on Water, The Bubble) said that he was pleased with the move.

“Countries [that] have offered such incentives drew a lot of producers. Morocco and Ireland, for example, have made a lot of effort to draw in foreign filmmakers and it has paid off.
“This is a very good financial decision. It will provide an income for much of the local industry and will raise the local industry’s standards,” said Uchovsky.

We may not see Brad and Angie here tomorrow, but hopefully the government decision will help Israelwood get off the ground.

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Waltz with Bashir snubbed in LA

February 24, 2009 - 1:24 PM by Harry · Leave a Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, Art, General, Movies, Pop Culture 

Japan's DeparturesConventional wisdom unequivocally asserted that the only Best Foreign Language Film Oscar nominee to hold a candle to Waltz with Bashir was France’s The Class – but that even that movie was hardly as technically groundbreaking or thematically poignant as Israel’s nominee. Regardless, The Academy instead gave the award to Japan’s Departures (pictured in all of its smirking glory).

Bashir therefore joins a long list of Israel-made Oscar losers that includes Sallah Shabati and HaShoter Azoulay.

When Joseph Cedar’s Beaufort failed to take home a statuette a year ago, the director was gracious and stoic, putting the situation in the proper context. He even went so far as to give The Jerusalem Post the ultimate cliché Oscar loser soundbyte:

[Cedar] seemed to keep his hopes in check at a symposium prior to the ceremony, saying he was “happy just to have been nominated. I’m not even thinking about winning.”

….”We have shown that Israel can make very good movies,” Beaufort actor Eli Eltonyo told the cheering crowd [at a post-Oscars party], “and we will prove it again next time.”

Next time was earlier this week, but Eltonyo’s prediction didn’t come to fruition – at least not as fully as he might have hoped. But Bashir’s creative team was hardly as gracious as Beaufort’s was. The jPost caught up with director Ari Folman after the show:

“It’s a game,” Folman said, shrugging. “It’s 500 anonymous voters, and I don’t know a single one.”

He said he planned to drink the night away before getting on a plane home to Israel.

“I’ll be glad to be done with all of this traveling, though I am going to miss it in a few months – but right now I just want to go home and be with my kids,” Folman told the Post.

Back here in Israel, the rest of the Bashir team was even more disappointed, as Haaretz notes:

Nitzan Roiy, in charge of composing and special effects, stayed in his chair.

“It’s horrible,” he said. “When we came here we were sure we had it in our hand. It’s a shame.”

…. “We were very confident before the ceremony,” said Neta Holzer, one of the animators who joined the Israeli delegation to Los Angeles. “We didn’t talk about winning, but we had a very good gut feeling. Everyone is disappointed, but we’re getting used to it.”

With so many great movies continuing to come out of our local industry, we can all comfort ourselves by saying, “There’s always next year.” At least that;s what the good sports among us will say.

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