Assaf Machnes’s Where To? was a big winner when the prizes of the 43rd Jerusalem Film Festival were awarded on Thursday night. It took top honors in the Haggiag Competition for Full-Length Israeli Feature Films, winning the Haggiag Award for Best Feature, presented through the Jerusalem Foundation, as well as prizes for screenplay and performance.
The festival awarded prizes totaling approximately NIS 1 million across its Israeli and international competitions, as well as its short-film, experimental-film, and industry programs.
The movie tells the story of a bond that forms between a Palestinian cab driver and a young gay Israeli, both of whom live in Berlin.
The feature-film jury, headed by Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa and which included movie critic Alissa Simon and producer/director Jorge Stamadianos, praised Where To? for portraying “what makes us human with remarkable clarity and deep sensitivity, transcending personal beliefs and cultural conflicts.”
The film was produced by Tomer Mecklberg, Estee Yakov Mecklberg, Haim Mecklberg, Oren Rogovin, Guy Shani, Julia M. Müller, and Luis Singer.
Complex story told in a simple and nuanced way
Machnes received the Anat Pirchi Award for Best Script. The jury described his screenplay as “a simple and nuanced way to tell a complex story with humor and humanity.”
Ihab Salami won the Anat Pirchi Award for Best Performance for his role as the cab driver in the film. The jury called his work “a convincing, subtle, and truthful performance that takes us on a journey.”
In the Diamond Competition for Full-Length Israeli Documentary Films, the award for Best Documentary Film went to I Am Neo, directed by Yael Abecassis, who is also known as an actress, and produced by Shlomi Elkabetz and Galit Cahlon. The movie is about a boy who was critically injured as a young child and suffered brain damage, and how his parents chronicled their family’s journey.
The jury described it as “a fight for life that is touching, patient, and human.”
The GWFF Award for Best Israeli Debut Feature went to Yula Gidron’s Find Me, Okay?, produced by Jeff Hoffman, Hilla Medalia, and Maria Ionova, which tells the story of how Eden Yerushalmi’s family coped with her kidnapping and murder by Hamas. The jury praised the filmmakers for having the “courage to confront and immerse viewers in the pain of a family that reflects Israeli society.”
Meidan Arama received the Aaron Emanuel Award for Best Cinematography for Hadas Ben Aroyo’s I Can’t Say No to Myself. The jury singled out the film’s “lively camerawork showing the modern reality of a young, urban, searching generation.”
The Aliza and Micha Shagrir Award for Best Editing went to Gal Rosenbluth for Amal. The jury praised the film’s “tension-building cutting that leads to an inevitable tragedy.”
Asaf Talmudi won the Yossi Mulla Award for Best Original Score for The Wedding Entertainer (The Tale of Moishe Badhan). The jury called it “a score that celebrates life.”
In the Diamond Competition for Israeli Shorts, whose jury consisted of journalist Hélène Schoumann and president of the Israeli Film Festival of Paris Hélène Schoumann, director Or Sinai, and director Eliran Elya, the Diamond Award for Best Live Action Film went to Another Body, directed by Orit Fouks Rotem and produced by Daizy Films.
The second prize for a live-action film went to Fireworks, directed by Eily Freid and produced at the Sam Spiegel Film and Television School in Jerusalem.
The Best Animated Film prize, donated by Animation Israel, went to Saba, directed by Liron Topaz and produced by Lirit Rosenzweig-Topaz and Neko Films by Neko Productions.
Best performance awarded to actress Dar Zuzovsk
Dar Zuzovsky received the Diamond Award for Best Performance for her role in Dylan Joseph’s Peppa the Great.
An honorable mention went to Larnaca, directed by Talia Tai Bitton and Gil Peled and produced at the Sam Spiegel Film and Television School.
In the Israeli Video Art and Experimental Film Competition, judged by Miri Segal, Irena Gordon, and Dvir Shaked, the Afterglow Award for Best Film went to Gadi Yampel’s A Pleasant Sail on Land.
Tal Elkayam received the Aliza and Micha Shagrir Award for Experimental Film for Krav Maga, while Natalia Ryss’s Dragon received a special mention.
The Jerusalem Pitch Point 2026 jury, made up of Tiina Lokk, Michel Zana, and Tom Shoval, awarded its grand prize for full-length films and works in progress to Three Days in Bangui, directed by Jonathan Gurfinkel and produced by Shemi Shoenfeld and Yoav Halevy.
The jury prize went to Leaving Gur, directed by Brachi Haisherik and produced by Tammy Cohen.
An Edit & D.B. Post Production Grant was awarded to I Want to Tell My Story, directed by Tomer Heymann and produced by Leigh Heiman.
The Gesher Multicultural Film Fund Award for Best Short Script, together with an Edit & DB Studios post-production grant, went to Acoustics. The film is directed and produced by Itamar Alcalay, who wrote the screenplay with Tami Ram-Kochman.
The jury for the award consisted of Hadas Ayalon, Ruth Diskin, and Amos Geva.
The Jerusalem Media Initiative Award for a Jerusalem-based filmmaker was presented to Omri Levy.
In the festival’s International Competition, the Nechama Rivlin Award for Best International Film went to German director Valeska Grisebach’s The Dreamed Adventure, a Bulgarian film about a woman’s journey to self-discovery.
The jury – Angela Schanelec, writer and director of such films as I Was at Home, But…; producer and director Lionel Baier, whose films include Stupid Boy and Another Man; and Nanako Tsukidate, a critic, independent programmer, and researcher in film history – praised the film’s direction and its handling of multiple themes.
“Borders, European identities, and interpersonal stories are all masterfully explored,” the jury said. “We congratulate the director on this film, which has truly impressed us.”
Kārlis Arnolds Avots received the Best Performance Award for his role in Ulya.
In the International Debuts Competition, sponsored by GWFF, the award for Best International Debut Film went to 17, directed by Kosara Mitić. The film is a coproduction between North Macedonia, Serbia, and Slovenia.
A special mention went to Panda, directed by Xinyang Zhang and produced as a coproduction between Singapore, Hong Kong, and China.
In the Spirit of Freedom Competition, the Cummings Award went to Skateboarding is not for Girls, directed by Dina Duma. The film is a coproduction between North Macedonia, Belgium, Slovenia, and Croatia.
The jury members in this competition were Isaac Zablocki, senior director of the Carole Zabar Center for Film at the JCC Manhattan and the Israel Film Center, CEO and co-founder of ReelAbilities, and director of the Other Israel Film Festival; documentary director Roni Aboulafia, who made Daytrip, Escaping the Taliban and Honorable Men; and Nir Bergman, the director of such films as Broken Wings and Here We Are.
They praised the film for addressing difficult subjects while retaining humor, compassion, and vitality.
“It avoids easy answers, choosing instead to observe its characters in all their complexity, vulnerability, and strength,” the jury said.
The Chantal Akerman Prize for Experimental Documentary Film went to Silent Flood, directed by Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk and produced as a Ukrainian-German coproduction.