Tell Me Everything was the movie that Ophir Awards voters chose as Best Picture at a ceremony at Cinema City Glilot on Wednesday night, and the Israeli Academy of Film voters gave it an unprecedented 16 nominations. It went on to win an additional nine awards.
Tell Me Everything will go on to be considered as Israel’s official selection for the Best International Feature Academy Award.
In addition to Best Picture, Tell Me Everything won an Ophir for its director, Moshe Rosenthal, and also for his screenplay. The movie tells the story of a boy who learns that his father is gay at the height of the AIDS epidemic and makes amends with him a decade later.
Evgenia Dodina, long considered one of the greatest Israeli actresses of all time, won an overdue Ophir Award as the heroine of Mama, where she played a Polish worker.
Best Actor went to Ehab Salami for his performance as a lonely Palestinian Uber driver in Berlin who befriends a young Israeli passenger in Where To by Assaf Machnes. In a moving speech, after thanking his family and the cast and crew of the film, he said, “Let the sun shine and let the wars end.”
Big night for Israel's female actresses
Best Supporting Actress went to veteran actress Tiki Dayan for her role as the befuddled mother of a man who gives up carbohydrates in Farewell to Dough.
Ido Tako won Best Supporting Actor for his role as a depressed Israeli in Where To. Tako was nominated twice in this category; he was also nominated for his role in Tell Me Everything.
The award for Best Documentary went to Rotem Dimond for The Woman Who Didn’t Know How to Love, about three generations of complicated women in a single family.
The winner of the Life Achievement Award was the beloved actress, Levana Finkelstein, who won an Ophir Award for the movie A Matter of Size, and who has won acclaim for roles in movies such as The Farewell Party, I Love You Rosa, The Little Traitor, The World is Funny, and many other roles. She has always shone in both drama and comedy, and recently played a key role in the Emmy-nominated television series Bad Boy. The audience gave her a standing ovation.
As always, politics was on the minds of the Ophir presenters and winners, with several criticizing the current government, particularly for trying to cut funding for the arts, and urging Israelis to go out and vote for new leaders next month.
We will know if Tell Me Everything made the Oscar shortlist on December 15. Israel has not made the shortlist since 2017 and has not had a nomination since 2012, when Joseph Cedar’s Footnote was nominated. All in all, Israel has had 10 nominees in this category, formerly called Best Foreign Language Film, with no wins, making it the most-nominated country without a win.