Israel to pull funding for Ophir film awards after win for The Sea

Drama about a missing Palestinian boy is set to be Israel's official entry to the Oscars

The Sea, directed by Shai Carmeli-Pollak, won Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor at the Ophir awards. Photo: The Israeli Film Foundation

Israel’s culture minister has announced that the country will end funding Ophir, the country’s top film awards, after a Palestinian-themed drama won Best Picture on Tuesday.

As winner, The Sea will be Israel’s official entry to the Academy Awards next year for Best International Feature.

Miki Zohar, Minister of Culture and Sports, said on Wednesday that taxpayers would no longer support the Ophir awards, calling the event a “shameful ceremony that spits on heroic IDF soldiers”.

The Sea is a 90-minute drama written and directed by Shai Carmeli-Pollak. The narrative tells the story of a 12-year-old boy from the West Bank who sneaks into Israel to catch a glimpse of the sea for the first time, before disappearing and prompting his father’s desperate search.

The film portrays Israeli soldiers in a critical light, a depiction that drew anger from ministers. Tellingly, it was praised by some from Israel’s film community. Assaf Amir, chairman of the Israeli Film and Television Academy, said the victory was a “resounding answer” to political attacks on cinema.

“I am proud that an Arabic-language film, born of collaboration between Jewish and Palestinian Israelis, has been chosen to represent Israel in the Oscar competition,” he said.

Muhammad Gazawi, the Palestinian star of Israeli film The Sea. Photo: The Israeli Film Foundation

The Sea also won Best Actor at the Ophir for Muhammad Gazawi, who said in his acceptance speech that all children should be able to “live and dream without wars”. Khalifa Natour, who plays Gazawi's father, won Best Supporting Actor, but declined to attend citing the ongoing conflict in Gaza.

The decision to defund the Ophir awards has reignited debate over artistic freedom in Israel. Supporters of the film argue that it highlights human realities often absent from mainstream narratives, while critics say it undermines the military during wartime.

The controversy comes even as international scrutiny of Israel’s actions in Gaza intensifies. More than 65,000 Palestinians have been killed since October 2023, according to Gaza health officials, while cultural boycotts of Israeli institutions have grown. More than 4,000 artists, including Olivia Colman, Mark Ruffalo and Javier Bardem, recently endorsed a boycott of Israeli film bodies “complicit in genocide”, organised by Film Workers for Palestine.

At the Emmy Awards red carpet earlier this week, Bardem was asked why he was so resolute in his activism with regards to Palestine. He answered: “How many hundreds and thousands of dead children do we need to see for people to wake up?”

Paramount Pictures, meanwhile, warns that silencing artists by nationality “does not promote better understanding or advance the cause of peace”.

Despite Zohar's announcement, legal experts say it is unclear whether the Culture Ministry has the authority to withdraw funding unilaterally. For now, The Sea is set to represent Israel at the Oscars if nominated, keeping the debate alive well beyond the Ophir stage.