‘Tell Me Everything’ tops Ophir Awards nominations with highest-ever 16 nods

Amy Spiro is a reporter and writer with The Times of Israel

The feature film “Tell Me Everything” received 16 Ophir Awards nominations on Sunday, setting a new record for the number of nods granted to any film in the history of the awards.

The movie, written and directed by Moshe Rosenthal, premiered in January at the Sundance Film Festival and saw its Israeli premiere at the Jerusalem Film Festival last month.

It tells the story of a young boy in 1987 grappling with the discovery of the shocking news that his father is gay. “Tell Me Everything” (titled “Independence” in Hebrew) is nominated for best picture, best director, best screenplay, best actor, best actress and several other nods.

Also competing in the best picture category is Avi Nesher’s “Our Loves,” which follows an ensemble of characters whose stories intertwine during the October 7 Hamas onslaught into Israel’s south, featuring the stories of kibbutz dwellers, Nova partiers, police officers and more.

The category also includes “Where To?” — an Israeli-German film that centers on a Palestinian Uber driver living in Berlin who picks up a young lost Israeli, and premiered in February at the Berlinale Film Festival — and “Mama,” about a Polish woman who returns to her family after years of working as a housekeeper in Israel.

Rounding out the category is “Home,” written, directed and starring Reut Akkerman, and “The Wedding Entertainer,” directed by Gidi Dar and written and starring Shuli Rand, who previously collaborated on the popular “Ushpizin.”

The winner of the Ophir Awards prize for best picture generally goes on to become Israel’s submission for best foreign film at the Academy Awards.

The selection of last year’s winner, “The Sea,” about a Palestinian boy longing to visit the sea for the first time in his life, led Culture Minister Miki Zohar to announce he was cutting all state funding to the ceremony and establishing his own alternate awards ceremony which was cloaked in controversy.

“The Sea” ultimately was not nominated for the category at the Oscars. Israeli films have been nominated 10 times for best international feature film — most recently with 2011’s “Footnote” — but has never won.

“Our Loves” was nominated for 12 Ophir Awards in total, as was “The Wedding Entertainer,” while “Mama” and “Where To?” each picked up 11 nominations.

The Ophir Awards ceremony, organized by the Israel Academy of Film and Television, is slated for September 9.

The nominees for best documentary film include “Shalom,” about Palestinian and Israeli employees at the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo dealing with the impending death of a beloved rhinoceros.

The best short documentary nominations include “Alon, My Brother the Hero,” about the journey of Ido and Yonatan Shamriz to bring home their brother, slain Hamas captive Alon Shamriz; “Children No More: Were and are Gone,” about Israeli activists protesting the killing of children in Gaza; and “Ahmad the Movie Star,” focusing on the controversy surrounding the 1966 film “I Am Ahmad,” considered the first Israeli movie to tell the story of an Arab character.

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