‘A Burning Man’ wins Best Israeli Feature Prize at the Haifa International Film Festival

A Burning Man by Eyal Halfon, a drama about an anxious father who has just brought his son to serve in the military, won the prize for Best Israeli Feature at the 41st Haifa International Film Festival. The awards were announced in a ceremony on Sunday night.
 
“The film captures the reality of parental dread through an unexpected lens – a father’s fear for his soldier son,” the jury said in its citation. “Through humorous and ironic encounters, it becomes both deeply personal and universal, anchored by Shai Avivi’s moving, nuanced performance.” Avivi received the festival’s Best Performance Award for his role in the film. 

The Jury Prize for Narrative Film, sponsored by the Haifa Cultural Foundation, was shared by two features: Of Dogs and Men by Dani Rosenberg and Some Notes on the Current Situation by Eran Kolirin. Of Dogs and Men is about a teen girl searching for her dog that went missing after she was forced to flee Nir Oz following the Hamas attack.

Some Notes on the Current Situation is described in the festival program notes as, “A philosophical tragicomedy about space, time, cinema, love, and wars, composed of six episodes, all together forming an absurdist footnote.”

The Best Documentary Award went to A Proud Jewish Boy, by Isri Halpern, which tells the story of the young assassin Herschel Grynszpan, who killed a German diplomat in Paris in 1938, a murder that the Nazis used as an excuse for the Kristallnacht pogrom.

The Amit Peled Award for Best Debut Film, donated by the Peled family, was presented to Fadia by Shady Srour. The movie tells the story of a family who tries to kill its daughter in the name of “family honor,” and a more liberal family who saves her. Srour and co-writer Laurel Hunter also received the Best Screenplay Award, named for Anat Pirhi, for their script for Fadia. 

The Best Research in a Documentary Award, donated by Helen Schumann, went to researchers Ilan Sheizaf, Dana Wolfe, and Ali Aadi for their work on Unraveling UNRWA, directed by Duki Dror. 

A special mention in memory of Pnina Blayer, the longtime director of the Haifa International Film Festival who died last year, was presented to The Baghdad Files, directed by Avida Livny, for its re-examination of the 1951 grenade attack on a Baghdad synagogue and the broader story of the mass immigration of Iraqi Jews to Israel.

In the Israeli Short Film Competition, Lens by Bar Cohen won Best Independent Short. 
In the Animation Competition, Maybe It’s Even True, directed by Yael Bona, won Best Animated Short. 

Dreams, a Norwegian coming-of-age drama directed by Dag Johan Haugerud, took home the Best Film Award in the Carmel International Cinema Competition. A Special Mention went to Mother, a Belgian-North Macedonian co-production directed by Teona Strugar Mitevska, which re-examines the legend of Mother Teresa. 

The Golden Anchor Award for International Cinema, which goes to debut filmmakers, was presented to Late Shift, a Swiss-German production directed by Petra Volpe and starring Leonie Benesch, which is a medical thriller set in a hospital ward. A Special Mention went to the French film Nino, directed by Pauline Louca, for its “intimate and heartfelt exploration of human connection.”