An Israeli film, Meyer Levinson-Blount’s "Butcher's Stain," received an Academy Award nomination in the Best Live Action Short category.
The Oscar nominations were announced Thursday by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Butcher’s Stain has already won a Silver Medal in the Narrative category at the 2025 Student Academy Awards, an important achievement for a filmmaker at the beginning of his career.
Levinson-Blount studies film at the Steve Tisch School of Film and Television at Tel Aviv University. Butcher’s Stain is about Samir (Omar Sameer Mahamid), an Arab Israeli working in a supermarket in Tel Aviv, who is accused of tearing down hostage posters in the break room.
Samir sets out to prove his innocence to keep this job that he desperately needs.
In the Best International Feature category, however, in which countries submit one official candidate to be considered, Israel’s choice, "The Sea," directed by Shai Carmeli-Pollak, did not make the shortlist, and so it did not receive a nomination.
Israel Oscar nominations over the years
Over the years, Israel has received 10 nominations in this category without a single win, making it the most-nominated country never to win the Oscar.
Three films by, about, and from Palestine made this year’s International Feature shortlist, an unprecedented number. One of these, "The Voice of Hind Rajab" by Kaouther Ben Hania, received one of the five nominations in this category.
It is Tunisia’s official entry and focuses on the fact-based story of a girl trapped in a car under IDF fire in Gaza who calls the "Red Crescent." It won the Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival this year. One of its stars, Clara Khoury, won two awards from the Israel Television Academy for her performance in the series, Arab Labor.
The other films nominated in this category are "The Secret Agent from Brazil," "Sentimental Value from Norway," "Sirat from Spain," and "It Was Just an Accident" from France. However, It Was Just an Accident was directed by Jafar Panahi, an Iranian director who has faced years of persecution by the government there and has fled the country, and it has French co-producers, so France selected it as its official entry.
The Oscars will be awarded in a ceremony in Los Angeles on March 15.