Jerusalem Film Festival Winners: Netalie Braun’s Israeli Anti-War Movie ‘Oxygen’ Takes Top Prize, ‘The Secret Agent’ Nabs Best International Film Award

Netalie Braun’s anti-war film “Oxygen” took the top prize at the 42nd Jerusalem Film Festival which kicked off on July 17 with an honorary tribute to Gal Gadot.

“Oxygen” stars Dana Ivgy (“Zero Motivation”) has Anat, a mother who sets out on a perilous journey to bring her soldier son home after learning that he’s been deployed on the front lines.

The long-gestated movie, which was developed at the Sam Spiegel Lab, won the Haggiag Award for best feature from a jury comprising Israeli director-actor Menashe Noy; Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival founder Tiina Lokk and filmmaker Julie Shles

The jury praised “Oxygen” for its “radical reading of Israeli existence centered on a mother who boldly chooses to stop being a victim of the Israeli ethos, no matter the cost,” and presents Israeli society “from a new perspective, giving an almost biblical dimension to the story of a mother facing the sacrifice of her son.”

The best director award went to U.S.-trained Hungarian helmer Bálint Szimler for his school drama “Lesson Learned,” while the honorable mention was given to Shai Carmeli-Pollak’s “The Sea,” a drama about a Palestinian boy who sneaks into Israel to visit the sea for the first time after being denied entry by Israeli authorities.

An Honorable Mention went to “The Sea,” directed by Shai Carmeli-Pollak, about a Palestinian boy who sneaks into Tel Aviv to go to the beach for the first time, as his father frantically searches for him.

The jury said the film was a “poetic journey that manages to capture the nuances of our harsh reality and conveys the dissonance within the experience of Israel’s impossible labyrinths of occupation, military, and police.”

Eti Tsicko’s “Nandauri,” meanwhile, won best best Israeli debut feature. The film tells the story an Israeli lawyer (Neta Riskin) born in Georgia who returns her homeland to help a client which revives her childhood traumas.

The script nod was awarded to Mihal Brezis, Oded Binnun, Tom Shoval, and Amital Stern for “Dead Language,” which expands on the Oscar-nominated short film Aya. The film stars Sarah Adler (“Foxtrot,” “The Taste of Things”) as Aya, a young woman waiting for her husband at an airport who ends up picking up a complete stranger instead and gets impulsively close to him.

Brazilian director Kleber Mendonça Filho’s political thriller “The Secret Agent” won best international film from a jury comprising producer U.S. producer Lawrence Bender, German filmmakers Matthias Glasner and Julia von Heinz. “The Secret Agent” previously won several prizes at Cannes Film Festival including best director and actor for Wagner Moura.