Israel’s submission for the Academy Award for Best International Feature has ignited a political fight at home after The Sea, a drama about a Palestinian boy who tries to reach the Mediterranean, won Israel’s top film prize this week and automatically moved forward as the country’s Oscar entry.
Within hours of the Ophir Awards ceremony, Culture Minister Miki Zohar said he would strip government funding from the awards starting with the next budget cycle, arguing that public money should not support a film he claimed insults Israeli soldiers. The Israeli Film Academy defended the result as a merit-based decision that reflects artistic freedom.
The film, written and directed by Shai Carmeli-Pollak and produced by Baher Agbariya, is primarily in Arabic and follows a 12-year-old from the West Bank who slips into Israel to see the sea for the first time. At the ceremony it won multiple prizes, including screenplay and original music, while 13-year-old lead actor Muhammad Gazawi became the youngest performer to win the Ophir best actor award; veteran Khalifa Natour won supporting actor. By longstanding practice, Israel’s best picture winner becomes its Oscar submission.
Zohar’s move drew immediate pushback from civil society groups and film professionals who questioned whether the ministry has authority to defund an independent academy and warned of chilling effects on filmmakers who tackle sensitive subjects. Advocates for the film said the story is a modest character piece made by an Israeli director with Palestinian-Israeli performers, and that politicizing its success risks further isolating the local industry. The debate arrives amid broader calls for boycotts of Israeli cultural institutions and counter-campaigns by artists who argue that engagement and co-productions foster dialogue.
The selection places The Sea into a global race that typically favors festival standouts and films with clear U.S. distribution plans. Israel has earned 10 nominations in the category but has never won, a record cited by supporters who see international attention as an opportunity for nuanced stories from the region. The Academy’s process now moves to the screening phase ahead of the December shortlist, while the dispute in Israel continues over how public funds should interact with politically charged art.
