Here we are, the night before Yom Kippur, and you can feel the anticipation throughout the nation. No, not for Kol Nidrei or Kapparot—for Kolnoa! The Ophir Awards just started, and Israel's top films are fighting for best picture, actor, actress. Why tonight? I don't know, maybe it's because so many Israelis make the fast pass more quickly by watching DVD's at home; there are, after all, no television broadcasts until that shofar sounds at the end of N'ila.
Well, I'm not expecting our film stars to go to midnight S'lichot (although Joseph Cedar might anyway), so that doesn't upset me. No, it's the way this ceremony is being advertised, over and over and over again: “Who's on his way to Hollywood?” or “Who will make it to the Oscars?” You see, whichever film wins Best Picture is automatically our national submission for Best Foreign Film at the American Academy for Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (I think that's the whole title), or the Oscars. Now, the a submission doesn't mean a nomination; in fact, it's been more than two decades since an Israeli film got got that far. It just allows for the possibility.
Still, that seems to be the marketing technique: see what might make it to the Oscars, America, the Goldeneh Medineh! The other awards besides Best Picture are apparently just filler, because only the whiff of an Oscar is what counts. Why are we still playing this game? Why are we still running after foreign accolades? Whether we need an Israeli film industry at all is a separate question, but since we do have one, can't we dedicate one night to celebrating our own accomplishments? Can't we just be proud of our best?
As long as we have this hang-up, films that have something profound to say about Israeli society will be few and far between. For that matter, this pathology will continue to affect everything we do, from art to politics to science. Sure, it would be great to see an Israeli on the red carpet, but if a shofar sounds in the forest and no American hears it, doesn't it still make a sound?
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