Eran Kolirin's Let It Be Morning wins big at the Ophir Awards

• Author: HANNAH BROWN
• Published date: 05 October 2021
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

The movie will now go on to be Israel's official submission for consideration for one of five Best International Feature Oscar nominations (in a category formerly known as Best Foreign Language Film). Every country can submit one film and it is usually the winner of the Best Picture at each country's national awards ceremony.

Kolirin also won the awards for Best Director and Best Screenplay. The movie tells the story of an Arab living in Jerusalem who goes back to his home village for a wedding and gets trapped there when the IDF seals off the village to search for West Bank residents who are there illegally. It is based on a novel by Sayed Kashua.

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Let It Be Morning also won the awards for Alex Bakri for Best Actor in the lead role, Juna Suleiman for Best Actress in the role of his wife and Best Supporting Actor for Ehab Elias Salami, who plays a cab driver in the village victimized by gangsters. Best Supporting Actress went to Reymonde Amsellem for The House on Fin Street, a movie about a young woman lured into working as a prostitute.

Eran Kolirin's 2007 movie, The Band's Visit, won the Ophir Award for Best Picture and went on to worldwide success, even inspiring a Tony Award-winning Broadway show. However, it was not Israel's official submission for the Oscar, since it was disqualified because too much of the dialogue was in English. The Academy chose Joseph Cedar's Beaufort to represent Israel that year and it received an Oscar nomination.

Gidi Dar's Legend of Destruction, the story of the destruction of the Second Temple told through a series of paintings, won awards for Best Music, Best Art Design, Best Editing and Best Sound Design.

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