SOMETHING IN THE “WATER” FOR AUDIENCE AWARDS
At 15TH Anniversary Washington Jewish Film Festival

The 15th Washington Jewish Film Festival: An Exhibition of International Cinema revealed the winners of its Audience Awards for Best Feature, Best Documentary and Best Short film. As luck would have it, the three winners are all Israeli films. Coincidences continue, as two of the films have the word “water” in their titles.

Best Feature -- Walk on Water
(Director: Eytan Fox, Israel)
www.walkonwatermovie.com

Best Documentary -- Watermarks
(Director: Yaron Zilberman, Israel)
www.kino.com

Best Short -- Sliding Flora
(Director: Talya Lavie, Israel)
www.ruthfilms.com

All three films were screened in the Aaron and Cecile Goldman Theater at the Washington DC Jewish Community Center (1529 16th Street NW). Two of the winning filmmakers, Eytan Fox and Yaron Zilberman, were in attendance at their screenings. The Washington Jewish Film Festival will present Fox, Zilberman and Talya Lavie each with an original glass sculpture etched with the title of the film and the filmmaker’s name.


WALK ON WATER (Israel, 2004, 35 mm, 104 minutes, English, Hebrew & German w/English subtitles, Director: Eytan Fox) is the story of Eyal, an emotionally fragile Mossad hit-man, assigned to shadow Axel, a young German whose grandfather is a notorious Nazi war criminal who has eluded justice. Posing as a tour guide, Eyal shepherds Axel around Israel when he comes to visit his kibbutznik sister. Although Eyal at first resists what he considers a boring assignment, he soon warms up to Axel's bright enthusiasm and intellect, even overcoming his own homophobia when he realizes Axel is gay. When the action shifts to Berlin and the prospect of discovering Axel's grandfather, the film becomes a taut emotional thriller. Director Eytan Fox (Florentene and Yossi and Jagger) once again shows he is a master at presenting characters crossing social and cultural chasms whether they be gay, straight, men, women, Jewish or German.

AWARDS:
Three time award winner for Best Music; Best Music, Original Song; and
Best Sound, Israeli Film Academy 2004.
Nominated in the following categories: Best Film; Best Actor; Best Director;
Best Screenplay; Best Cinematography; Best Editing,
Israeli Film Academy 2004.


WATERMARKS (Israel, 2004, 35 mm, 80 minutes, English & Hebrew w/English subtitles, Director: Yaron Zilberman) is the story of the champion women swimmers of the legendary Jewish sports club, Hakoah Vienna. Hakoah ("Strength" in Hebrew) was founded in 1909 in response to the notorious Aryan Paragraph, which forbade Austrian sports clubs from accepting Jewish athletes. Its founders were eager to popularize sport among a community renowned for such great minds as Freud, Mahler and Zweig, but traditionally alien to physical recreation. Hakoah rapidly grew into one of Europe's biggest athletic clubs, while achieving astonishing success in many diverse sports. In the 1930s Hakoah's best-known triumphs came from its women swimmers, who dominated national competitions in Austria. After the Anschluss, in 1938, the Nazis shut down the club, but the swimmers all managed to flee the country before the war broke out, thanks to an escape operation. Sixty-five years later, director Yaron Zilberman meets the members of the swimming team in their homes around the world, and arranges for them to have a reunion in their old swimming pool in Vienna.

AWARDS:
Best Cinematography for a Documentary, Jerusalem Film Festival 2004
Winner of the Reader Jury of the “Standard” – Honorable Mention for
Yaron Zilberman, Viennale 2004

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15th WJFF AUDIENCE AWARDS
Page Three


SLIDING FLORA (Israel, 2003, 16mm, 10 minutes, Hebrew w/English subtitles, Director: Talya Lavie) is a product of The Sam Spiegel Film and Television School in Jerusalem. The film was screened in the WJFF as part of a shorts program entitled “Love, Briefly: Six Short Films On The Only Topic That Matters.”
Flora was born in a field, at least that is what she tells everyone. She’s a waitress in a Café that requires an unusual skills of its workers: complex acrobatic proficiency. When all seems very wrong, despair dominant and dismissal probable, Flora has no choice but to save herself using her superb verbal and dramatic talents.
AWARD:
Special Mention, Haifa International Film Festival 2003

This year’s 15th Anniversary Washington Jewish Film Festival presented 36 features, documentaries and shorts from 14 countries, in six venues, during the December 2 – 12, ten-day Festival. More than 5,000 people attended this year’s International Film Festival.

The Fest kicked off with the DC Premiere of Daniel Burman’s Lost Embrace – the Official Argentinean Submission for the Best Foreign Film Oscar. The Fest closed with the DC Premiere of Modigliani, starring Andy Garcia. Screening and reception were held at the Embassy of France, with special guests: Director Mick Davis and Singer Keedie, who wowed the audience with her operatic voice as she sang the title song from the film.