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A few minutes ago, Israeli filmmaker Ari Folman lost his bid for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Hebrew speaking Waltz With Bashir, an animated documentary film, or documation, was Israel’s eighth nomination in this category and while everybody here hoped it would be Israel’s first win -- unfortunately that was not in the cards tonight. Previous Israeli nominees include:

Foreign Language Film Nominations:

Sallah (Sallah Shabati, 1964)
The Policeman (HaShoter Azoulay, 1971)
I Love You Rosa (Ani Ohev Otach Rosa, 1972)
The House on Chelouche Street (HaBayit Berechov Chelouche, 1973)
Operation Thunderbolt (Mivtsa Yonatan, 1977)
Beyond the Walls (MeAhorei HaSoragim, 1984)
Beaufort (2007)

Documentary Feature Nomination:

The 81st Blow (HaMakah Hashmonim V’Echad‎, 1974)

Best Actor Nomination:

Chaim Topol (as Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof‎, 1971)

Here is Ari Folman sitting at a bar, drowning his sorrows, apparently holding someone else’s Oscar statuette (…yes, I manipulated the photo in advance):

More on this on your mainstream media.

After winning numerous awards including a Golden Globe, Ari Folman’s documation ‘Waltz with Bashir’ has been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Minutes ago, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has made its announcement for the 81st Academy Awards ceremony, that will be held exactly one month from today, on February 22, 2009, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, California.

While it would have been nice to get the very first Oscar for an Israeli film, Joseph Cedar’s Beaufort was not Oscar material in my book.

Here is Cedar making his good-for-you-face to Austrian winner Stefan Ruzowitzky for Die Fälscher (The Counterfeiters):

More info on your mainstream media.

With all the excitement of an Israeli film nominated for an Academy Award for the first time in twenty years, I did not pay enough attention to the Documentary Feature category:
Three out of five films nominated deal directly with the Iraqi conflict, including ‘No End in Sight‘, which I wrote about in a post titled ‘Watch This Film and Become a Better Citizen of the World in 90 Minutes‘. If you were not persuaded to follow my advice then, with an Oscar nomination you really have no excuse now.

Watch the No End in Sight trailer here:

The 80th Academy Awards telecast, hosted by Jon Stewart (Leibowitz), will be broadcasted live:
USA -- February 24th, 5PT/8ET, ABC
Israel -- February 25th, 3am, Hot Gold (channel 12)