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DOCAVIV 2020 Awards

Love It Was Not triumphs at Docaviv

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- Maya Sarfaty's film won in the Israeli competition while Collective was crowned Best International Film. Other winners include Tokyo Ride, Aswang, The War of Raya Sinitsina and No Hard Feelings

Love It Was Not triumphs at Docaviv
Docaviv drive-in (© Vladimir Tsimbouh)

The 22nd edition of the Tel Aviv International Documentary Film Festival Docaviv, which is taking place online and in the Israeli capital 3-12 September, announced its awards on Wednesday night.

Love It Was Not [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
by Maya Sarfaty, which had its world premiere at the festival, was awarded the festival’s top award, the Frank Lowy Award for the Best Israeli Film, worth €17,400 (ILS 70,000). On top of that, because Docaviv is an Academy Award-qualifying festival, the film will also receive a marketing grant of €24,900 for its Oscar campaign.

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The Yossi Kaufmann Award for Best Director, worth €6,200 and provided by the Makor Foundation for Israeli Films, went to Efim Graboy for The War of Raya Sinitsina [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
, as well as the Best Cinematography Award of €1,500 from KAN - Israeli Public Broadcast Corporation, which Graboy shares with co-cinematographer Daniel Binsted.

The Special Jury Award, worth €2,500 and coming from the Harel Insurance Investments and Financial Services, was given to Arthur Abramov for No Hard Feelings.

Ron Omer received the €7,500 prize for Best Debut Film from the Mayor of Tel Aviv-Yafo for his documentary Rain in Her Eyes.

The Best Editing Award, worth €1,500 and coming from KAN - IPBC, went to Tor Ben Mayor for his work on The Three Yossi, co-written, directed and produced by Yael Kipper and Ronen Zaretzky.

Mor Loushy received the Research Award in the same amount and from the same source for her film Kings of Capitol Hill [+see also:
film review
film profile
]
.

Meanwhile, Alexander Nanau’s Collective [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
won the Best International Film Award worth €5,000, courtesy of the Ministry of Culture and Sport and the Israeli Film Council. An honourable mention went to Benjamin Ree's The Painter and the Thief [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Benjamin Ree
film profile
]
.

The French production Tokyo Ride [+see also:
film review
film profile
]
by Louise Lemoine and Ila Bêka, which world-premiered at the festival, triumphed in the Depth of Field competition, receiving the €2,500 Artistic Vision Award from the Ministry of Culture and Sport and the Israeli Film Council. An honourable mention went to Sergei Loznitsa's State Funeral [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
.

The Beyond the Screen Award, coming from the same funders and worth €1,250, went to Alyx Ayn Arumpac's Aswang [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
.

While the festival started on a sad note, with the passing of Docaviv's legendary founder, filmmaker Ilana Sur, on the opening day, the event has been a success with 45,000 tickets to online screenings sold by Wednesday night, as well as the four drive-in screenings. For this reason, organisers have decided to extend the festival with a selection of films until the end of the month. The list of films which will be available will be announced on the festival’s website on Sunday, 13 September.

Here is the full list of Docaviv winners:

Israeli Competition

The Frank Lowy Award for the Best Israeli Film
Love It Was Not [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
- Maya Sarfaty (Israel/Austria)

The Yossi Kaufmann Award for Best Director
Efim Graboy - The War of Raya Sinitsina [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
(Israel)

Special Jury Award
No Hard Feelings - Arthur Abramov (Israel)

The Mayor of Tel Aviv-Yafo Award for Best Debut Film
Rain in Her Eyes - Ron Omer (Israel)

Best Cinematography Award
Efim Graboy and Daniel Binsted - The War of Raya Sinitsina

Best Editing Award
Tor Ben Mayor - The Three Yossi (Israel)

Research Award
Mor Loushy for Kings of Capitol Hill [+see also:
film review
film profile
]
(Israel/USA)

International Competition

Best International Film
Collective [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
- Alexander Nanau (Romania/Luxembourg)

Honourable Mention
The Painter and the Thief [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Benjamin Ree
film profile
]
- Benjamin Ree (Norway)

Depth of Field Competition

Artistic Vision Award
Tokyo Ride [+see also:
film review
film profile
]
- Louise Lemoine, Ila Bêka (France)

Honourable mention
State Funeral [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
- Sergei Loznitsa (Netherlands/Lithuania)

Beyond the Screen Award
Aswang [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
- Alyx Ayn Arumpac (Philippines/France/Norway/Qatar/Germany)

Shorts Competition

Best Short Film Award
Huntsville Station - Chris Filippone and Jamie Meltzer (USA)

Honourable mention
Horst - Miki Polonski (Israel)

NEXT! Award for Innovative Projects
99.7% - by Einat Weizman and Emi Sfard (Israel)

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