The awards of the 36th Jerusalem Film Festival were announced at a ceremony at the Jerusalem Cinematheque on Thursday night and the winner of the Haggiag Competition for Best Israeli Feature Film was Yaron Shani's Love Trilogy: Chained, about a policeman who struggles after his wife leaves him, with tragic consequences. Chained also won the Audience Award and the Best Actor Award for its star, Eran Naim. The GFWW Award for Best First Feature went to Born in Jerusalem and Still Alive by Yossi Atia and David Ofek, a black comedy about a man who copes with his fear of terrorism by becoming a guide to sites of terror attacks in Jerusalem. The Van Leer Award for Best Full-Length Israeli Documentary went to One Hundred Percent by Yael Kipper and Ron Zaretsky. It tells the story of Beit Jann, a Druze village that has the highest percentage of high-school graduates in Israel. The Van Leer Award for Best Documentary Director went to Ariel Semmel for Parano, about a man overcoming demons to understand himself better. The Jerusalem Foundation Award for Best International Film went to Ladj Ly's Les Miserables, a French film about a police unit in a high-crime area and the war between the cops and locals. The awards in the In the Spirit of Freedom in Memory of Wim van Leer category went to Kirill Mikhanovsky's Give Me Liberty (the Cummings Award for Best Feature Film) and Luke Lorentzen's Midnight Family (the MKR Award for Best Documentary). The Lia Award in Honor of Lia van Leer for Films Dealing with Jewish Heritage went to M by Yolande Zauberman and the Avner Shalev—Yad Vashem Chairman's Award for Artistic Achievement in Holocaust-related Film went to Heimat is a Space in Time by Thomas Heise. In the Pitchpoint Competition, the Jerusalem Foundation Prize went to Mihal Brezis and Oded Binnun for Dead Language. Grocery by Yuval Shani won the Nechama Rivlin Prize for a Director at the Beginning of Their Career, which was provided by the Jerusalem Foundation. Maya Dreifuss won the The Wouter Barendrecht—Lia van Leer Award for The Ruler Road. The festival continues at the Jerusalem Cinematheque and other venues throughout the city until August 4.
