And the Oscar Didn’t Go to ‘Bashir’
The Israeli film “Waltz With Bashir” — Ari Folman’s animated documentary about the 1982 Lebanon War — was favored to win the Oscar for best foreign language film. But it was beat out for the award Sunday by the Japanese contender “Departures,” about an unemployed classical musician who takes a job in a mortuary.
And so Israel’s Oscar scorecard remains: 8 nominations over 44 years, 0 wins.
In other Oscar news, the reported email campaign against awarding Kate Winslet the best leading actress Oscar for her role in the Holocaust film “The Reader” apparently didn’t work.
In Slate, the critic Ron Rosenbaum recently called “The Reader” a film “that asks us to empathize with an unrepentant mass murderer” and deemed it the “Worst Holocaust Film Ever Made.”
But Winslet beat out Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Angelina Jolie, and Melissa Leo in the category for her portrayal of an illiterate Nazi war criminal, responsible for the deaths of 300 women.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Most Popular
- 1
Fast Forward Ye debuts ‘Heil Hitler’ music video that includes a sample of a Hitler speech
- 2
Opinion It looks like Israel totally underestimated Trump
- 3
Culture Cardinals are Catholic, not Jewish — so why do they all wear yarmulkes?
- 4
Fast Forward Student suspended for ‘F— the Jews’ video defends himself on antisemitic podcast
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward In first Sunday address, Pope Leo XIV calls for ceasefire in Gaza, release of hostages
-
Fast Forward Huckabee denies rift between Netanyahu and Trump as US actions in Middle East appear to leave out Israel
-
Fast Forward Federal security grants to synagogues are resuming after two-month Trump freeze
-
Fast Forward NY state budget weakens yeshiva oversight in blow to secular education advocates
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.