Israeli and Jewish-Themed Films Nominated for Oscars
Three Jewish-themed films and an Israeli film are in the running for Academy Awards.
“Inglourious Basterds,” a Jewish revenge fantasy in which a squad of Jewish GIs wipes out the Nazi leadership, won nominations for best picture, directing and writing for Quentin Tarantino, best supporting actor for Christoph Waltz, and best cinematography for Robert Richardson.
The two other Jewish-themed pictures that received best picture nominations – “An Education,” from Britain, and “A Serious Man” – have won high critical acclaim for their artistry, but also a few lemons for perceived gratuitous anti-Semitism. “A Serious Man” also was awarded writing and directing nominations for brothers Joel and Ethan Coen.
Jason Reitman received a directing nomination for the popular hit “Up In the Air.”
Another directing nomination went to Michael Haneke for the German entry “The White Ribbon.” The story revolves around a seemingly placid German village in 1914, but whose rigid class structure and authoritarianism holds the seed of the Nazi era to come.
Meanwhile, “Ajami” became the third Israeli entry in consecutive years to be nominated as top foreign-language film.
“Ajami” paints an unsparing picture of Arab-Jewish and intra-Arab tensions in a mixed quarter of Jaffa. Its co-directors are two young Israelis, Scandar Copti, a Christian Arab, and Yaron Shani, who is Jewish.
Along with “Ajami” and “The White Ribbon,” the other nominees for best foreign film are “El Secreto de Sus Ojos,” from Argentina; “A Prophet,” from France; and “The Milk of Sorrow,” from Peru.
The Oscar winners will be announced March 7 in Los Angeles.
Read all of the Forward’s coverage of these Oscar nominated movies, including reviews and interviews with Nick Hornby and Quentin Tarantino, here.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
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..
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO