Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
The Schmooze

‘Unorthodox’ stars Shira Haas and Amit Rahav win big at Independent Spirit Awards

Israeli cinema darling Shira Haas continued her international ascent this week, scooping up a top prize at the Independent Spirit Awards.

The “Unorthodox” star was awarded Best Female Performance in a Scripted Series, with her co-star Amit Rahav winning the same prize in the category for male actors. This is just the latest in a series of international accolades for the Netflix series: “Unorthodox” received eight Emmy nominations, and director Maria Schrader ultimately snagged an award for her work.

Founded in 1984, the Independent Spirit Awards are intended to honor work typically snubbed by larger awards shows. But they’ve lately come to act as a barometer for the Oscars: Top prizes for Chloé Zhao’s “Nomadland” seemed to confirm that the film would do well at the Academy Awards this Sunday, while Carey Mulligan’s win as the best female film lead established her as a potential upset in the upcoming competition for Best Actress.

When the Emmy nominations were announced, Haas and Rahav went viral for their adorably down-to-earth reactions. In their social media presence ahead of this awards show, we can already see their transformation from newcomers-next-door to polished main acts. As has become customary during awards shows in the pandemic era, both stars donned designer gear and posed for glamour shots at home: Haas lounged on her balcony in a 50s-chic Miu Miu dress while Rahav thanked “my Dior family” for dressing him.

But as the night went on, we got a little reprieve from the movie-star script. After the ceremony finished, Rahav shared a video of himself receiving the award from a desk outfitted in the now-ubiquitous work-from-home style. “Never going to sleep again,” he captioned the post.

Haas didn’t say much about her win. She’s probably too busy preparing for her next unlikely transformation — she’s set to appear in the upcoming miniseries “Lioness” as Israeli prime minister Golda Meir.

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

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

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 credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link 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.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.