An still image from the award winning film, "The Sea" From The Israeli Film Foundation

Israel’s minister of culture has vowed to cut funding for the country’s film academy and its annual awards show after a movie about a Palestinian boy’s dream of seeing the ocean won big.

On Tuesday night in Tel Aviv, the Israeli Academy of Film and Television awarded the 2025 Best Picture award to “The Sea” at the Ophir Awards, known as the “Israeli Oscars.”

The film, directed and written by Shai Carmeli Pollak and produced by Baher Agbariya, follows a young boy’s road trip from his home of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank to the coastal city of Tel Aviv.

It is now slated to represent Israel at the Oscars in the category of best foreign film.

“The Sea” also won four other awards, including best

See Full Page