TLVFest Winners 2025
Best International Features
Best Film Award:
The award goes to the Croatian film “Beautiful Evening, Beautiful Day” for an exciting, mature and daring cinematic work. The gentle and sincere acting, the spectacular cinematography and the artistic use of lighting and black and white create a powerful sensory and emotional experience. Director Ivona Joka, with rare courage, presents love and passion between men in a pure and respectful manner, reminding us all of the ongoing struggle for freedom, identity and love.
Honorable Mention:
Marco Berger’s film “Perro Perro” is honored for its bold creativity, unique approach to nudity and sexuality, and exceptional acting by Juan Ramos in the lead role. Berger manages, with limited resources, to create a satirical social statement, full of humor and charm, that challenges conventions and offers a new perspective on the body, desire, and freedom.
Documentary Competition
Best Documentary:
Using the relationship between the director and his partner as a litmus test for the current climate and situation, “My boyfriend El Fascista” manages to create a microcosm of social and political polarization. The film raises questions about our ability as a society to hold onto differences while demonstrating mesmerizing cinematic abilities. The distance the director takes from the camera, to document the couple’s shared life, the authenticity and the lack of middle ground allow one to fall in love with the protagonists. “My boyfriend El Fascista” is proof that the two extremes – between Cuba and Italy and between freedom and dictatorship – are very close to each other.
Honorable Mention:
Against the backdrop of the magical landscapes of Bolivia, an odyssey of a tormented man takes place, trying to free himself from the shackles of the conservative and closed society from which he came. The attention and sensitivity of Nicola, the protagonist, to the sourdough bread, the growing ferns, and the relationships – both old and new – constitute a man’s journey to his true being, to be himself. And all this with awareness, great love, and respect for his children, his ex-wife, and his extended family.
International Shorts
Best International Short:
Can compassion exist in a class-based, cruel, and masculine world?
A cinematic creation that is hard to take your eyes off, that triumphs in all parameters with masterful craftsmanship.
A cinematic language that shakes the stomach and creates, together with a strong theme, a unified whole that surpasses the sum of its parts in a utopian way.
Honorable Mention:
A formalist film that impressively enlists the photo-novel genre to tell the story of trans women in 1950s Singapore. It is a voice that needs to be heard, in which the personal is charged with a broad collective meaning. Memory is frozen in time, and the present can no longer contain it – it exists only through the poetic images of the past.
Israeli Shorts
Best Israeli Short Film:
We chose to give Nothing, Maybe the top prize because of its deft ability to quickly and subtly balance multiple layers of powerful and poignant political and social commentary, strong performances, tight writing, and engaging, effective cinematography and editing while covering a subject rarely addressed in queer culture. We were taken with the film at first viewing and it never left our thoughts. Daniel Gat’s directing is strong and the cast is quite compelling.
Honorable Mention:
In just six minutes, director/writer Adam Michael Reider (along with his co-writer Noy Blacha and cast) deliver a fresh, clever, funny, timely, creative, yet simple, well-executed, highly entertaining yet insightful gem. The acting was so on point. A perfect package which shows talent to accomplish a lot with a little in terms of budget and time. We just loved it!
Youth Film Competition (films made by high school students)
Best Film:
We chose to award Best Film to “Stomachache”, directed by Hila Azulai. The film presents, with charm and intelligence, the world of a captivating protagonist. Through various techniques, the director succeeds in taking the audience on a contemporary yet deeply personal journey—one that is painful and intimate. By weaving together interconnected stories, we journeyed with the protagonist from despair to hope, and from a sense of collective heaviness to cautious optimism and faith in the power of love.
Honorable Mention:
We chose to give an Honorable Mention to the film “Why Are You So Quiet”, directed by Shahar Suissa. The film courageously reflects the protagonist’s inner world through a variety of cinematic techniques, allowing viewers to look directly at the pain of growing up and the search for self-acceptance. The director’s choice to tell his personal story is portrayed successfully on screen as a journey from childhood to adolescence, giving voice to his inner self—and for that, he deserves high praise.
Two winners will share the award – each will receive 9,000 NIS and participation in a writing workshop with Bat-El Moseri, a gift from the Tel Aviv Municipality:
Chen Shumovich – “Makes Me a Mother”
In the climate we live in, what seems like a natural right to parenthood is not one for LGBTQ+ couples in Israel. Society and the establishment still struggle to accept non-biological parenthood. The story of Mika and Shiri touched us deeply, and although it is based on the director’s personal experience, it ultimately tells everyone’s story. The excellent proposal and pitch demonstrated the potential for a film that the development grant can give a real push to—embracing it with compassion and helping it come to life.
Hanan Brandes – “Goodbye to My Cousin”
We could not remain indifferent to Hanan Brandes’s story. It is not only a personal tale of painful loss but also an exploration of Israeli masculinity in all its shades, as seen through the eyes of Uri, who sets out to make a memorial film about his cousin who fell in the war. Interview by interview, a portrait emerges of who counts as the “right kind” of Israeli man—and who is left out. All this takes place against the backdrop of the ongoing war in Gaza and a lingering national sadness. The pitch showed an intriguing cinematic voice, blending documentary and narrative styles, which we believe can greatly benefit from the festival’s development grant.
The Jury also gave honorable mentions to the other excellent submitted projects:
We unfortunately could not grant development funding to everyone, but since the proposals were so strong, we wanted to say something to each of you:
“With the Same Eyes” – Ori Lachmi
An original, powerful, and moving story that captures a profound encounter between a religious father and his gay son. Every LGBTQ+ child can relate to the yearning for recognition and closure with one’s parents. The strong characters and emotional cinematic moments stayed with us long after the pitch ended.
“Impenetrable” – Omer Harel
A brave and personal story that transforms from one about the body into one about the heart. The creator presents himself in a vivid, sensual, and painful way. We’re looking forward to the film (or the series, as you mentioned!). We can even imagine it as an outstanding web series.
“In My Sweetest Dreams” – Mor Polnohar
A touching and jaw-dropping encounter between poetry and cinema, between wounded and lost souls. Amid the intensity of Israeli reality, we feel a lack of fantastical realism films. We hope to see this original idea—stretching the boundaries between cinema, text, and identity—on the big screen.
“Cruising War” – Shai Gabso
A sexy, contemporary story with an original cinematic voice that blurs the boundaries of genre. It allows the inner feeling of dirt and unrest to rise to the surface before the story’s end.
“Lock the Door” – Sivan Noam Shimon
An important story about a silenced phenomenon within the lesbian community. We hope the creator doesn’t give up and continues her journey to bring the truth to light. We imagined the story focusing on that specific night and the two days that follow—and felt that perhaps the heart of the story lies there, not necessarily at the beginning of the shift when the encounter starts.
