Who’s Gonna Love Me Now?, a documentary exploring gay identity in today’s Israel, has won the inaugural $25,000 prize for best feature film or documentary at the 2016 Australia Israel Cultural Exchange (AICE) Israeli Film Festival.
The award was added this year to the festival, held recently in Sydney and Melbourne, and is designed to foster exceptional talent inside the Israeli film industry.
The story of Saar Maoz, an openly gay man and his efforts to reconcile his sexuality with his Orthodox Jewish family, Who’s Gonna Love Me Now? had already won people’s choice awards at the Berlin Film Festival, where it premiered in February this year, and at the Krakow International Film Festival.
The documentary tells the intensely personal story of 40-year-old Saar, who has never fulfilled his parents’ expectations. Ever since he defied the rules of his kibbutz and was barred from the settlement community 17 years ago, he had simply ceased to exist, as far as his family was concerned.
Read the full article by Alan Hartstein at Plus61J.