The Sea is a drama that follows a 12-year-old Palestinian from the West Bank who risks his life to reach the beach for the first time in Tel Aviv. The film is antiwar; it was directed by the left-wing Israeli filmmaker Shai Carmeli Pollak and produced by Palestinian Baher Agbariya. The Arabic-language production was selected on Thursday, September 18, as Israel’s candidate for Best International Feature Film at the 2026 Oscars by the Israeli Academy of Film and Television.
This film deeply displeased the government of Benjamin Netanyahu. The Sea won an Ophir Award, the “Israeli Oscars,” much to the dismay of Israeli Culture Minister Miki Zohar. “After the pro-Palestinian film The Seawhich defames our heroic soldiers as they fight to protect us, won Best Film at the shameful 2025 Ophir Awards ceremony, I have decided to end the funding of the ceremony with Israeli citizens’ money,” Zohar posted on the social network X.