The Oscars are the most exciting show of the year, and this 91st Academy Awards was no exception. From last year Ellen DeGeneres’ memorable selfie to this year’s emotional duo of “Shallow” from the movie A Star Is Born, the show has many moving moments. But for the Israeli audience this year’s award show held a special proud moment Israeli director Guy Nattiv won the Oscar for the best live action short film.
The last and only time until last week, that an Israeli director won the Oscar was in 1979 , director Moshe Mizrahi for Best Foreign Film.
Overjoyed Nattiv took to the stage and began his speech "I moved here five years ago from Israel," and quickly added "Goodnight Israel!" in Hebrew ("Leila Tov Israel").
Guy Nativ, the Israeli winner could not hide his satisfaction and surprise, as did his wife, actress Jamie Ray Newman, with her mouth agape proud and amazed. They ran on the stage and were accompanied by Sharon Maymon, the film’s co-writer, who was reporting live on his phone from the main podium. He confided to Ynet and said that a year ago, he sent Nattiv a message saying "I have an idea for a movie that will get us to the Oscars."
These three congratulated by Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin who tweeted “Congratulations to Guy Nattiv on winning Best Live Action Short at tonight’s Academy Awards. Dear Guy, all credit for 'SKIN' goes to you, Sharon and Jaime Ray, but the movie is a gift to our children and grandchildren and for the future we wish for them. Proud to be Israeli! Mazal Tov!"
The movie “Skin” a 20 min short film, which stars Jonathan Tucker, Danielle Macdonald and Jackson Robert Scott, recounts the story of two children, a white and a black kid and their point of view on a hate crime. “This film is about education; it's about teaching your kids a better way." The Oscar winner said.
The American audience will be able to watch the feature-length version of Skin by this summer as it will hit theaters in the US according to Nattiv and Newman, recounted during an interview in a press room after the Academy Awards. We cross our fingers that European distributers will also take the opportunity and bring this award winning film to European film lovers.