Israeli Filmmakers Weigh Hopes and Fears Ahead of Tuesday's Election

Israel's film community is heading into Tuesday's general election, on 27 October, with a list of worries about how the government treats films. Director Tom Shoval was among the cinema professionals who spoke to Deadline about what the vote could mean for their work.

The main flashpoint is funding. Culture Minister Miki Zohar moved to block public money for films critical of Israel, Deadline reported. The same report says Zohar moved to defund the national Ophir Film Awards after The Sea won the top prize in 2025.

The Ophir prizes matter beyond Israel. The Best Film winner automatically becomes Israel's submission for the Oscar for Best International Feature Film. The Sea is about a Palestinian boy living under occupation in the West Bank, and it is the country's entry in the 98th Academy Awards.

Another dispute centres on NAZA, a documentary by Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor that examines military operations in Gaza. According to Deadline, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Zohar threatened to strip both directors of Israeli citizenship over the film. Netanyahu has been prime minister in several stretches, from 1996 to 1999, 2009 to 2021, and again from 2022, adding up to about 19 years.

The country's film sector has a history with the Netanyahu story too. Alexis Bloom directed Bibi, a documentary about Netanyahu, and it has never been shown in Israel.

The election itself will fill all 120 seats in the 26th Knesset, the national parliament. A party needs at least 3.25% of the vote to win any seats, and 61 seats make a majority, according to CNN and CNBC. Recent polls, CNBC reported, show neither Netanyahu's bloc nor the main opposition bloc reaching 61.

Betting markets have their own view. Polymarket, a prediction market where people trade on outcomes, showed close to 60% on Eisenkot becoming the next prime minister, against 27% for Netanyahu, Reuters reported. Those odds are a market price, not a result. Reuters also reported that Likud, Netanyahu's party, has lost popularity during the campaign.

Voters are also crossing oceans. New York rabbi Josh Weinberg was among the overseas Israelis flying home to vote, Reuters reported.

For the film people quoted by Deadline, the election is a question about the rules that decide which stories get money, prizes and screens. Whether those rules change will depend on who forms the next government, and the count on Tuesday will not settle that on its own.