Israeli director Alma Harel won the premiere film at the American Directors Guild Awards • The award was given to the film "Honey Boy" based on the life of actor Xia Le Baff

• Alma Harel and the prize

  Photo:

  AFP

Israeli director Alma Harel won an award in the premiere film category at the Director's Guild Awards ceremony, which took place on Thursday night in Los Angeles.

Harel, 44, received the award for her first feature film, "The Boy", an autobiographical film written by actor Xia Le Baf about growing up in a mentally abusive father. Le Baf even portrays his father in the film. The film premiered a year ago at the Sundance Festival and was purchased for distribution by content provider Amazon. Although buzzed positively around him, he did not screw up in the list of candidates at the big ceremonies of the current awards season.

The award for Harel came just at a time when the burning issue is the lack of representation of female directors in nominations in the current ceremonial season and in the American film industry in general. Director of the Guild Awards Awards, Judd Uptao, stubbornly said: "I'm sorry to say that no woman is nominated in the main category of the good movie. Apparently women are only capable of directing female films like 'The Charge of Pain' (in a wink to Catherine Bigelow's film, The Only Woman Who won an Oscar in the directorial category a decade ago).

Harel admitted to a speech to documentaryist Jessica Dimock, who has raised a painful problem for Hollywood over the past few days, after losing her medical insurance due to maternity leave that did not allow her to complete the required annual working quota as a member of the director's guild. "She began the campaign to bring about the end of the parenting punishment policy, allowing mothers to spend a longer period of time completing the annual minimum they are required after giving birth," Harel said. She added that the issue must come up for discussion "so that parents can bring the next generation of filmmakers and viewers."

Harel, who was a glowing nightlife girl in Tel Aviv, began her career as a director of clips. She came to the United States in the wake of love: director Boaz Yachin ("retired"), an American and a son of Israeli parents, who was her partner from 2004 to 2012. In 2011, Harel's first documentary, "Bombay Beach," was praised, and in 2016 released another documentary "LoveTrue".

"Honey Boy" is Harel's first feature film. Her relationship with Le Baff began in 2012 when he filmed a clip of the Icelandic rock composition Cigar Ross she directed. LaBuff also funded and was a partner in the production of "LoveTrue". He wrote the script for "Honey Boy" when he was in a rehab center and then sent it to Harel.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter last year, Harel said, "There is a perception that women in directors can direct movies only on issues related to women. It was a challenge to stand up and say, 'No, I'm actually going to direct a movie about a little boy and his father, but I'll present things in a way "It may be different from the way a man would direct it. If you want to change things, you have to stop seeing everything from a binary perspective."

Apart from Harel, the big winner of the Director's Guild Awards was the movie "1917", which continues to leap forward in the Oscar race. In his speech, British director Sam Mendes honored the other four directors in the category, dedicating the award to his little daughter.

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