The boycott is breaking — now we must see it through

A new playbook for breaking the international boycott of Israeli cinema, built from what it just took to get one film seen.

In his recent piece for eJewishPhilanthropy, “Beyond Making Films: The Next Challenge for Israeli Cinema” (Aug. 4), Isaac Zablocki described what he heard from Israeli filmmakers at this year’s Jerusalem Film Festival: the hardest part of telling an Israeli story is no longer raising the money. It’s getting the film seen.

That’s true. And I want to share what it took, just recently, to make sure one of those stories reached an audience, a story I’ve watched closely, because my own organization helped tell it.

Avi Nesher’s new film, “Our Loves,” was chosen for the Centerpiece section at the Toronto International Film Festival, one of the most respected stages in the world. The film tells the story of seven people whose lives unravel on Oct. 6, 2023, only to be shattered again the next day. It is an Israeli story in every sense, told in Hebrew, about Israelis, created by Israelis. For the past two years, that alone has been enough to keep films like this from being seen beyond our borders.

The film was produced by SIPUR and United King Films, two of Israel’s leading production companies, alongside Artomas Communications and Zoa Films. Moriah Media, the storytelling arm of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, which I lead, joined as one of the film’s executive producers. We didn’t join purely from a commercial lense, we joined because it was our mission. These are the stories we exist to help tell. Watching this film make its way to Toronto reminded me just how much had to align, and how difficult that journey really was.

Since Oct. 7, 2023, the landscape has changed. Many European partners who once stood with Israeli filmmakers have stepped back. Festivals that once welcomed our work now hesitate. Distributors weigh politics against art, and too often, politics wins, not because of an official boycott, but because no one wants to be first. That wall of caution is exactly what “Our Loves” had to break through.

What made the difference was not the film alone. For two years, being good has not been enough. What changed was that FOX Entertainment Studios and Access Entertainment, led by Len Blavatnik and Danny Cohen, stepped up as co-producers alongside SIPUR and United King Films. That changed everything. When companies with that kind of standing put their names behind an Israeli film, they give festival programmers and distributors what they’ve been missing: the confidence to judge the work for what it is, not for where it comes from.

Momentum mattered too. “Our Loves” arrives in Toronto with 12 Ophir Awards, including Best Picture, and early conversation about its Oscar prospects. Prestige and recognition open doors that argument alone cannot. And it mattered that philanthropic support was there from the start, funding that exists because organizations like ours believe these stories are worth the risk, even when others hesitate.

That is the formula, as I’ve seen it: Israeli producers and filmmakers with the vision to make something true, international partners with the standing to go first, momentum that forces a second look, and mission-driven funding willing to lead early. Alone, none of these would have been enough. Together, they broke through a barrier that has felt unbreakable since October 2023.

That last piece, philanthropic capital, is necessary today. But it shouldn’t be necessary forever. Every film that breaks through like “Our Loves” makes the next one less of a leap of faith and more of a business decision. That’s the real measure of success here: not a permanent reliance on mission-driven funding to get Israeli stories made, but a market confident enough, film by film, to need it less. Philanthropy’s job in a moment like this is to open the door, not to hold it open forever.

This matters far beyond one film’s place at a festival. “Our Loves” is not a film about war. It is a film about people, about relationships, regret and what endures when everything changes. These are the stories the world needs: not another headline, but something deeply human, complex and real enough to move us beyond the narrow emotions of the news cycle.

This is my response to Zablocki’s challenge, and my invitation to everyone reading it. Toronto should not be our only victory in the years ahead. It should be the first step in a playbook, one that funders, studios, and organizations like the Israel Film Center and the Simon Wiesenthal Center build together, with intention, not by chance.

The boycott is not over. But as Liron Edery, United King Films’ head of marketing and distribution, put it, it is “gradually crumbling.” Cracks close if we do not keep pushing them open. Our job now, mine, Zablocki’s and everyone who believes these stories matter, is to turn this crack into an open door, so the next Israeli filmmaker with a true story doesn’t have to wait for a miracle.

Jim Berk is CEO of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, its Museums of Tolerance and Moriah Media, which served as an executive producer on Our Loves.