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Pizzeria Kamikaze writer Etgar Keret wins Camera d'Or prize at Cannes Film Festival
Wristcutters film adaptation of Pizzeria Kamikaze graphic novel set for August release
May 29, 2007, Israeli writers Etgar Keret and his wife Shira Geffen won the Camera d'Or prize, given to the best film by debut directors at the Cannes film festival for their film “Meduzot” (“Jellyfish”). The film, based on a script written by Geffen and directed by her and Keret, is about the life of three women in Tel Aviv. “Everything here is so far from our lives,” said Keret, wearing a tuxedo and bow tie at the glittering red-carpet award ceremony Sunday, May 27. “I haven’t worn a suit since my bar mitzvah.” Keret and Gefen also won the “Young Critics” award and the French Artist and Writers Guild (Société des Auteurs et Compositeurs Dramatiques) award for best directors.
The Camera d'Or Prize is considered the most prestigious for debut directors – it is for first features in the entire festival, regardless of category. Thirty-three other films were nominated in that category.
“The film and our firstborn son were born at the same time,” said Gefen, “the new baby was easier to deal with than the movie that cost us many sleepless nights. Today we are very proud of both.”
The movie’s producer, Amir Harel, was thrilled by the news. “The award is an extremely important accomplishment. The financial award (of about $200,000) will help us with the distribution and is an incentive to create another film. There's no doubt this has been a very good year for Israeli cinema.”
Etgar Keret’s other most recent full length film enterprise is “Wristcutters: A Love Story,” directed by Goran Dukic and starring Patrick Fugit, Shannyn Sossamon, Will Arnett and Tom Waits, scheduled for August 2007 release from Lionsgate. “Wristcutters” is the film adaptation of bestselling Israeli author Etgar Keret’s short story “Kneller’s Happy Campers” which has also been adapted as the graphic novel Pizzeria Kamikaze illustrated by Asaf Hanuka, released by Alternative Comics.
Originally serialized in the award winning Bipolar comic, and previously translated into 13 languages, Pizzeria Kamikaze is a worldwide bestseller. Pizzeria Kamikaze was just recently nominated for the coveted 2007 Will Eisner Comics Industry Awards for the category “Best U.S. Edition of International Material.” The 2007 Will Eisner Comics Industry Awards results will be announced in a gala awards ceremony on the evening of Friday, July 27 at the San Diego Convention Center during the wildly popular Comic-Con International.
"Wristcutters" debuted at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival and went on to win best feature honors at last year's Gen Art Film Festival. It earned a nomination for best film not playing at a theater near you at fall's Gotham Awards and noms for best first feature and best first screenplay at the Independent Spirit Awards in February.
Etgar Keret was born in Tel Aviv in 1967. He is undoubtedly the most popular writer among Israeli youth, who see him as expressing their world, and his unique style has been widely imitated. Critic Nissim Calderon wrote that Keret is "the Amos Oz of his generation", and the daily Yedioth Ahronoth chose his book Missing Kissinger as one of the fifty most important Israeli books of all time.
Keret’s books have all been bestsellers and each of them was awarded the Book Publishers Association Platinum Book Prize for selling more than 40,000 copies. Keret received the Prime Minister’s Prize for literature and the Ministry of Culture Cinema Prize. His books in translation have received critical acclaim around the world, and "Kneller’s Happy Campers" is included in French Fnac list of the 200 books of the decade. His short story "Nimrod Flip-Out," was published in Francis Ford Coppola’s magazine, Zoetrope (Summer 2004).
Keret lectures at Tel Aviv University Film School. His movie, "Skin Deep," won the Israeli Oscar as well as first prize at several international film festivals. Over 40 short films based on his stories have been produced, and one received the 1998 American MTV Prize for the best animated film.
Asaf Hanuka studied at the French art institution Emile Cohl. After majoring in illustration, he started working as an illustrator for various publications. He has collaborated on graphic novels with French writer Didier Daeninckx on 'Carton Jaune!' and 'Hors Limits', and Israeli writer Etgar Keret on 'Streets of rage'. He is also working with French writer Roger Martin on a western graphic novel. Asaf has been working for daily news-papers and magazines. Among them TIME, Rolling Stone, The New York Times, The Source, Wall Street Journal, Forbes and others.
