Oscars: Israel Picks ‘The Sea’ as Best International Feature Submission
The Israeli Academy of Film and Television has picked Shai Carmeli-Pollak’s anti-war drama The Sea as its contender for the 2026 Oscars in the best international feature category.
The drama follows a 12-year-old Palestinian boy who risks his life to go to the beach for the first time in Tel Aviv. Khaled gets the chance to see the sea for the first time in his life on a school trip. Turned back at a military checkpoint, he sets off on his own, despite not knowing the way or speaking any Hebrew.
The Sea premiered at the Jerusalem Film Festival and received 13 nominations, including best film, at the Israeli Film Awards, the local equivalent of the Oscars.
It will be interesting to see how the film will be received by U.S. Academy voters. The message of The Sea is strictly anti-war, but its submission comes amid calls to boycott Israeli film institutions for being “complicit in war crimes” in Gaza. Last week, more than 1,300 filmmakers, actors, creatives, and other industry professionals, including Olivia Colman, Ayo Edebiri, Mark Ruffalo, Riz Ahmed, Tilda Swinton, Javier Bardem, Emma Stone, Ava DuVernay, and others, signed just such a pledge put forward by activist group Film Workers for Palestine. Israel’s industry leaders have criticized the boycott as “misguided and self-defeating.”
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Israel is among the most-nominated nations at the Oscars, with 10 nominations to date in the best international feature category, though the country has yet to win. The last Israeli film submitted for Oscar contention to secure a nomination was Joseph Cedar’s Footnote in 2011. The Israeli-Palestinian co-production No Other Land won this year’s Oscar for best documentary.
The Academy will announce the first shortlist of 15 films in contention for the 2026 best international feature Oscar on Dec. 16, 2025. The final nominations will be announced on Jan. 22, 2026. The 98th Academy Awards Ceremony will take place in Los Angeles on March 15, 2026.
