Last update - 00:00 11/03/2008
Director, screenwriter guilds to boycott television awards ceremony
By Asaf Carmel, Haaretz Correspondent
The Israel Film and Television Directors Guild and the Israel Writers Guild have decided to boycott the Israeli Film and Television Academy Awards ceremony, which will be broadcast in July on Channel 2 by Keshet Communications. The guilds says Keshet is not treating union
members with the proper respect and cite two slights to their members: Keshet's plans to announce their awards during commercial breaks in the televised broadcast; and the recent breakdown in royalty negotiations with directors and screenwriters.
Instead of the academy's ceremonies, the guilds are planning their own awards ceremony for January 2009.
"Our ceremony will honor drama creators in Israel," say guild heads, "including those who write for Keshet, which for some reason views them as outsiders."
Last Thursday, guild representatives Rani Blair, chairman of the directors guild; director Assaf Peretz; director Roni Ninio and writers Amit Lior and Daniel Lapin met with academy chair Mark Rosenbaum and academy director Ilana Sharon. At the end of the meeting, the guild
representatives decided to boycott Keshet's ceremony. "We convened the meeting on Thursday following the last meeting with the academy management," stated the letter sent by the guilds to Keshet CEO Avi Nir on Monday. "Our representatives were informed that they were not 'sexy
enough' to have the awards for their work broadcast during prime time; that it 'burdened the ceremony.'"
The letter, signed by Blair and Writers Guild chair Liora Kaminetsky, notes: "Rosenbaum informed us at the meeting that he is 'representing our interests,' to Irit Ambar, producer of the Keshet ceremony, and that there is a 'compromise' option ¬ that the awards for the directors and writers be given after the award for the best drama series during the second half of the ceremony, after 11 P.M. This option is no better than the other, and we feel it part of the disrespectful attitude toward drama and its creators. This attitude can also be seen, among other things, in the blurring of the genres at the absurdity of the competition between soap operas and first-rate dramas."
The letter goes on to state that Keshet's treatment of the guild members at the ceremony, "is part of the lack of respect recently shown by the franchisee in its withdrawal from agreements with TALI (the directors and writers' royalty company), and its despicable denial of directors' copyrights to Israeli television series. In light of the above, we hereby declare a boycott of the Television Academy's Awards ceremony for 2008, and will tell our guild members to stay away from this humiliating ceremony, which mocks Israeli creations and creators."
Keshet's spokesperson responded: "The guilds are making false allegations, as Keshet is continuing to pay TALI huge sums during the negotiations. Keshet likewise uses copyrighted materials in keeping with the permits it has received. All the other claims, including the
suggestion that Keshet caused the breakdown in the negotiations, are groundless. Unfortunately Tali conducted negotiations while concealing figures. I am sorry that the guilds have issued unnecessary confrontational declarations."