Israel’s minister of culture has vowed to cut funding for the country’s film academy and its annual awards show after a movie about a Palestinian boy’s dream of seeing the ocean won big.

On Tuesday night in Tel Aviv, the Israeli Academy of Film and Television awarded the 2025 Best Picture award to “The Sea” at the Ophir Awards, known as the “Israeli Oscars.”

The film, directed and written by Shai Carmeli Pollak and produced by Baher Agbariya, follows a young boy’s road trip from his home of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank to the coastal city of Tel Aviv.

It is now slated to represent Israel at the Oscars in the International Feature Film category.

The day after the Israeli ceremony, the Israeli Ministry of Culture announced it would withdraw state funding for “the disgraceful ceremony” starting next year. The winning film “presents the Palestinian perspective and depicts IDF (Israel Defense Forces) soldiers and the State of Israel in a negative way,” the ministry said.

Culture minister Miki Zohar described the ceremony and the award as a “spit in the face of Israeli citizens,” adding: “The fact that the winning film depicts our heroic soldiers in a defamatory and false way while they fight and risk their lives to protect us no longer surprises anyone.”

Later Wednesday, Zohar announced the establishment of the “Israeli State Oscar,” a new government-sponsored alternative film awards ceremony to honor Israeli creators and films that “reflect the nation’s values and spirit.”