Jerusalem Post

ByHANNAH BROWN

'Alon, My Brother the Hero' and 'Butcher’s Stain'

Alon, My Brother the Hero, Omri Koren’s short documentary film about Alon Shamriz, one of three hostages killed by friendly fire after months in Hamas captivity, has been selected as a semifinalist for the 2025 Student Academy Awards in the documentary category. Koren created the film as part of his studies at the Sam Spiegel Film and Television School in Jerusalem.
A second Israeli film, Butcher’s Stain, a film about racism, by Meyer Levinson-Blount, a student at Tel Aviv University, is a semifinalist in the narrative category.  
The awards are presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and 15 student films from around the world were selected as semifinalists in each of four categories: alternative/experimental, animated, narrative, and documentary. The winners will be announced in August and the awards will be presented at a ceremony in New York in October.
 
 

Heartbreak and heroism
Alon, My Brother the Hero follows the Shamriz family in the months after Alon was abducted by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023, from Kibbutz Kfar Aza and brought to Gaza. It examines how they coped during the first days of the war, offering an intimate glimpse into their dramatic struggle to bring Alon home. Led by his brothers, Yonatan and Ido, the family fought both in Israel and abroad for Alon’s release.

The documentary also shows their heartbreak after Shamriz, 26, was shot and killed, along with hostages Yotam Haim and Samer Talalka, by IDF troops after managing to escape captivity. Evading Hamas, the three hid for five days. They approached the soldiers shirtless, to show that they had no explosives, but were mistakenly thought to be terrorists and were killed.
Shamriz’s brothers noted Alon’s heroism at his funeral, and the grieving family has continued to fight for the return of all the hostages.
Alon, My Brother the Hero was created and produced by the Sam Spiegel Film and Television School in Jerusalem, with the support of the New Fund for Israeli Cinema and TV. It premiered on YES Docu in a broadcast that marked a year since the outbreak of the war.
“We are proud of Omri and his brave and complex process,” said Dana Blankstein Cohen, executive director of Sam Spiegel. “We are very grateful to the Shamriz family, who opened their home and their hearts and allowed us the privilege of witnessing their struggle during this devastating year. 
“As a school, we encourage our students, always and especially during this difficult time, to use the power of cinema to look at the painful and complex reality of our region with humane and compassionate eyes. At Sam Spiegel, we teach responsible storytelling that is devoted to the urgent stories of the day in order to reach audiences at home and abroad.”

Racism against Arabs
Butcher’s Stain looks at the issue of racism against Arabs following Hamas’s October 7 terrorist attacks. It tells the story of Samir, an Arab-Israeli supermarket worker who is suspected of removing pictures of hostages at the store, which he didn’t do. 
According to KAN, the film is based on the director’s experience of working at a supermarket during this period. “I saw how quiet tension turned into real harassment,” Levinson-Blount said in an interview. “The supermarket is a microcosm of Israeli society – ethnically, class-wise, and psychologically.”