by JOSEPH FAHIM
Director Alexis Bloom on her shocking documentary that links the war on Gaza to the corruption trial of Israel’s leader
Every year from October to December Oscar contenders try to crack the US film market, hoping to secure a coveted Academy Award nomination.
Millions of dollars are spent on PR campaigns as publicists scurry about, attempting to generate positive press coverage and court influential Oscar voters. Meanwhile across Los Angeles and New York, films big and small flood cinemas before the end of the year to secure the minimum number of screenings to qualify for awards eligibility.
But of the buzzed-about pics this year, one has been largely absent: The Bibi Files, the hair-raising documentary exposee about the corruption charges brought against Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli prime minister and recipient of an ICC arrest warrant. (He and his family have denied the allegations against them.)
Produced by Oscar- and Emmy-winning documentary director Alex Gibney (Taxi to the Dark Side, Going Clear: Scientology & the Prison of Belief) and directed by three-time Emmy-nominated film-maker Alexis Bloom (We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks), The Bibi Files enjoyed a thunderous bow at the Toronto Film Festival in September.
Gibney aspired to secure US theatrical distribution deals but they never materialised: instead the film screened for one week at the Laemmle Monica Film Center in southern California, where this writer watched it, and the IFC Center in New York.
Numerous US media outlets have baulked from coverage: in December, Gibney said that “no mainstream outlet will show the film in the US”. Despite this, The Bibi Files made the shortlist of 15 documentaries that Oscar voters will now reduce to five nominations ahead of the awards ceremony on 3 March 2025.
In Israel itself, Netanyahu failed in his bid to ban The Bibi Files, although it is still not being screened. And while it’s starting to receive coverage in Europe, including in the UK, the US remains “nervous” as Bloom puts it.
Netanyahu under pressure
After only a few minutes, it becomes apparent why The Bibi Files has caused a stir.
Netanyahu creeps onto the screen, sporting his signature sinister smirk – but something is distinctly different about his facial expressions and body language. There is a visible discomfort bogging him down. His demeanour reeks of restlessness. His familiar guise of confidence fails to conceal a palpable weakness; his quiet dread at a looming danger that constantly threatens to blow his cover.
This is Netanyahu like you’ve never seen him before – and it’s a sight to behold.
The crux of the film is the never-seen-before police interrogation footage of Netanyahu, his wife, Sara and their eldest son, the ultra right-wing Yair. Other figures who are shown being questioned include Hollywood billionaire producer Arnon Milchan; Israeli-American billionaire Miriam Adelson; Israeli telecom mogul Shaul Elovitch; and Nir Hefetz, a former spokesman for Netanyahu.
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