Moshe Mizrahi, only Israeli director of Oscar-winning film, dies at 86

“Madame Rosa” was shot in France and won the 1977 Academy Award for best foreign language film for that country.

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JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israeli filmmaker Moshe Mizrahi, the only Israeli director of an Academy Award-winning film, was buried in Tel Aviv.

Mizrahi died Friday in Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv. He was 86.

He directed the 1977 Oscar winner “Madame Rosa,” which was filmed in France and starred Simone Signoret. The film, which won for best foreign language film on behalf of France, is the story of a former prostitute in Paris who survived Auschwitz.

Mizrahi was nominated for Oscars for two other films he directed in the 1970s, “I Love You Rosa” and “The House on Chelouche Street.”

The Egypt native immigrated to pre-state Israel in 1946 and studied film in France in the 1950s. He worked for most of his career in France before returning to Israel, where he later taught film studies at Tel Aviv University.

In 2001, Mizrahi was awarded a lifetime achievement prize from the Israeli Academy of Film and Television.

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