Despite its relatively small film-making industry, 10 Israeli films have been nominated for Oscars from the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The first foreign-made Israeli film nominated for the prestigious prize was Sallah (Fiddler on the Roof) and the first leading actor Chaim Topol for the same movie. But none of them ever won!

Every year, along with the announcement of the winners of the traditional Oscar ceremony, the American Film Academy also announces the winners in the various categories of scientific and technical awards that have significantly influenced the global film industry

Now, Israelis are getting recognition for film-related talents – but none of them are actors or actresses. 

The Academy just announced the winners of an Israeli Oscar in the Science and Engineering category for 2021: Prof. Meir Feder of the Ivy Walder Fleischman Faculty of Engineering at Tel Aviv University and Dr. Zvi Reznik, his former student and co-founder of the startup company Amimon will receive the award along with the company’s members Guy Dorman and Ron Yogev. 

The company team developed wireless video technology implemented in Amimon chips, is the winner of the prestigious Oscar award for a significant scientific and engineering contribution to the film industry. The company was founded in 2004. 

Feder explained that the award-winning technology is now widespread throughout the global film industry, as it is able to transfer video footage of very high quality and from a large number of photo centers, instantly and without any delay, thus allowing the film director and the control team full control of all shooting angles at once.

The award committee, in its citation to Feder and his colleagues, explained: “This Oscar is for wireless chipset, which enables untethered, high-quality on-set, encrypted digital video monitoring with sub-frame latency. By using innovative extensions of digital information transmission and data compression algorithms, along with prioritizing information based on erroneous bit ratios, the chipset supports the creation of unlimited motion range photography systems, extending creative film freedom.” 

An excited Feder said: “This is a very exciting day for me, and it is a very great pride for Tel Aviv University. We developed the basic technology in 2004 to 2005 when everyone thought the task was difficult or even impossible. We knew it was a real technological achievement, but we never imagined we would get the Oscar. About a year ago we were informed by the awards committee that we were nominated, but I did not attach any importance to it; I saw it as a gimmick,” he recalled. “About a month ago, I suddenly received an official email from the academy in Hollywood informing us that we had won an Oscar and the feeling was great. In academia, I have won many awards, but without a doubt, the Oscar is the most famous of all. It is an award that everyone on the street knows. For me and my development team, is a great achievement and I am very proud of it.” 

An internationally recognized authority in signal processing, communication and information theory, Feder received a doctor of science degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was a visiting professor there and held visiting positions at Bell Laboratories and the Scripps Institute of Oceanography. He is fellow of IEEE, the world’s largest technical professional organization for the advancement of technology. During his academic career, Feder was closely involved with numerous hi-tech companies, including working with Intel on the MMX architecture and designing efficient multimedia algorithms for it. In 1998, he co-founded Peach Networks, a provider of server-based interactive TV system via the cable network, acquired in 2000 by Microsoft. He then co-founded Bandwiz, a provider of massive content delivery systems for enterprise networks