Interview: Ofir Raul Grazier on his Oscar hopeful "The Cakemaker"
Saturday, November 17, 2018 at 10:00PM An abridged version of this interview was originally published in Nathaniel's column at Towleroad
Ofir Raul GrazierThe Oscars are coming and with them, renewed attention for some of the year’s most memorable films. One of this past summer’s sleeper hits was The Cakemaker, an LGBT drama that’s just been released on DVD / Blu-Ray. The tiny but prolific distributor Strand Releasing, who have released many gay favorites, have been in business for almost 30 years now and, if you don’t adjust for inflation, The Cakemaker quietly turned into their biggest box office hit ever this summer. The drama about a grieving gay German man who seeks out the widow of his lover (who was unaware of her husband’s affair) earned nearly a million at arthouse box offices across the U.S!
After winning Best Picture at the Ophir Awards in Israel, it became the country's submission for Oscar’s Best Foreign Language Film category. We recently caught up with its director Ofir Raul Grazier. Our interview follows, edited for clarity and length.
NATHANIEL: The Cakemaker is your feature debut. Was that terrifying for you or totally natural on set?
OFIR RAUL GRAIZER: It was a bit scary, of course, because the amount of responsibility is huge. The producers, the crew, the actors -- I was thinking about all of that more than the film itself. But once the camera was rolling it felt quite natural. I love to do this. This is my passion. I managed to enjoy shooting. Everything between the shots was a nightmare [Laughs]...