2007 has been an exceptionally good year for the Israeli movie industry, with prizes handed to several local films in international festivals and one film - The Band’s Visit - getting much attention and praise (and getting nominated in The Independent Spirit Awards and The European Academy Awards).

Israeli actors broke out this year with Yigal Naor playing opposite Jake Gyllenhaal in Rendition, Ayelet Zurer co-starring in Sony’s upcoming Vantage Point and Ido Mosseri (voice of Spongebob Squarepants in Hebrew) playing opposite Adam Sandler in the still-shooting Don’t Mess With the Zohan.

Surprisingly, Israeli television has also met with similar success this year with an American version of “In Treatment” in production for HBO and two other local drama series picked up for development by CBS and Fox. The documentary series “The Ten Commandments” is being developed into an American series for TNT by Oscar winner Davis Guggenheim.

And to top it all off, this week Israeli movies crossed the 1 million mark at the local box office, only the second time in just over twenty years.

Top sellers among Israeli movies at home this year were:

Beaufort (Joseph Cedar): 300,000 admissions
The Secrets (Avi Nesher): 208,000 admissions
The Band’s Visit (Eran Kolirin): 193,000 admissions
Noodle (Ayelet Menahemi): 190,000 admissions
Jellyfish (Etgar Keret & Shira Gefen): 70,000 admissions

With The Band’s Visit still playing, and with two new releases - Lost & Found and The Debt - 2007’s numbers could come close to 2004’s record holding number of 1.5 mil admissions.