Premise: Circus Palestine (Hebrew: קרקס פלשתינה‎ ‎ , translit. Kirkas Palestina) is a 1998 Israeli political satire film directed by Eyal Halfon, which was nominated for seven Israeli Film Academy Awards, winning five. The film was selected as the Israeli entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 71st Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee.
Hypothesis: Some in Israel would have preferred a director whose name did not begin with "e".