Film
Filmmaking in Israel has undergone major developments since its inception in the 1950s. The first features produced and directed by Israelis such as “Hill 24 Does Not Answer,” and “They Were Ten,” tended, like Israeli literature of the period, to be cast in the heroic mold. Some recent films remain deeply rooted in the Israeli experience, dealing with such subjects as Holocaust survivors and their children (Gila Almagor’s “The Summer of Aviya” and its sequel, “Under the Domim Tree”) and the travails of new immigrants (“Sh’hur”, directed by Hannah Azoulai and Shmuel Hasfari, “late Marriage” directed by Dover Koshashvili). Others reflect a more predominant trend towards the present Israeli reality, whether dealing with the Israel-Arab and the Jews-Arabs confrontations (Eran Riklis’s “The Lemon Tree”, Scandar Copti and Yaron Shani’s “Ajami”), the military aspects in the Israelis life (Joseph Cedar’s “Beaufort”, Samuel Maoz’s “Lebanon”, Eytan Fox ‘s “Yossi and Jagger”) or set in the context of universalist, somewhat alienated and hedonistic society (Eytan Fox’s “A Siren’s Song” and “The Bobble”, Ayelet Menahemi and Nirit Yaron’s “Tel Aviv Stories”). The Israeli film industry continues to gain worldwide recognition through International awards nominations. For three years consecutively Israeli films have been nominated for an Academy Award, namely, “Beaufort” (2008), “Waltz with Bashir” (2009) and “Ajami” (2010). In 2009, “Lebanon” won the Golden Lion Award. Those achievements are among many more around the world.
Cinematheque Tel-Aviv
Cinematheque in Tel Aviv is an important cultural centre for the screening of independent films. Films are screened throughout the year and the cinema stages regular unique theme nights. The Cinematheque also runs workshops in production techniques for young filmmakers. Many youngsters, crowd this cinema, watching either recent films or timeless classics on the big screen. There are many cultural events in the building and outside on the entrance square, comics festival and D&D fiestas alongside important political and social rallies. Major annual events include DocAviv, the Tel Aviv International Documentary Film Festival held in March, and the Israeli Academy Awards in late summer.
Visit Cinematheque Tel-Aviv’s website
The Haifa Cinematheque
The Haifa Cinematheque is one of the oldest and most important centres of the arts in Haifa. Its role since 1975 has been to educate, advance, nurture and explain all the secrets of the art of cinema. The daily task of the Cinematheque, is to go into schools with educational activities which teach about the cinematic genre. The Cinematheque also offers a variety of series of education classes and lectures on the cinema to adult audiences. The Cinematheque is the key location for the Haifa International Film Festival, which takes place during Chol-ha-Moed Succot (i.e., the week between Succot and Simhat Torah).
Visit The Haifa Cinematheque’s website
Jerusalem Cinematheque
Israel’s Film Archive
Arguably Jerusalem’s finest cinematic experience, the Cinematheque boasts a large screen, great sound and plush seating. This is the place to catch underground and non-Hollywood movies, as well as classics, old favorites and themed presentations. The venue hosts major annual events such as the Jerusalem Film Festival every summer, Jerusalem International Festival for Children and Youth and the Jewish Film Festival.
Visit Jerusalem Cinematheque’s website
The Herzliya cinematheque
The Herzliya cinematheque is a new art house cinema exhibiting independent, foreign, classic, documentary, cult and mainstream films, that operates in the renovated city center of Herzliya as of August 2008. Its location, offers the population of Herzliya, Raa’nana, Kfar Saba and the Sharon a place of their own to experience and learn the seventh art. Like fellow institutions in Israel, the Herzliya cinematheque also offers special events, international film weeks, lectures and courses; and hosts various guests from the international and local film industry.
Visit The Herzliya cinematheque’s website
Holon Cinematheque
Since 2008, Holon Cinematheque exposes its audience to the world’s cinematic abundance, from diverse eras and genres, in collaboration with production companies and distributors from all over the world. The cinematheque is part of the Mediatheque, a cultural centre and interacts with the surrounding arts and cultures the centre provides. Interacting with the Israeli Cartoon Museum in the centre, it has assumed the role of exposing audiences of all ages to animation as a cinematic genre and technique, and is introducing short animated films at the beginning of many of its screenings. Additionally, the Cinematheque promotes short animated films in an annual competition called MaraToon.
Visit Holon Cinematheque’s website
The Sderot Cinematheque
Following the vision of the former head of the school for cinema communications at the Sapir Academic College, Prop. Bereshit, and Eli Moyal the former Mayor of Sderot, the Sderot Cinematheque was founded in 1999. The Sderot Cinematheque is the first educational and cultural institution dedicated to the cinema in Southern Israel. Its vision from the start was to bring public attention to the cultural life for the population in the southern part of the country and also to help close the cultural gap between the central and peripheral areas of Israel. Among many cinema related activities, the Cinematheque hosts The Cinema South International Film Festival.
Visit The Sderot Cinematheque’s website
The Centre for Contemporary Art (CCA)
The Centre for Contemporary Art (a registered non-profit organization) was founded in 1998 to promote time-based and contemporary artistic practices in Israel. Since its establishment, Operating from a small room at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque, the centre has revived a positive and active spirit in the Israeli art scene and produced video-art and experimental cinema series and biennials. The CCA also maintains an archive of video pieces by Israeli and international artists, with works from the 1960s to the present.
The Haifa International Film Festival
The Haifa International Film Festival is held each year during the holiday of Succoth on the ridge of Mount Carmel overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. The Festival was founded in 1983 and was the first of its kind in Israel. Over the years, the Festival became the biggest and most important film celebration in Israel. The Haifa International Film Festival brings together each year an ever-growing audience of 60,000 spectators along with hundreds of Israeli and foreign professionals from the film and television industries. 180,000 people in total take part in the activities of the festival, including the outdoor events, screenings, workshops and more.
Docaviv Festival
The International Documentary Film Festival
Internationally Highly sought-after and respected film festival, Docaviv was founded in 1998 aiming to promote the Israeli documentary film in Israel and around the world and to develop culture, art and quality of life in Israel. The festival hosts filmmakers and prestigious visitors from overseas, offers an extensive program that encompasses multiple fields of interest appealing to a diverse audience. Opening windows to other cultures, traditions and conflicts it encourages dialog and constitutes an authentic mosaic of all shades of Israeli society.
The Jerusalem Film Festival
In 1984 Lia van Leer, the founder of the Haifa Cinematheque, the Jerusalem Cinematheque and the Israeli Film Archive, founded the Jerusalem Film Festival that has become Israel’s most prestigious cinematic event, showcasing international talent. The festival is ten days long, screening between 150-200 films in a number of programmes: Panorama, showcasing the best of international feature films; Documentary Films, dedicated to international documentary film-making, The Jewish Experience, dealing with issues of Jewish identity and history, In the Spirit of Freedom, concerned with questions of freedom and human rights, Television Dramas, New Directors, and of course, Israeli Film. Beyond its contribution to Israeli film, the Jerusalem International Film Festival remains one of the few platforms that present the world’s finest contemporary cinematic trends to its local audiences.
TLVFEST
The Tel-Aviv international LGBT Film Festival
TLVfest, Tel Aviv’s International LGBT Film Festival is a unique annual event taking place each June at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque. The festival offers public screenings of films that have not been distributed in Israel, as well as workshops, lectures and panel discussions with local and foreign filmmakers. In addition the festival emphasizes the Israeli film creation by awarding Best Israeli Short Film award and giving the opportunity for filmmakers from the LGBT community to present their works. Alongside to the annual events, the festival maintains TLVFEST Movie Club, a monthly screening and other film-related events throughout the year.
The International Student Film Festival – Tel Aviv
The International Student Film Festival in Tel Aviv is taking place every two years and is considered as very important in this field. The festival was first initiated in 1986 by film students from the Tel-Aviv University. Hundreds of student’s films participate in the international competition each festival. An additional Israeli competition gives a stage to film students from the many academic institutes in Israel. Hundreds of films, premiere screenings, fascinating cinematic events, workshops, conferences and special projects are part of this special week, as well as special and well-known guests of honour from the first line of the world cinema industry.
The Cinema South International Film Festival
Since 2002, the Film and Television School of Sapir College has been coordinating the Cinema South Festival, which is held at the Sderot Cinemateque. The festival became within a few years a well respected international film festival that gives a central stage to Israeli cinema and world cinema. The festival exposes the audience in the south to the modern cinema with all of its colors and diversity and at the same time spreads and exposes the Israeli local cinema scene to the world; Since it was established, the Israeli cinematic programs of the festival appeared in France, Switzerland, the U.S., and London. In recent years the festival has won a great deal of meaningful exposure in the international press and appeared in leading newspapers such as the British Independent and France’s Le Monde.
Video Zone
International Video Art Biennial
VideoZone programmes are a combination of selections done by guest curators, from different countries and regions in the world to assure a best presentation of the video creation in these regions as well as subjects that are relevant to international video art. During the Biennial’s week around 25 different programmes of experimental films, video and digital art, video clips and AV works are screened in the Auditorium of the Centre for Contemporary Art (CCA) and at Tel Aviv Cinematheque. In addition, exhibitions of video installation usually take place in the gallery spaces at the CCA and the Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art. Alongside the screenings and the exhibitions, meetings, lectures, master classes and panels are conducted with some of the artists and curators attending.
Animix Festival
International Animation, Comics, Caricature Festival
Initiated in 2000, Animix festival of animation, comics and caricature is one of a kind in Israel. The festival is been held in Tel Aviv each summer and is supported by collaboration of Tel Aviv Cinematheque, Tel Aviv Municipality and the Ministry of Culture. The festival features tens of events each year: animation films, workshops, panels, master-classes, exhibitions and children’s activities.
Eco Cinema Festival
International Environmental Film Festival
“Ecolnoa” association was founded in order to raise awareness of the environment through the use of film and visual media, and to encourage local cinematic work on this matter. The Association founded the first and only festival for environmental films, held since 2004. In recent years, Eco Cinema Festival became a national festival, which opens at the Jerusalem Cinematheque and travels around the country. The festival initiated environment student films contest called “Green Shot”.
Visit Eco Cinema Festival’s website
The International Women’s Film Festival
The International Women’s Film Festival is the Women in the Picture Association’s signature project. The Association was founded in 2004 by Naama Prizant Orpaz and Anat Shperling Cohen, who are both from the cinema amd television industry, and are active in promoting women’s creation in the field of cinema. The festival functions as a unique stage for the voices and perspectives of women-filmmakers from Israel and from around the world. The Festival gives an opportunity of direct encounters with and among filmmakers; opportunity for female debate on selected social and humanistic fields; and watching a variety of films.
Icon – International SF Festival
Icon is unique in the worldwide festival circuit, being part international fantastic film festival, part academic and literary conference and part fandom convention. The Festival takes place annually at the Tel-Aviv Cinematheque and adjoining facilities during the Jewish holiday of Succoth. This is a national meeting place, incorporating in one venue Israel’s SF fan-base, academic scholars, artists and professionals in the SF line of work (authors, scriptwriters, publishers, film directors, etc.
The International SPIRIT Film Festival
The spiritual cinema sheds light on the quest for meaning and inspiration, and has become a prominent trend in the film industry around the world. The international film festival SPIRIT, is an annual event that takes place in Tel Aviv Cinematheque, and is designated to films that enlighten, challenge and inspire personal, spiritual growth and reflection. The screenings are accompanied by a wide range of activities, open to the public, amongst them – spiritual art expositions and a colorful new age fair.
International Film Festival for Children & Youth
The Jerusalem International Film Festival for Children and Youth takes place in the Jerusalem Cinematheque and is aimed to bring the world’s best films for children and young adults. The festival programme includes Israeli shorts for children (competition), Animation for youth, “My Jerusalem” – films made by and for children, International competition judged by both international film professionals and children’s jury, as well as animation, filmmaking and dubbing workshops for the whole family.
Tel Aviv International Children’s Film Festival
In 2005, the annual Tel Aviv International Children’s Film Festival was established by the Tel Aviv Cinematheque to attract audiences aged 4-16 and to offer them a professional, intelligent and attractive exposure, a shedding of light, on children’s films from all over the world. The heart of the Festival is the central screening program, which shows children’s and young people’s films in various categories: new and specially selected feature films, documentaries, and films made by directors from all over the world. These genres are reflected in a prize-winning competition along an Israeli and international track. In addition to the screenings, the festival holds meetings, master classes, workshops and discussions with filmmakers and educators.