All articles by Edna Fainaru
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Israeli Film Council avoids drastic reduction in government funding
The Israeli Treasury has agreed to increase this year's annual film budget by almost 16% to $16m (67m shekels). The Israeli Film Council will continue to be in charge of distributing this sum between the various funds, foundations and institutions involved in film activities across the country. Only a few ...
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Waltz with Bashir takes six Ophirs at the Israeli Film Academy Awards
As expected, Ari Folman's Waltz with Bashir took no less than six Ophirs (Israel's version of the Oscar) at the Israeli Film Academy's annual awards ceremony last night.Folman's animated documentary officially competed as a fiction film and won all the categories it was nominated in including best film, director, script, ...
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Avi Mograbi's Z32 restricted for PG audiences in Israel
Avi Mograbi's documentary 'Z-32', has been restricted by the Israeli Board of Censors for an over 14 audience, after an appeal on its over 16 restriction.In the film, Mograbi interviews a veteran of an elite Israeli military unit, who undergoes an existential crisis as he recounts his participation in the ...
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Seven Days (Shiva) is tops at 25th Jerusalem Film Festival
Seven Days (Shiva) by Ronit and Shlomi Elkabetz, which opened this year's Cannes Critics Week, was the big winner competition vying for the Wolgin awards for the Best Israeli films at the 25th Jerusalem Film Festival. There were only three other competitors.Having pared down their picture by some 12 minutes, ...
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Rennen Schorr to head new $2m Jerusalem Film Fund
The State Treasury and the Jerusalem Foundation are backing a $2m fund to promote film-making in Jerusalem, as part of the general effort the refresh the image of Israel's capital city.Rennen Schorr, the head of the Sam Spiegel School for Cinema and Television in Jerusalem, one of the more active ...
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Ilan de Vries replaces Van Leer at Jerusalem Cinematheque
As expected, Ilan de Vries has been officially appointed to follow Lia Van Leer as the new director of the Jerusalem Film Festival, the Jerusalem Cinematheque and the Israeli Film Archive.De Vries, who has been associated in the past with the Jerusalem institution and was viewed for a while as ...
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Israeli Producers Association to host international networking session
Feeling they did not get the credit they deserve for the recent forward leap of the Israeli films and their resounding worldwide success, the Israeli Producers Association is organizing a networking session to be attended by international experts, including producer-director Claude Lelouch, producers Cedomir Kolar, Paul Trijbits, and the BBC's ...
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Schori withdraws candidacy for top Israeli film role
After 18 long months of fruitless talks, Katriel Schori has officially withdrawn his candidacy for the top executive job at the Jerusalem Cinematheque.Had he taken the role, hewould havebecome not only head of the Cinematheque but also of the Jerusalem Film Festival and the Israeli Film Archive. Approached in the ...
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Ardant and Depardieu to shoot Hello, Goodbye in Israel
Fanny Ardant and Gerard Depardieu will travel to Israel in November to shoot new French featureHello, Goodbye (working title).The stars reunite after appearing together in Truffaut's The Woman Next Door and Anne Fontaine's Nathalie.In Hello, Goodbye, Ardant and Depardieu will play a married Jewish couple living in Paris who undergo ...
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The Band's Visit sweeps the board at Jerusalem Film Festival
Eran Kolirin's Cannes favourite takes best film, actor and actress; Moshon Salmona's Wassermil wins the inaugural Most Promising Debut Returning home after its triumphant debut at Cannes, Eran Kolirin The Band's Visit took all the major prizes at the 24th Jerusalem Film Festival on Saturday. The comedy-drama, about an Egyptian ...
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Etgar Keret and Shira Geffe: the nextbig sting
Husband-and-wife film-making team Etgar Keret and Shira Geffen won the Camera d'Or at Cannes last month for Jellyfish, a surreal drama inspired by US indie films. Edna Fainaru reports. Etgar Keret is a celebrity at home in Israel. A prolific writer of short stories and graphic novels that have been ...
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Reprise scores another win at Istanbul Film Festival
Young Norwegian director Joachim Trier adds to the prizes for his debut picture Reprise, which won the Golden Tulip for best feature film in the international competition at the 26th Istanbul Film Festival. The jury also added a special prize for Tom Di Cillo's colourful foray into the fringes of ...
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Documentary programme Greenhouse Project revived
The Greenhouse Project is back in action. Thetraining program for the development of feature-length documentaries, whichlaid dormant for the best part of the last ten months, is now registeringcandidates for its first round of seminars, to take place in January 2007 in Istanbul. Targeting East Mediterranean territories, the programmeexpects candidates ...
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Jerusalem festival gives top prize to satire Dead End
In a surprise decision, thejury of the 23rd Jerusalem Film Festival awarded the Wolginprize for best Israeli feature to DeadEnd, a black satire on TV reality shows directed by DrorSzabo. Szabo, who has beeninvolved in the production of reality shows, makes his feature directorialdebut with the project. The jury, headed ...
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Israeli company United King to begin shooting two new features
United King, the leading distributor of domestic films in Israel,is launching two new productions one by Josef Cedar and the other by Avi Nesher in February. The first, The Secret,an Israeli-French co-production, starts shooting next month with Avi Nesher inthe director's chair. Nesher, whose previous effort, Turn Left at the ...
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Israeli-Palestinian consortium joins forces to promote docs
The Israelis and Palestinians are about to join forces in arare alliance, on a project entitled Greenhouse, whose purpose is to train andcoach promising documentary filmmakers in the Mediterranean region. Originally initiated by David Fisher at theNew Foundation for Cinema and Television (NFCT) in Tel Aviv, and Adam Zouabi, the ...
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Israel experiences festival outbreak
A stringof international film festivals are set to play in Israel over the next fewmonths, triggering calls for a re-evaluation of the country's festival scene.Threeinternational film festivals, all of them competitive, are scheduled in Israelduring April, with a fourth announced for late May. That's before Israel's veteranJerusalem International Film Festival ...
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Israel opens up film funds to international producers
Internationalfilm producers can now apply to Israeli film funds for financing thanks torecent changes in the Israeli Film Law.A new clause recently added to the Film Law allows localfilm funds to invest in international film productions whose themes promoteIsrael's national interests - whether there is Israeli participation in thefilm's production ...
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Israeli outcry as Cinema Council chief replaced
Israeli Cinema Council chairman Eli Zohar has unexpectedlybeen replaced by Ronny Milo, a former Minister of Culture and the ex-mayor ofTel Aviv.The move has taken the entire Israeli film industry bysurprise. The news was announced by Culture Minister Limor Livnat .The founding chairman of the Film Authority when it launchedin ...
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L'Esquive takes top Haifa prize
L'Esquive,Abdelatif Kechichi's coming-of-age romp about immigrant kids in a Parisslum, walked away with the Golden Anchor, Haifa's supreme award for its20th International Film Festival, in a competition entirely dedicated toMediterranean production.The jury, presided by Turkish actor Tuncel Curtiz, added twospecial mentions, one to Goran Paskaljevic's Midwinter Night'sDream, and to Jean-Luc ...