The ambitious Tel Aviv Film Festival has been postponed for a year.

The city's government decided to push back the festival from March until late next year to coincide with the opening of a new Cinema Centre annexed to the Tel Aviv Cinematheque. The city has secured sponsorship worth $3m from a US foundation for the restructured event.

Festival organisers will instead mount a scaled back version of the event, condensed into a round-the-clock weekend at the Cinematheque. The event has jettisoned films that already have local distribution in order to fit its line-up into a weekend, although it said that most companies had agreed to provide prints despite the change of format.