Scope
The resources in this section cover movie production in Israel since its founding in 1948. While movies were made in Mandatory Palestine the development of the local film industry accelerated after the establishment of the state. Early films were mainly documentary or news roundups, shown in Israeli cinemas before the movie started.
Questions? Requests...
Israeli Cinema/Film Databases
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Israeli Film Database (The Israel Film Center at JCC Manhattan. Most comprehensive online database of Israeli film)
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Israeli Film, Home of the Early Israeli & Hebrew Film.
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ספר הקולנוע הישראלי: Cinema of Israel: A website that aims to be the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) for Israeli cinema. The Cinema of Israel site is a joint venture between the Culture and Sports Ministry, the Yehoshua Rabinovich Foundation for the Arts and the Mifal Hapayis national lottery, with the ministry calling it “the first digital book of Israeli cinema.”
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Israel Film Center Database of Israeli films, news about Israeli cinema, calendar of screenings in the USA
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IMDb: 100 best Israeli movies * IMDB: Internet Movie Database Detailed information on film industry, film plots, reviews, and credits.
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Israeli Films - Home Established in 2007 to bring Israeli filmmakers closer to interested audiences worldwide, IsraeliFilms introduces a new tool for educators and programmers in Jewish communities, colleges, universities, organizations - anyone who has an interest in bringing Israel to their screen, class or community.
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www.israelfilmcenter.org/STREAM is an initiative of the Israel Film Center at The JCC in Manhattan, a leading resource for Israeli film, expanding Israel's emerging film industry and promoting Israeli culture in America. The center serves as an exhibitor, promoter, educator, funder, distributor, producer, network organizer, advisor, and festival producer, as well as includes a viewing library and on-line database of Israeli cinema (www.israelfilmcenter.org). Israel Film Center STREAM is the most comprehensive site for Israeli films in the U.S., offering year-round promotions and special thematic programs of both new releases and classics.
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The Cinema of Israel site is a joint venture between the Culture and Sports Ministry, the Yehoshua Rabinovich Foundation for the Arts and the Mifal Hapayis national lottery, with the ministry calling it the first digital book of Israeli cinema.
Award winning Movies & Films
List of Best Film Award winners
- 1990: The Lookout (Shuroo (original title))
- 1991: Beyond the Sea (aka: Over the Sea = Me'ever Layam )
- 1992: Life According to Agfa (Ha-Chayim Al-Pi Agfa)
- 1993: Revenge of Itzik Finkelstein (Nikmato Shel Itzik Finkelstein)
- 1994: Sh'Chur
- 1995: Lovesick on Nana Street (Hole Ahava B'Shikun Gimel)
- 1996: Saint Clara (Clara Hakedosha)* Official website
- 1997: Pick a Card
- 1998: Circus Palestine (Zirkus Palestina)
- 1999: Yana's Friends (Ha-Chaverim Shel Yana)
- 2000: Time of Favor (Ha-Hesder)
- 2001: Late Marriage (Hatuna Meuheret)
- 2002: Broken Wings (Knafayim Shvurot)
- 2003: Nina’s Tragedies (Ha-Asonot Shel Nina)
- 2004: Campfire * Campfire-Medurat Hashevet
- 2005: What a Wonderful Place (Eize Makom Nifla)
- 2006: Sweet Mud (Adama Meshuga'at) Aviva Ahuvati
- 2007: The Band's Visit (Bikur Ha-Tizmoret) Trailer
- 2008: Waltz with Bashir (Vals Im Bashir) "Ari Folman presents his film 'Waltz with Bashir,'" on YouTube, "france24english", 16 May 2008.
- 2009: Ajami (Arabic: عجمي; Hebrew: עג'מי)
- 2010: Human Resources Manager
- 2011: Footnote (Hearat Shulayim)
- 2012: Fill the Void (Lemale et ha'halal)
- 2013: Bethlehem
- 2014: Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem
- 2015: Baba Joon
Listing of Israeli Films
| Cinema of Israel |
|---|
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| 1940s |
| 1948 1949 |
| 1950s |
| 1950 1951 1955 1956 1959 |
| 1960s |
| 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 |
| 1970s |
| 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 |
| 1980s |
| 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 |
| 1990s |
| 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 |
| 2000s |
| 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 |
| 2010s |
| 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 |
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Israeli Film Reviews
The International Federation of Film Critics
IMDB Best Israeli Films
"A glowing 2014 for the Israeli film industry". Cineuropa. Retrieved 20 January 2015.
Film and Conflict - Palestine-Israel Journal
MRQE – the Movie Review Query Engine
Film Distributors & Vendors
Ruth Diskin Films "Ruth Diskin Films Ltd. grants international marketing & distribution services awards to the Best Documentary Film at the Israeli Documentary Forum as well as to the Best Documentary Film of the DocAviv International Film Festival - Israel’s leading film industry events."
Israel Documentaries Online: 7 Places to Find and Watch Films
Reference * General Resources * Cinema ISRAEL מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל
Israeli Film: a reference guide by
Israeli cinema is a central tool for understanding the contemporary challenges facing Israeli society as it has developed its identity during the past decades. Although films can be considered individual pieces of work, we can gain a unique perspective on the nation's society through a careful analysis of the subject matter, issues, and styles of expression of this unique medium. Since its inception, Israeli cinema has been occupied with the hardships of an ongoing war, problems of Jewish-Arab relations, and the major survival issues of the state. Despite this focus, Israeli filmmaking is in fact much more complex and varied. Indeed, it covers a wide spectrum of issues that have developed during the 70 years during the production of its first feature film. "Israeli Film: A Reference Guide" provides a survey of all major films made in Israel, as well as biographies of major Israeli filmmakers and an overview essay summarizing major trends in Israeli film--and, in doing so, offers a commentary on social trends, historical challenges, and societal issues.
(Selection: GOOGLE.bks) https://books.google.com/books/about/Israeli_Film.html?id=BJsktgkY9boC
Call Number: Olin Library PN1993.5.I86 K76 2003ISBN: 0313321442Publication Date: 2003-05-30
Companion encyclopedia of Middle Eastern and North African film by
This unique volume illuminates a fascinating area of cinema. Each chapter covers the history and major issues of film within that area, as well as providing bibliographies of the leading films, directors and actors.
Call Number: Olin Library Reference (Non-Circulating) Oversize PN1993.5.A65 C66x 2001 +ISBN: 0415187036
Israeli Cinema : East / West and the Politics of Representation by Call Number: Olin Library PN1993.5.I86 S56 2010ISBN: 9781845113124Publication Date: 2010-09-15
Israeli Cinema: identities in motion by Call Number: Olin Library PN1993.5.I86 I87 2011ISBN: 9780292735606Publication Date: 2011-01-01
Israeli Cinema - Cinema and Media Studies - Oxford Bibliographies
[IMDb: Israeli Film: A Reference Guide] From the book "Israeli Film: A Reference Guide" by Amy Kronish and Costel Safirman.
Cinema in Israel | Jewish Virtual Library
Israel Film and Television Producers Association
Official site of the Israeli Film and Television Academy
The Following from Film literature index (Online):
ISRAEL BROADCASTING AUTHORITY
ISRAEL CINEMATHEQUE, THE (Tel Aviv)
ISRAEL EXPERIENCE, THE (Jaffa)
ISRAEL FILM CENTRE
ISRAEL FILM SERVICE
ISRAELI DEFENCE FORCES
ISRAELI FILM ARCHIVE
ISRAELI FILM PRODUCERS ASSOCIATION
ISRAELI FUND FOR THE PROMOTION OF QUALITY FILMS
ISRAELI TV
ISRAFEST FOUNDATION (United States)
ISRAFILM MOTION PICTURE PRODUCTION SERVICES LTD.
Cinema History * Background
- Israeli Film: a reference guide by
Israeli cinema is a central tool for understanding the contemporary challenges facing Israeli society as it has developed its identity during the past decades. Although films can be considered individual pieces of work, we can gain a unique perspective on the nation's society through a careful analysis of the subject matter, issues, and styles of expression of this unique medium. Since its inception, Israeli cinema has been occupied with the hardships of an ongoing war, problems of Jewish-Arab relations, and the major survival issues of the state. Despite this focus, Israeli filmmaking is in fact much more complex and varied. Indeed, it covers a wide spectrum of issues that have developed during the 70 years during the production of its first feature film. "Israeli Film: A Reference Guide" provides a survey of all major films made in Israel, as well as biographies of major Israeli filmmakers and an overview essay summarizing major trends in Israeli film--and, in doing so, offers a commentary on social trends, historical challenges, and societal issues.
Call Number: Olin Library Olin Library Hours/MapISBN: 0313321442Publication Date: 2003-05-30
Beyond Flesh : queer masculinities and nationalism in Israeli cinema by
Raz Yosef explores Israeli cinemas role in the creation of national identity and the complex ways the marginalization of queerness became necessary to that goal. Zionism was not only a political and ideological program but also a sexual one. The liberation of Jews and creation of a new nation were closely intertwined with a longing for the redemption and normalization of the Jewish male body. That body had to be rescued from anti-Semitic, scientific-medical discourse associating it with disease, madness, degeneracy, sexual perversity, and femininityeven with homosexuality. The Zionist movement was intent on transforming the very nature of European Jewish masculinity as it had existed in the diaspora. Zionist/Israeli films expressed this desire through visual and narrative tropes, enforcing the image of the hypermasculine, colonialist-explorer and militaristic nation-builder, an image dependent on the homophobic repudiation of the "feminine" within men. The creation of a new heterosexual Jewish man was further intertwined with attitudes on the breeding of children, bodily hygiene, racial improvement, and Orientalist perspectiveswhich associated the East, and especially Eastern bodies, with unsanitary practices, plagues, disease, and sexual perversity. By stigmatizing Israels Eastern populations as agents of death and degeneration, Zionism created internal biologized enemies, against whom the Zionist society had to defend itself. In the name of securing the life and reproduction of the new Ashkenazi Jewry, Israeli society discriminated against both its internal enemies, the Palestinians, and its own citizens, the Mizrahim (Oriental Jews). Yosefs critique of the construction of masculinities and queerness in Israeli cinema and culture also serves as a model for the investigation of the role of male sexuality within national culture in general.
Call Number: Olin Library PN1993.5.I86 Y67 2004ISBN: 0813533767Publication Date: 2004-01-20
Israeli Cinema: : East/West and the politics of representation by
When the Hebrew edition of this groundbreaking book came out, it provoked a stormy public debate. This is a new edition of Israeli Cinema with a substantial new postscript that reflects on the book’s initial reception and points tonbsp; exciting new trends in the cinematic representation of Israel and Palestine. Ella Shohat explores the cinema as a productive site of national culture, dating back to the early Zionist films about turn-of-the-century Palestine. She offers a deconstructionist reading of Zionism, viewing the cinema as itself participating in the "invention" of the nation. Unthinking the Eurocentric imaginary of "East versus West," Shohat highlights the paradoxes of an anomalous national/colonial project through a number of salient issues, including the Sabra figure as a negation of the "Diaspora Jew," the iconography of the land of Israel as a denial of Palestine, and the narrative role of "the good Arab." The new postscript examines the emergence of a richly multiperspectival cinematic space that transcends earlier dichotomies through a palimpsestic and cross-border approach to Israel / Palestine.
Call Number: Olin Library PN1993.5.I86 S56 2010ISBN: 1845113136Publication Date: 2010-08-15
A history of Israeli cinema 2014. 
(1 video file, approximately 208 min.) A Kanopy Streaming Video Connect to online resource. [San Francisco, California, USA] : Kanopy Streaming, 2014. Hebrew. Raphael Nadjari's two-part documentary weaves together clips from more than 70 years of Israeli film with commentary from filmmakers, scholars and critics - including Amos Gitai, Joseph Cedar, Avi Mograbi, Yehuda Ne'eman, Menachem Golan, Moshe Ivgy, Ronit Elkabetz and Zeev Revach.
Israel Cinema "Explore Israel Cinema Discover More on When.com!"
Defining Moments in Israeli Cinema / Guy Cohen. IN: "Handbuch Jüdische Kulturgeschichte."
Deeper than Oblivion: Trauma and Memory in Israeli Cinema
Disjointed Narratives in Contemporary Israeli Films
Israel/Palestine 
Amos Gitai [University of California, Berkeley--NOT updated]
The Spielberg Jewish Film Archive - The First Film of Palestine
The New School (http://www.newschool.edu) presents Israeli and Palestinian Cinema: Shaping Memory and Imagining the Future Scholar Ella Habiba Shohat and curator Rasha Salti discuss the new edition of Shohat's seminal book Israeli Cinema: East/West and the Politics:≈
Faces of Israel: New Israeli Cinema (4pc) / (Sub).Director: Alex Holmes, Alex Holmes, Dror Zahavi . Cast: Alex Holmes, Alex Holmes, Andras Salamon, Dror Zahavi
"The boxed set FACES OF ISRAEL collects some of the most enlightening and award-winning recent films from the country, highlighting the themes and issues that are intrinsic to its national identity."--Amazon
Arab Film on Israeli Television: An Interview with Eyal Sagui Bizawe
Hollywood movie titles are lost in translation [Copyright 2014 The Associated Press]
Tel Aviv cinema faces funding cut over Nakba film fest
Egypt bans film about Jewish community Film-makers claim security agencies have censored their documentary on Egypt's thriving pre-1950s Jewish community.
Selected Movies @ Cornell
For more Israeli films 
(Library Catalog) 
היסטוריה של הקולנוע הישראלי
/ Hisṭoryah shel ha-kolnoa ha-yisre eli = A history of Israeli cinema. c2013. New York : Kino Lorber, c2013. Call Number: Uris Library Dean Room Videodisc 5076 (Also STEMING: A history of Israeli cinema. [San Francisco, California, USA] : Kanopy Streaming, 2014.)
Bikur ha-Tizmoret = The band's visit by
Call Number: Uris Library Dean Room Videodisc 3490
ISBN: 1424898293
The Alexandria Ceremonial Police Orchestra arrives in Israel from Egypt for a cultural event. Once there, they find the expected delegation is not there to meet them. Arrangements to get to their destination of Petah Tiqva have not been taken care of either. They find their own ride and arrive instead at the remote town of Beit Hatikva. Stuck there until the next morning's bus, the band, lead by the repressed Tawfiq Zacharaya, gets help from the worldly lunch owner, Dina, who offers to put them up for the night. As the band settles in the best it can, each of the members attempts to get along with the natives in their own way. What follows is a special night of quiet happenings and confessions as the band makes its own impact on the town and the town on them.
The bubble = ha-Buʻah by [In Hebrew and Arabic with Hebrew and English subtitles.]
העלמה בלובשטיין רחל / ha-ʻAlmah Bluvshṭain Raḥel Video ישראל : יאיר קדר ורשות השידור, 2015.
Yiśraʼel : Yaʼir Ḳedar ṿe-Rashut ha-shidur, 2015. In Hebrew [Uris Library Dean Room Videodisc]
Ushpizin by [English and Hebrew dialogue, English or Spanish subtitles. ] ISBN: 0780654773
Call Number: Uris Library Dean Room Videodisc 1830
"A heartwarming and light hearted look at the daily lives of ultra-Orthodox Jews learning, living and loving in modern-day Israel. The story of a family facing hardships who must rely on their faith for miracles to happen during the holiday season."
Cinema Journals & Magazines (Israeli/Jewish)
Jewish Film & New Media | Wayne State University Press ' provides an outlet for research into any aspect of Jewish film, television, and new media and is unique in its interdisciplinary nature, exploring the rich and diverse cultural heritage across the globe. The journal is distinctive in bringing together a range of cinemas, televisions, films, programs, and other digital material in one volume and in its positioning of the discussions within a range of contexts—the cultural, historical, textual, and many others."
Annual catalogue of Israeli films. [ Previously: Israel annual film guide] / Sinemateq Yerushalayim, ha-arkhiyyon ha-yisreeli lisratim.; Jerusalem Film Center. Jerusalem Cinematheque-Israel Film Archive, 2008/2009-.
ʻAyin be-ʻayin. Tel-Aviv : Seminar ha-ḳolnoʻa ha-tiʻudi : Bavel hotsaʼah la-ʼor, ǂc 2003-
אקשן ǂ מגזין קולנוע, תרבות ופנאי. Eḳshen : magazin ḳolnoʻa, tarbut u-fenai.
Globus Max. Tel Aviv : Globus Max. 2010.
ʻIton Ḳamerah obsḳurah. Tel Aviv : Ḳamerah obsḳurah, bet ha-sefer le-omanut, 1996-
Ḳarnayim. "Ketav-ʻet le-ḳolnoʻa ule-ṭeleṿizyah." Gilayon 1- (Yuni 2000- ) Tel-Aviv : ha-Ḳeren ha-ḥadashah le-ḳolnoʻa ṿe-ṭeleṿizyah, 2000-
Ḳaṭ. Tel Aviv : Ḳaṭ pirsumim, 2004-
Ḳiṭʻe ʻitonut : ha-Ḳeren ha-ḥadashah le-ḳolnoʻa ṿe-ṭeleṿizyah. Tel Aviv : Efrat Gurman tiḳshoret shiṿuḳit yotseret : bi-temikhat ha-Moʻetsah ha-Yiśreʼelit le-ḳolnoʻa.
Ḳlip. Tel Aviv : Ḳlip, "Seraṭim, roḳ, Taḳliṭim, ṿideʼo."
- קבצים לאמנות הקולנוע והטלוויזיה קלוזאפ Ḳlozap : ḳevatsim le-omanut ha-ḳolnoʻa ṿeha-ṭeleṿizyah, Tel Aviv : Ḳevutsat Ḳlozap ba-ḥug le-ḳolnoʻa ṿe-ṭelevizyah, Universiṭat Tel-Aviv be-shituf ʻim ha-Arkhiyon ha-Yiśreʼeli li-seraṭim, Ḥefah, 1973-
Ḳolnoʻa + ulam u-meloʼo. קולנוע + אלם ומלואוTel Aviv : Gaʻash shiṿek, 200-
קולנוע בישראל - Ḳolnoʻa be-Yiśraʼel : סיכום הפעילות בשנים sikum ha-peʻilot ba-shanim ... Tel-Aviv : Miśrad ha-ḥinukh, ha-tarbut ṿeha-sporṭ, Minhal ha-tarbut, ha-Moʻatsah ha-Yiśreʼelit le-ḳolnoʻa : ha-Merkaz le-medaʻ ule-meḥḳere tarbut. Began with: 1999/2000/2001.
קולנוע דרום : ǂ הגות וביקורת. Ḳolnoʻa darom : hagut u-viḳoret [Cinema south]. Ḥof Ashḳelon : ha-Mikhlalah ha-aḳademit Sapir - ha-Maḥlaḳah le-omanut ha-ḳolnoʻa ṿeha-ṭeleṿizyah, 2007-
פס יצירה : ǂ כתב עת לקולנוע. Pas yetsirah : ketav ʻet le-ḳolnoʻa. Annual Began with: 1 (2003)\
ha-Ozen Third ear. [Israel] : ha-Ozen ha-shelishit
ha-Masriṭ המסריט Tel-Aviv : Histadrut ha-kelalit shel ha-ʻovdim ha-ʻIvriyim be-Erets-Yiśraʼel, 1965- No. 1 (Yuli, 1965)-
מסך גדול, מסך קטן. Masakh gadol, masakh ḳaṭan. Maḥlaḳat ha-ḳolnoʻa bʻ.m., 1988-
Omanut ha-ḳolnoʻa (Tel Aviv, Israel) Issues for May 1957- have English title: Omanut - Hakolnoa (Film-Art)
Sinemaṭeḳ (Jerusalem) סינמנטק. In Hebrew and English. Yerushalayim : Sinemaṭeḳ
Steven Spielberg Jewish Film Archive. [Scroll on activities, news]
Sinepariz. Tel Aviv : Globus Hod, In Hebrew and French.
Tokhnit. Sinemaṭeḳ Tel Aviv
Time out אקשן Time out Aḳshen [Motion picture actors and actresses]
Miḳbats : ḳolnoʻa, ḳiṭʻe ʻitonut / ha-Makhon ha-Yiśreʼeli le-ḳolnoʻa. / Miḳbats (Makhon ha-Yiśreʼeli le-ḳolnoʻa). Monthly. Tel-Aviv : ha-Makhon, [1977]-
Duḥot kaspiyim bilti mevuḳarim ... [Tel Aviv] : Dalin Hafaḳot seraṭim - shutafut mugbelet. Quarterly. 2001 (Mar. 2001)-
Duaḥ tekufati. [Tel Aviv] : Dalin Hafaḳot seraṭim - shutafut mugbelet.
IAF International Index to Film Periodicals Plus. [MIDDLE East] Indexes 340 of the world's academic & popular film journals.
Film International: This online equivalent of the print journal features both original articles and selections from the print text. Topics range from film analyzes and reviews to research pieces on directors as well as national cinemas.
Adaptation An international forum focused on literature on screen.
Cineaste Includes articles, interviews, film, DVD and books about film reviews.
Filmakers Library Online Documentaries from diverse cultures world-wide.
FMG Master Academic Collection Full length documentaries.
Framework: The Journal of Cinema and Media International journal
Wide Angle Taking an in-depth look at international film.
Historical Journal of Film, Radio & Television Journal of the International Association for Media and History.
Israeli Film Streaming / Online
israelfilmcenter Feature, documentary, shorts and television shows for a fee [www.israelfilmcenter.org/STREAM is an initiative of the Israel Film Center at The JCC in Manhattan, a leading resource for Israeli film, expanding Israel's emerging film industry and promoting Israeli culture in America. The center serves as an exhibitor, promoter, educator, funder, distributor, producer, network organizer, advisor, and festival producer, as well as includes a viewing library and on-line database of Israeli cinema (www.israelfilmcenter.org). Israel Film Center STREAM is the most comprehensive site for Israeli films in the U.S., offering year-round promotions and special thematic programs of both new releases and classics.
Media That Matters Short films that showcase topics of interest from all over the world.
World Digital Library Provides access to digitized items from all over the world.
The Film Foundation's World Cinema Project Restored films from films all over the world made available through streaming content
Watch Israeli Movies & Films Online | Fandor
A history of Israeli cinema. [San Francisco, California, USA] : Kanopy Streaming, 2014.)
Media That Matters Short films that showcase topics of interest from all over the world.
The Spielberg Jewish Film Archive - The First Film of Palestine
iStreamGuide: Israeli Movies NETFLIX Genre: Israeli Movies
The Film Foundation's World Cinema Project Restored films from films all over the world made available through streaming content
Kanopy * Israel thousands of classic feature films, educational shorts and documentaries [·Cornell University on Kanopy platform which you can access with your Cornell login: If a title doesn’t show up in a search let me know and we’ll contact Kanopy and ask them to acquire it [from the library's online catalog].
Alexander Street Press * Israel have deals on their packages, which the library has bought, but do sell individual titles now as well .
Feature Films : Free Movies : Download & Streaming : Internet Archive Feature films, shorts, silent films and trailers are available for viewing and downloading.
The Best Israeli Films to Watch On Netflix - Culture Trip