Competitions

A touching film that delivers a complete cinematic experience, and marked by unexpected developments. The relationships it portrays are complex and the acting is outstanding. The movie draws on the cultural roots of Russian literature and cinema. This film is an achievement.

 The film bears the voice of a bold creator, who delivers impressive cinematic moments to the screen. Working from a single location, the director plays with the shifting balance of power between the two teen boys. The editing is clever and sensitive. One feels the spirit of the filmmaker - and the passion that drives him.

The screenplay succeeds with highly contemporary use of spare monologue in touching a universal human experience of romantic partnership, love, and farewell, weaving together quoted dialogue alongside the poetic inner voice of its heroine. The film and its screenplay reflect the unique and mature voice of a talented filmmaker.

Jury Statement: An intense and immersive film, cinematically powerful and deeply relevant to the reality in which we live in. The image of the dog digging in the sand stayed with us long after the film has ended.

A film with self-assured direction. Its world is convincing and richly textured, and the editing is precise, binding all of the components into a unified experience. One senses the presence of a sharp editor who merged seamlessly with the world the film’s director created. 

A film built upon a well-crafted genre world. It succeeds in distilling, with honest and humor, the world of a young girl coping with the dissolution of her family. There is a sense of a director with a confident eye behind the camera.

The film portrays a touching relationship between a mother and her son, and manages to evoke fear and suspense regarding the characters’ future. The casting is excellent, and the camera captures moments worthy of the big screen.

Jury Statement: A film that brings a sensitive and significant angle to the subjects of loss and grief. Nadav Eder, in the role of the film’s protagonist, Asi, delivers an excellent, finely tuned, and affective performance, capturing the depth of the pain with striking humanity.

We fell in love with the characters of Engine of Love. We admired its original and cohesive screenplay, its confident and mature direction, and especially the outstanding casting of its two lead actresses. Together, these elements created a complete cinematic experience that was funny, original, and deeply moving.

The protagonist, a paramedic, finds refuge in the one place where she feels she truly belongs rather than like an outsider: saving other people’s lives, so she never has to confront her own. But as the pressure and exhaustion build, her relentless dedication begins to endanger everyone around her.
Through the film’s cinematic language, the audience experiences reality exactly as she does. The trance is the moment when she continues to function, yet ceases to be truly present—and that is the journey we take alongside her.
In the film’s final scene, it becomes clear that the trance in which she has been trapped endangered not only herself, but everyone around her.
Trance is an emotionally powerful and immersive cinematic experience that draws the audience deep into its protagonist’s state of mind.

“Paws in Paradise” is telling a unique story that captivated the jury, thanks to well-designed characters and a humorous approach to the complex challenge of a father–son relationship. The jury particularly recognizes the special narrative craftsmanship that keeps the audience engaged all the way to the end.

We found Happy as Can Be to be filmed with both virtuosity and remarkable restraint. We admired its use of unique spaces and natural light, as well as the way the protagonist's face was captured. Together, these elements created unforgettable cinematic moments.

“Sun fell and rolled” takes the spectator on an empathetic journey into the early life of a deaf boy. The jury was especially impressed by the film’s editing, which allows the audience to fully immerse themselves in an unusual and compelling experience, drawing us in from start to finish and captivating everyone.

In our view, the outstanding film weaves humor and emotion together naturally and precisely, in a balance that carries its viewers across a full spectrum of feeling from the first frame to the last. The screenplay is smart and cohesive; the ensemble's excellent performances lend the characters depth, credibility, and presence; and the direction is distinctive and sharp. This is a complete, living, and deeply moving film that proves how an excellent idea and an original, singular execution can turn a small story into a great experience.

Through sensitive and precise filmmaking, the film guides its story with delicacy, restraint, and a steady hand. The screenplay unfolds in an original and surprising way. Its intelligent direction reveals the protagonist's inner world through striking cinematic means, connecting us to her feelings even when she does not put them into words. For meticulous direction, accomplished writing, and a rich visual language.

The film's strength lies in an original and thought-provoking cinematic choice that, through an intimate point of view, surfaces meaningful questions about the state of Israeli society today. Rather than dictating answers, the film invites the viewer to observe, reflect, and form a position of their own. Its creators integrate smart, surprising humor that makes a heavy, dramatic subject accessible — and in doing so sharpen their pointed social statement.

A human and honest film that touched us in a particular way. Beautifully shot and built with sensitivity and confidence, the film rests on the excellent performance of its young heroine, who carries an entire emotional world on her shoulders with restraint and naturalness. The precise writing and sincere direction come together into delicate, compassionate filmmaking. The film reminds us of cinema's power to stir identification, emotion, and thought. For all of these, the jury has chosen to award an Honorable Mention to Yerus.

A relentless mosquito whose bite turns monstrous, threatening to shatter the hollow routines of bourgeois life in the luxury houses steadily overtaking Israel. Something With Yoav depicts the strange world of a young techie desperately trying to make sense of a world that doesn't make sense at all. The film creatively dances between ironic humor, dark Lynch-paranoia-atmosphere and lots of originality.

A seemingly old home-video of a girl’s birthday, ending with the family posing for a photo, is surprisingly and compulsively reenacted time and again, with small but significant variations. This film admirably opts for a subdued and nuanced tone that will frustrate expectations for clear resolutions, but gratifies in its subdued accumulation of details, and subtle reflection on the construction of memory..

Negar Soufi’s film transforms the artist’s self-portrait into a powerful mirror reflecting the experiences of countless young Iranian women whose voices and identities are subjected to violence, erasure, and silencing. Through a fragmented, collage-based visual language—one that embraces interruption, distortion, and the glossy aesthetics of magazine imagery—Soufi crafts an act of self-examination, confronting the privileges and complexities of an Iranian woman who found refuge in the United States.

The film presents viewers with a dystopian vision of a world where almost anything can be obtained with a single clap. We are all already used to reciting that Medium is the Message, but this project introduces a much-needed innovation for our time: a tripartite union between form, content, and method of execution. The provocative story seeks to shine a spotlight on the consequences of utilizing new technologies, and the creators certainly back up their words with actions. On the ground floor of the production: tight animation, glossy art, and polished cinematography. On the second floor: a layer of glitches and AI-generated artifacts. This unique combination produces the exact sense of digital alienation that the creators warn against. The humane form fits the humane message, and is executed by human beings, for human beings.

A project that manages to be personal and revealing, while at the same time evoking deep relatability. The creator finds new ways to use the personal as raw material. The viewer is enlisted to step into her shoes with the help of interactive tools of expression. With precise visual design, original moments of interactive animation, and impossible decision-making crossroads, the creator seeks to hold up a mirror to her surroundings. In a brave, funny, and open manner, the creator asserts her presence, her fears, and her sense of foreignness in a space that attempts to diminish her. The work begins as an absurd bureaucratic journey in the manner of Ephraim Kishon, and continues as an eloquent, funny, and captivating social statement. A statement about our inability as individuals to see others as they truly are, without preconceptions. But no less importantly, about Israeli society's impossible aspiration for homogeneity.