The Jury Prize to an Israeli Feature Film, donated by the Haifa Arts Foundation, was awarded to two movies: “Of Dogs and Men” and “Some Notes on the Current Situation”.

Members of the Jury:

Bernd Buder              

Member of the European Film Academy, freelance curator, lecturer and film journalist. Program Director of the Cottbus Film Festival; co-Director of the Berlin-Brandenburg Jewish Film Festival.

Shmulik Duvdevani  

Researcher, lecturer and film critic; member of the Board of the Docaviv Festival; lector for the Israel Film Foundation, Makor Foundation, and the Rabinowitz Foundation.

Lisa Shiloach-Uzrad

            Senior executive and producer in the Israeli television and film areas; lecturer at the Sam Spiegel Film & Television School; public representative on the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corp.; Chairperson of the Board of the Israeli Content Marketing Foundation CoPro. 

Nir Bergman

            Award-winning director; one of the leading Israel film and TV directors.

Of Dogs and Men

•  

  Ø  Production: Itai Tamir, Alexander Rodnyansky, Donatella Palermo

  Ø  Direction: Dani Rosenberg

  Ø  Scriptwriting: Dani Rosenberg, Ori Avinoam, Itai Tamir

  Ø  Cinematography: Ziv Berkowitz

  Ø  Editing: Nili Feller

  Ø  Music: Yuval Semo

  Ø  Soundtrack: Itzik Cohen, Neal Gibbs

  Ø  Casting: Limor Shmila, Oded Peretz

  Ø  Production Company: Laila Films, AR Content

  Ø  Co-Production: Italy

   

  Cast:

  Ø  Ori Avinoam

  Ø  Nora Lifshitz

  Ø  Nathan Bahat

  Ø  Yamit Avital

  Early in the morning on October 18, 2023, 16-year old Dar returns to her Kibbutz, Nir Oz, to look for her dog who went missing on that disastrous Saturday. There is no trace of her dog in the abandoned kibbutz, and only memories of her mother, who was kidnapped invade the atmosphere.

  Duration: 82 minutes 

  The Judging Panel:

  “This is a film that aspires to observe trauma as it evolves in front of us. In a blend of narrative and documentary cinematic language, Dani Rosenberg tells us a story of loss and resilience, from a human point of view, evoking empathy. Seen through the eyes of a girl of was torn from her life and is struggling to find a grip onto the unstitched, incoherent reality, while searching for her dog that was lost in the October 7th attack”.

  Festivals

  Ø   2024 Venice Film Festival - Orizzonti

  Ø  2024 Busan International Film Festival

  Ø  2024 Mar del Plata Film Festival

  Ø  2024 Woodstock Film Festival

  Ø  2025 Hong Kong International Film Festival

  Ø  2025 Haifa International Film Festival – Awarded the Jury Prize

Some Notes on the Current Situation

•  

  Ø  Production: Shahar Katzenstein

  Ø  Direction: Eran Kolirin

  Ø  Scriptwriting: Eran Kolirin 

  Ø  Cinematography: Danny Schneor

  Ø  Editing: Tal Hadani, Eran Kolirin

  Ø  Music: Karni Postel

  Ø  Soundtrack: Avi Mizrachi

  Ø  Casting: Limor Shmila, Oded Peretz

  Ø  Production Company: Co-Productzia 

   

  Cast:

  Ø  Noa Cohen

  Ø  Guy Nataf

  Ø  Tal Perelman

  Ø  Yonatan Shimony

  Ø  Yehezkel Lazarov

   

  This is six-episode movie, in which a young man is caught up in a strange ritual during which the world is turned around. A group of pushers, trying to start a car, get into a driving crisis. A group of soldiers plans to make a film for a streaming service. After an encounter with municipal representatives, a woman who immigrated to the north finds that her life has unexpectedly changed. A young couple moves snow to a movie location that keeps distancing itself from them. A hasidic legend about a yeshiva student and an Inuit woman. All these detached, absurd episodes form a footnote divorced from reality, a comment on current human, social and existential aspects of life.  

   

  Duration: 79 minutes

   

  The Judging Panel:

  “Eran Kolirin creates a new, intriguing and inspiring cinematic language, while leaving for the viewer space to search for the story on his own. In a sequence of surreal images that are transmitted in a creative freedom impregnated with humor and delicate irony, Kolirin advances one more step in his intrepid and absurd trip through the Israeli and Jewish identity throughout his films”.  

   

  Festivals

  Ø  2025 Haifa International Film Festival – Awarded the Jury Prize

  Ø  2025 Woodstock Film Festival

  Ø  2025 Locarno Film Festival

  Ø  2025 Hong Kong International Film Festival