In a relatively short amount of time, Israel’s entertainment industry has gone from just a single public TV station across the entire country, and a modest film industry, to becoming among the world’s best producers of long-form entertainment.
The same year Israel is founded, sound man Yosef Navon and Yitzhak Agadati, producer of the first Hebrew-language movie, find an investor to buy film and lab equipment. In 1949, the Geva film labs are established at the site of an abandoned woodshed just east of Tel Aviv. That same year, Margot Klausner and Yehoshua Brandstaetter found Israel Motion Picture Studios Herzliya, Israel’s first film studio.
The first “Bourekas” film, Sallah Shabati, is produced by Ephraim Kishon. Bourekas films are a popular Israeli film genre popular in the 1960s and 1970s, focusing on themes like ethnic tensions between the European and Middle Eastern Jews, and the conflict between rich and poor. The term was supposedly coined by Israeli film director Boaz Davidson, the creator of several such films, as a play-on-words after “spaghetti Western.”
Following a law passed three years earlier that created the Israel Broadcasting Authority, black-and-white television broadcasts commence in 1968 on just one government-sanctioned channel, with occasional color transmissions of events like Egyptian President Anwar Sadat’s visit in 1977 and the Eurovision Song Contest 1979. Eventually Israel goes full-on color TV in 1983.
Renen Schorr founds the Israel Film Fund together with Judd Ne’eman and Yeud Levanon. The fund revolutionizes the industry by shifting public support from the Ministry of Commerce and Industry to the Ministry of Education and Culture, an act that recognizes the cultural value of a film over its mere commercial worth. In addition, the fund goes on to yield unprecedented power to the director over the producer.
The Haifa International Film Festival is inaugurated in 1983, the first of its kind in Israel, and the Jerusalem Film Festival follows in 1984. Today, the two festivals combine to screen more than 350 new films every year.
Israel’s first independent, national school for film and television, the Sam Spiegel Film and Television School, is set up in Jerusalem. The school has been the subject of some 190 tributes and retrospectives in 55 countries at international festivals, and its films have won 400-plus international and local prizes, including twice First Prize at the Cannes Film Festival.
Ricky Shelah founds the Israeli Academy of Film and Television. Each year, the academy gives the Israeli Film Academy Award (known locally as the Ophir Award) for outstanding Israeli films. Since 2003, in light of the progress made by Israel’s television industry, the academy added a separate ceremony in the creative realm of television.
Following a law passed three year earlier commercial television is established in Israel with a second channel, quite fittingly Channel 2. The goal is to enhance pluralism and create competition. Three operators are chosen to broadcast on one channel: Keshet, Telad and Reshet. They receive a broadcasting contract for one decade and work out a rotation agreement amongst themselves.
Two years after it was founded, the local cable TV company HOT premieres an original TV series that revolves around the life of an Israeli psychologist. The HBO series In Treatment — heavily based on the Israeli script — premieres in 2008 and runs for three seasons, winning two Emmys and a Golden Globe.
Keshet premieres the series Prisoners of War, which is recreated into Homeland by Showtime the following year. The latter runs for eight seasons and is one of the network’s all-time most popular shows. Meanwhile, the original Israeli show becomes Hulu’s first-ever foreign-language exclusive in the U.S. in 2012.
Joseph Cedar’s film, about the troubled relationship between a father and son who teach at the Talmud department of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, wins the Best Screenplay Award at the Cannes Film Festival. Footnote also wins nine prizes at the Ophir Awards, becoming Israel’s entry for the 84th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film, eventually losing to an Iranian film at the Oscar’s.
Talya Lavie’s comedy film Zero Motivation, about miserable female soldiers in the IDF, wins the Best Narrative Feature Award at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York. It is also the biggest moneymaker domestically in Israel, drawing more audiences than any Hollywood blockbuster. The movie marks the emergence of several Israeli female directors who begin shaking up the local movie industry.
The political and military thriller originally airs on Israeli satellite TV provider YES, is picked up by Netflix the following year, and quickly becomes the most famous Israeli program on the planet. It has three seasons to date.
Gal Gadot, who was crowned Miss Israel 2004, portrays Wonder Woman in the superhero film Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Her performance as the superhero, which was the character’s first appearance in film, was singled out as one of the best parts of the film, and she becomes a global figure, not to mention Israel’s most beloved actress.
The first “Bourekas” film, Sallah Shabati, is produced by Ephraim Kishon. Bourekas films are a popular Israeli film genre popular in the 1960s and 1970s, focusing on themes like ethnic tensions between the European and Middle Eastern Jews, and the conflict between rich and poor. The term was supposedly coined by the Israeli film director Boaz Davidson, the creator of several such films, as a play-on-words after “spaghetti Western.”
Renen Schorr founds the Israel Film Fund together with Judd Ne’eman and Yeud Levanon. The fund revolutionizes the industry by shifting public support from the Ministry of Commerce and Industry to the Ministry of Education and Culture, an act that recognizes the cultural value of a film over its mere commercial worth. In addition, the fund goes on to yield unprecedented power to the director over the producer.
Israel’s first independent, national school for film and television, the Sam Spiegel Film and Television School, is set up in Jerusalem. The school has been the subject of some 190 tributes and retrospectives in 55 countries at international festivals, and its films have won 400-plus international and local prizes, including twice the First Prize at the Cannes Film Festival.
Following a law passed three year earlier commercial television is established in Israel with a second channel, quite fittingly Channel 2. The goal is to enhance pluralism and create competition. Three operators were chosen to broadcast on one channel: Keshet, Telad and Reshet. They receive a broadcasting contract for one decade and work out a rotation agreement amongst themselves.
Keshet premieres the series Prisoners of War, which is recreated into Homeland by Showtime the following year. The latter runs for eight seasons and is one of the network’s all-time most popular shows. Meanwhile, the original Israeli show becomes Hulu’s first-ever foreign-language exclusive in the U.S. in 2012.
Talya Lavie’s comedy film Zero Motivation, about miserable female soldiers in the IDF, wins the Best Narrative Feature Award at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York. It is also the biggest moneymaker domestically in Israel, drawing more audiences than any Hollywood blockbuster. The movie marks the emergence of several Israeli female directors who begin shaking up the local movie industry.
Gal Gadot, who was crowned Miss Israel 2004, portrays Wonder Woman in the superhero film Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Her performance as the superhero was singled out as one of the best parts of the film, and she becomes a global figure, not to mention Israel’s most beloved actress.
Get to know some of the faces who have played a key role in elevating Israel’s entertainment industry to unprecedented heights.
The Israeli government supports a variety of film funds to ensure and secure more investment in Israeli TV and cinema. Hover over each one to learn more.
israeli film schools
With a population of roughly 8 million people and 21 film schools, Israel is believed to have the world’s most film schools per capita.
With a population of roughly 8 million people and 21 film schools, Israel is believed to have the world’s most film schools per capita.
Since 1960, the Jerusalem Cinematheque’s Israeli Film Archive has been in charge of the safekeeping and preservation of original Israeli narrative and documentary film works – from the late 19th century until present-day. As of 2020, the general public can explore and sample the archive’s generations’ worth of film treasures.
Launched in 2020, IZZY is a TV streaming platform that gives global audiences a "front-row seat" to Israel through unlimited Israeli movies, TV shows, and documentaries — on-demand and from anywhere in the world, all for one low monthly or yearly subscription.
Docushuk is a premium online marketing and streaming service for film professionals, offering access to the vibrant Israeli documentary industry and its latest films, and providing tools for buyers and programmers to stay updated on the best Israeli projects.
T-Port is an innovative non-profit online platform aimed at promoting emerging talent and facilitating the distribution of short films within the professional film industry.
Meet the people who export Israeli entertainment around the world.
Inspired by the true events of the 1973 Yom Kippur War in Israel, the series follows young combatants thrust into a war that was later revealed could have been avoided by leaders they blindly trusted.
A Mossad agent goes undercover on her first mission in Iran’s capital, which also happens to be the place of her birth; the mission has implications not just for the Middle East, but for the rest of the world.
Shadowed by a strict, military father who inflicts severe methods of punishment as a form of discipline, 17-year-old Ariella commits a grave error that her father isn’t willing to punish her for.
This three-part documentary series follows the development of Israel’s breakthrough, lifesaving technological wonder — the so-called “Iron Dome” — across a journey from vanity, denial, tragedy, and panic, to sacrifice, genius, and euphoria.
“Your Honor” closely follows the original Israeli “Kvodo” storyline, with a judge trying to cover up his son’s asthma-induced accidental hit-and-run killing of a crime lord’s son.
Based on the true events which led to the outbreak of war in Gaza in 2014, the series follows the investigation of Mohammed Abu Khdeir’s murder, and tells the story of all those involved, Jews and Arabs alike.
The award-winning series follows three 20-somethings on the autism spectrum as they strive to find work, make friends and fall in love while living together in Tel Aviv. The U.S. version will move the story from Israel to someplace more familiar to American viewers.
This series follows a multicultural mix of men and women deployed as army medics to a forward operating base in Afghanistan nicknamed “The Orphanage.”
48-year-old film director Alice becomes obsessed with a 24-year-old screenwriter femme fatale, Sophie, and eventually surrenders her moral integrity in order to achieve power, relevance and success.
After surviving a restaurant bombing in Jerusalem, two criminals decide to change their ways. They fulfill the wishes of strangers by answering prayers left at the Wailing Wall.
The Israel Film Fund’s founding in 1978 gave unprecedented influence to the director. Here are some of the notable Israeli directors whose work you’ve likely seen.
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