The “Focus on Israel” Conference took place at the International Cultural Centre.
The “Focus on Israel” Conference took place at the International Cultural Centre.
The guests gave a short presentation on how the Israeli film productions are financed. The funds are provided to high extent by a national fund. High budget productions are facilitated by international collaboration, which, above all, increases the opportunities of raising funds and, additionally, the chances to reach broader audience.
Since there is not one institution which would finance co-productions, the Israeli film industry looks for other opportunities of raising money. Until now, the filmmakers collaborated mainly with European and American TV stations. However, due to the large amount of projects in development, many of the films are eliminated in the selection process. The support is provided also by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Yet another source of subsidising are, founded during last few years, companies and institutions specialising in co-production and international film promotion. Among them, there is CoPro, Documentary Marketing Foundation, operating since 1999. The institution has been created with the aim of promoting abroad the international documentary co-productions. It supports filmmakers at every stage of production and postproduction by carrying out marketing activities such as publishing a news magazine. As the budget for promotion is scarce, producers may find the promotion network offered by CoPro extremely helpful.
Due to tense political relations in the region, Israel is virtually devoid of the possibility to co-produce with her neighbours. Therefore, Israeli producers look for the chance to collaborate in other countries, which creates a big opportunity for Polish filmmakers.
The guests of the conference were: Riky Zaks, the vice-director general and producer of The New Israeli Foundation for Cinema and TV, a photographer and a journalist, Orna Yarmut, an independent producer, the director of CoPro, Documentary Marketing Foundation, Ruth Diskin, the director of the international marketing and distribution agency Ruth Diskin Films, Philippa Kowarsky, a film and television producer, the owner of the distribution and co-production agency Cinephil, Barak Heymann, a filmmaker and co-owner of Heymann Brothers Films, Ilana Tsur, the artistic director of the International Documentary Film Festival DOCAVIV.
Visit our Photo Gallery from the conference.