TISFF – the Tel Aviv International Student Film Festival will take place from August 20 – 27, 2025. The festival was postponed from its original June dates due to the war. Although some changes have been made to accommodate the new time frame, most of the original programming will be presented as planned, and some new guests, leading members of the film industry, will attend the festival. Considered one of the top student and short film festivals worldwide, TISFF is a favorite of mine for its creativity, energy, and the diversity of its program. The festival will screen close to 100 short films from 20 countries, among them are: France, South Korea, Denmark, India, Mexico, Romania, and Japan. The festival also reflects the current situation in Israel, with special events and a focus on the role of art and filmmaking, with films that observe the new reality through the lens of the camera. The festival is an all-volunteer effort, produced and run by students of The Steve Tisch School of Film & Television at Tel Aviv University.
The festival will host several leading film industry members as guests of honor, who will conduct master classes and screen their films. Guests of the festival will include: American film editor Jay Rabinowitz (Requiem for a Dream, Broken Flowers, 8 Mile); French director and screenwriter Noé Debré (Dheepan, Stillwater); and French documentary filmmaker Yves Jeuland (Charlie Chaplin, The Genius of Liberty, All About Yves Montand). The festival will host a retrospective of Austrian documentary filmmaker Michael Glawogger’s films, known for his strong, uncompromising style, which will include a screening of Untitled, the final film he shot before his untimely death of malaria in 2014. Film editor Jean-Christophe Bouzy, known for his work on director Julia Ducournau’s Raw (2016) and Titane (2021) as well as the recent Alpha, which premiered in the official competition at Cannes, was originally scheduled to attend the festival, but instead will conduct an online master class.
The festival organizers have added programming that directly relates to the current reality in Israel. This will include a master class with Director Eran Kolirin, that will focus on his latest film, Some Notes on the Current Situation, that will hold its world premiere at the Locarno Film Festival. In addition to events relating to filmmaking in light of the situation and its impact on filmmakers, there will be screenings of short Israeli films that have participated in the festival over the years and deal with the Middle East as seen from the perspective of local filmmakers.
Festival Directors Oshrit Bitton and Daniel Gat released a statement: “Before the Israel-Iran war in June, we felt how crucial it is to hold the festival in these times of uncertainty. Since then, the situation has only become more extreme and this statement has become all the more relevant. While we are still in the midst of an ongoing war, legal crises, and calls for boycotts on Israel, we are proud to defend our democratic-cinematic pearl – The Tel Aviv International Student Film Festival. The festival is an occasion of hope, solidarity, and creativity, that audiences, filmmakers, and our volunteers anticipate each year. We believe that the function of art is to build bridges between voices, to nurture listening and sincere understanding between people, to encourage values of humanity, mutual respect, and open mindedness. We would like to thank, from the depths of our hearts, all the international filmmakers who courageously and responsibly chose to stand by these values, and confirm their participation in the festival, despite the many pressures on them. In the same breath, we would like to recognize the local filmmakers, who continue to tell their stories, to fight for their voice, to create and distribute film, even when the Israeli and international reality confronts them with many challenges. We hope that the festival will be a source of strength, inspiration, and consolation for our audiences in these difficult times, and hope for the immediate return of all the hostages and an end to the war. We send our wishes for the health and complete recovery of Michal Weits, Artistic Director of the Docaviv Festival, who, along with her family, was injured in the Israel-Iran war.”
Opening ceremonies will be hosted by the model and actor Agam Rodberg. The evening’s program will feature pre-premiere screenings of two short films, winners of last year’s pitching event.
Carmen is a film directed by Yahli Maoz, and was developed in the Shorts on the Way program, in collaboration with the Gesher Film Fund. The film depicts Carmen, a caregiver from the Philippines, and Aliza, the woman she cares for, as a lost cat leads them out of the house. Beneath their hope hides a deep secret that ties the two together and unsettles Carmen’s identity.
Pillowz is an animated film by Animoshe. It was developed in the Animation Shorts Project, with the collaboration of the Makor Foundation. Terry, a big and violent troll, is haunted by his past and seeks redemption. The soft, amiable, small dwarves whom he treats roughly and rudely, demand that he change his ways and are rewarded with a revolutionary, yet controversial, rescue mission.
Loss and Intimacy – in collaboration with the Intangible Cinema Project
After a tragic disaster of such immense proportions, is it possible to redefine the personal and home space, that became, in an instant, so alien and threatening? In the films shown here, three directors create visual diaries, in which the camera is a means for exploring and observing the complexity of the reality they experience. Documentary images and an experimental aesthetic enables the expression of feelings of estrangement, disconnection, as well as the first attempts at healing the breach. Rotem Elkayam and Shani Cohen are two young filmmakers who created their films while evacuated from their homes in Sderot and Nir Am following October 7. In the early 1970s the then unknown Chantal Akerman moved to New York, where she shot her short film La Chambre (The Room). These three films, made across a span of 50 years, and under different circumstances represent an experience of exploring and existence that challenges cinematic practice. The Intangible Cinema Project was created after October 7 by filmmakers who experienced the horrific events of that day. The project seeks to emphasize the importance of the presence of those events on the Israeli cinematic landscape and engaging with them in terms of content and production, providing a platform for creators who personally experienced those events. The program is curated by Shani Kiniso and Judith Langlert.
An Award for “Most Promising Director” in memory of Yahav Weiner z”l, who was murdered on October 7, 2023 at Kfar Aza. The prize is supported by the generosity of Galit Gutman.
This year marks the second annual event in memory of Maya Puder, who was murdered at the Nova Festival on October 7, 2024. A film student, Maya was about to begin her second year of studies in the production program at the Steve Tisch School of Film & Television at Tel Aviv University. She worked as a volunteer in the 25th edition of TISFF in 2023. An evening in tribute to Maya Puder and her love of cinema will be hosted by Zohar Orbach and Maya Dagan. Celebrating Maya’s life and the joy that characterized her, will be a special karaoke screening of Grease, one of her favorite films. Maya’s mother relates that Maya loved to sing and dance, and that is how we will choose to remember her with love, dance, and song.
The “Film Bus”, a flagship project of the festival, will set out on its way a week before the festival opens. Filmmakers whose films are participating in the festival’s competitions will be on the bus, which will stop in different communities throughout the country to provide open air screenings of films as well as encounters with the films’ creators. This year, the bus will head north, and will reach Beit Alpha, Degania Bet, Mizra, and Nir David. On the final day of its journey, the bus will arrive in Tel Aviv for a screening at the Eretz Israel Museum in collaboration with the “Devek” group of the Tel Aviv Municipality. The Film Bus Project is made possible this year through the support and encouragement of the Matanel Foundation.
Black Screen – Free Cinema in the Midst of War
What happens to cinema when life takes place in the shadow of war, and reality is redefined? In collaboration with Shablulim Film (Snails Cinema) the festival will present short films created in the reality of war, political pressures, and censorship, by young filmmakers who insisted on continuing to create, despite the circumstances. It is subversive cinema in a deep sense, exposing with courage and intelligence the influences on creative freedom. The films selected are not only about freedom of expression, they are fighting for it with their very existence.
The festival will hold five major competitions: the Israeli Competition, the International Competition, the Short Independent Film Competition, the Experimental Film & Video Competition, and the Digital Media Competition. This year, for the first time, in the context of the Digital Media Competition, there will also be a program of films that were made with AI. The full schedule and additional information is available on the TISFF website.
