Docaviv is proud to announce the Israeli documentaries coming to the festival’s 27th edition
The 27th edition of Docaviv Festival, Israel’s biggest celebration of documentary cinema and the only Israeli festival dedicated exclusively to documentaries, returns to the Tel-Aviv Cinematheque and select Tel Aviv venues from May 22 through May 31.
This year’s festival will open with the Berlinale Best Documentary award winner Holding Liat (directed by American filmmaker Brandon Kramer)—an intimate and hopeful observation of one Israeli-American family’s struggle in the aftermath of October 7. As they navigate each moment leading up to Liat Atzili’s release from captivity, her family must face their own conflicting perspectives and the future of the
places they call home.
A combined total of over 400,000 NIS in prize money and grants will be awarded to this year’s festival winners.
Israel’s largest cash prize for documentary filmmaking will be presented to the winner of The Dov Yudkovsky Best Israeli Documentary Award, named after the renowned newspaper editor and laureate of the Israel Prize for Journalism. The winner will also receive a special grant courtesy of Mifal Hapais Council for Culture and Arts, to be used toward supporting the winning film in preparation for the Academy Awards. Other honors include the Mayor of Tel Aviv–Yafo Award for Best Debut Film, the Yossi Kaufman Best Director Award courtesy of Makor Foundation for Israeli Film and Television, Honorable Mention courtesy of Harel Insurance Investments and Financial Services, the Depth of Field Award in honor of Sarah Sela, the Editing Award, the Cinematography Award courtesy of GeoTours, the Research Award, and the Albi Change-Maker Award.
Israeli Competition Selection Panel
Michal Weits, artistic director of Docaviv Festival; Shark De Mayo, a cinematographer with experience in documentary, narrative, and hybrid films, who has taught at the Sam Spiegel and Steve Tisch film schools (credits include Cemetery Club, The Inner Tour, The Law in These Parts, The Accursed, and Six Acts) and Efrat Shalom Danon, a documentary filmmaker whose films explore feminist and social themes (Abortion in the Holy Land, The Elected, An Ordinary Life, The Dreamers).
Student Competition Selection Committee
Documentary producer Rotem Heyman (Mourning in Lod, Innocence, the series MeHaAdama); documentary filmmaker and musician Adam Weingrod (The Island, I See You); and Docaviv Festival Program Manager Anat Nattel.
Shorts competition curator:
Dr. Nir Ferber
THE ISRAELI LINEUP FOR DOCAVIV 2025 EDITION
ISRAELI COMPETITION:
Know Hope
Israel / United States 2025, 74 minutes, Hebrew, Arabic and English
Depicting characters leaning on crutches and wrapped in bandages, Know Hope’s murals become a self-fulfilling prophecy as chronic illness forces him to recalibrate and create political and participatory art in Palestine-Israel.
Director: Omer Shamir
Production: Shlomi Elkabetz, Galit Kahlon, Libi Lankinsky
Production company: Deaux Beaux Garcons
Orna and Ella
Israel 2025, 56 minutes, Hebrew
Tel Aviv’s iconic restaurant “Orna and Ella” closes after twenty-six years. Director Tomer Heymann captures its final week and the complex friendship of Orna and Ella, two groundbreaking women who shaped the city’s culinary landscape.
Director: Tomer Heymann
Production: Barak Heymann, Tomer Heymann, Leigh Heiman
Production Company: Heymann Brothers Films
HOT8
The First Lady
Israel / Germany 2025, 82 minutes, Hebrew, French and German
Fearing for her life, Israeli transgender pioneer Efrat Tilma fled the country as a teenager. Now in her seventies and a celebrated activist, she must fight for her freedom once again as the country spirals into political and social regression.
Director: Udi Nir, Sagi Bornstein
Production: Udi Nir, Sagi Bornstein, Christian Beetz
Production Company: uvs films, Beetz Brothers Film Production
Kan 11
Daytrip
Israel / Canada 2024, 75 minutes, Hebrew, English and Dari
August 2021: International forces withdraw from Afghanistan as the Taliban swiftly takes over, imposing Sharia Law. Four prominent Afghan women, now fugitives, put their faith in an impromptu group of activists devoted to saving their lives as world superpowers retreat.
Director: Roni Aboulafia
Production: Osnat Saraga, Inbal Levy
Production company: Ananey Studio
Adaptation to Darkness
Israel 2025, 85 minutes, Hebrew, English and German
Dr. Edwin Katzen-Ellenbogen – a brilliant pioneer in psychiatry, a mysterious spy, charming conman, and notorious hypnotist, left a trail of deceit before becoming the only Jew ever convicted as a Nazi war criminal.
Director: Shay Fogelman
Production: Hilla Medalia
Production Company: Medalia Productions
Yes Doco
Al-Muharibeen
Israel 2025, 86 minutes, Arabic
An inter-generational discovery journey of a bookseller and his nephew, who are made to smuggle books in the face of Israel’s ongoing oppression of Arab Palestinian culture and identity.
Director: Tony Copti, Yaniv Berman
Production Company: Fresco Films
Makan
Sun Bay
Israel 2025, 70 minutes, Hebrew
Shadowed by the grand hotels of Eilat lies a hidden trailer park known as “Sun Bay.” Against the site’s uncertainty, three of its residents attempt to settle the tension between their current loneliness and the lives they left behind.
Director: Ido Weisman
Production: Hadar Masasa, Guy Yaaqov Hammel
Production company: Masasa Productions
Kan 11
Girl, Woman
Israel 2024, 78 minutes, Hebrew
Ella receives a mysterious suitcase with home videos kept secret by her mother, singer Dafna Armony, revealing her father’s identity. A family portrait of two women who merge into one.
Director: Ella Armony
Production: Shula Spiegel, Dana Eden, Tal Leviathan
Production Company: Donna and Shula Production
HOT 8
Necropolis
Israel / Spain 2025, 75 minutes, Hebrew and Arabic
In a city where death is present at every corner, Necropolis dives underground on a vivid cinematic journey – between hard labor and sacred work, technology and tradition, resurrection and eternal war.
Director: Keren Alexander
Production: Kobi Mizrahi
Production Company: KM Productions, ARTEFACTO FÍLMICO
Kan 11
Flower
Israel 2025, 82 minutes, Hebrew
A chance meeting between photographer Anna Yam and a young homeless woman known as “Flower” sparks mutual curiosity, leading to a taboo-breaking journey through the dark backyard of Tel Aviv.
Director: Anna Yam, Itamar Rose
Production: Itamar Rose
Kan 11
Kichka: Telling Myself
Israel 2025, 60 minutes, Hebrew and French
Towards his retirement, illustrator, comics artist, and member of the ‘second-generation’ Michel Kichka reveals his tragic family story in the shadow of his father, a Holocaust survivor. He attempts to draw lines between his tragic past and the state of Israeli society today.
Director: Gad Aisen
Production: Gads Films
Production Company: Donna and Shula Production
Kan 11
The Rovina legacy
Israel 2025, 74 minutes, Hebrew
The story of the Rovina dynasty: legendary actress of the Hebrew Theatre, Hanna Rovina, her daughter, acclaimed singer Ilana Rovina. Through rare archives, the film explores their beauty, complexity, and the difficult choices that shaped their lives.
Director: Sigal Rosh
Production: Stav Morag Meron
Production Company: Pardes Films
HOT 8
Shooting
Israel 2025, 80 minutes, Hebrew, Arabic, English and French
Through three distinct stories, Shooting delves into the ethical dimension of the collaboration between Israel’s film and television industry and the security establishment.
Director: Netalie Braun
Production: Netalie Braun, Tal Barda
Yes Doco
BEYOND THE SCREEN COMPETITION – NAMED AFTER ILANA TZUR:
Out At Six
Israel 2025, 52 minutes, Hebrew
Can a woman’s murder by her partner be foreseen? The story of a 17-year-old girl from a good home who enters a relationship and starts moving away from her family and friends is interwoven into an 8-stage model that predicts her way to the end, but she gets out at stage six.
Director: Livvie Kessel
Production: Sol Goodman, Livvie Kessel
Production Company: Anemos Productions
Kan 11
Iman’s Boat
Israel / Canada / Greece 2025, 60 minutes, Hebrew, Arabic, English, French, Greek, Persian
Iman, an Iranian refugee and theater teacher, finds balm for his soul at the School of Peace on Lesbos Island. When the school is set on fire, he must decide how to continue his and his students’ journey toward healing.
Director: Nir Dvortchin, Guy Wasserman
Production: Elad Peleg, Hagai Arad, Aharon peer, Paul Cadieux, Guy Wasserman, Nir Dvortchin
Production Company: Daroma production – Israel, Filmoption – Canada
Depth of Field Competition – In Honor of Sarah Sela, with Gratitude from Her Friends
Return
Israel / Germany 2025, 62 minutes, German
Over a decade of silence ends with the return of the director to her ultra-orthodox house. A hidden family archive reveals a forbidden form of life, nothing like the one she once knew.
Director: Bar Mayer
Production: Haggai Arad, Aharon Peer, Elad Peleg, Britt Beyer
Production Company: Daroma production
Yes Doco, ARTE
8th Day of Khamsin
Poland / Israel 2024, 77 minutes, Hebrew, English and Polish
A hypnotic, multi-layered documentary in which personal memory collides with literature. Blending unseen 1950s archival footage with present-day reflections, it traces the exile of a cult Polish writer in Israel, where a man becomes a shadow of himself, of his nation, and his legend turned a ghost.
Director: Zvika Gregory Portnoy
Production: Maria Krauss, Agnieszka Balicka, Robert Banasiak, Ami Drozd, Marek Rozenbaum
Production Company: Plesnar & Krauss FILMS Sp. z o.o., TVP SA, Wroclaw Feature Film Studio, Transfax Films Production, ATS Production
SHORTS COMPETITION
Dear Mom,
Israel 2025, 30 minutes, Hebrew
On October 7th, Yael, who has special needs, survived the massacre at her home in Be’eri while her mother, Ofra, was kidnapped to Gaza. Now, she must adapt to life on her own.
Director: Gala Kaplun, Maor Alteras, Danna Levy
Production: Danna Levy
Shivtown
France / Israel 2024, 25 minutes, Hebrew
Shivtown chronicles my journey as a military photographer, confronting a grueling three-year service. By documenting my life on an artillery base in the desert, the film brings a glimmer of hope amidst the brutality.
Director: Hillel Ben-Zeev Perlov
Production: Olivier Berlemont, Yael Perlov
Production Company: Origine Films
STUDENTS COMPETITION
After Counting All Votes
Israel 2024, 29 minutes, Hebrew
A country in turmoil catches a young filmmaker trying to make choices about his future as he has growing concerns that he is documenting the end of an era.
Director: Amnon Halbersberg
Production: Roy Bareket, Mika Friehmann
Production Company: Sam Spiegel Film & Television School
The Sam Spiegel Film and TV School
Why Go Outdoors?
Israel 2024, 13 minutes, Hebrew
The director documents her autistic girlfriend, Ester, to help her overcome her extreme anxiety about being outdoors and for the future of their relationship.
Director: Noga Sieradzki
Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem
Temporary Identity
Israel 2024, 29 minutes, Hebrew
In a southern Tel Aviv elementary school, a fourth-grade class of asylum seekers and their teacher address the question of identity head-on.
Directors & Production: Michael Anug, Roni Levin
The Sam Spiegel Film and TV School
Not Home
Israel 2025, 29 minutes, Hebrew and Thai
Thai worker Not has built a life in southern Israel where he raises chickens for cockfights. But his family is in Thailand, and his visa is about to expire.
Director: Reut Ben Shushan
The Sam Spiegel Film and TV School
Kicking the Family Curse
Israel 2025, 28 minutes, Hebrew
In an effort to understand the workings of romantic love, Aviya embarks upon a journey of discovery with her mother and aunts, all of whose marriages have failed.
Director: Aviya Shaked
Maaleh Film School
The King of Shlock
Israel 2025, 26 minutes, Hebrew and English
Lenny, a legendary American Jewish rock star from the 1980s, is determined to make a comeback in the age of social media.
Director: Shmuel Elmaleh
Maaleh Film School
The Fair Sex
Israel 2024, 3 minutes, Hebrew
The Fair Sex quotes an excerpt from the book “Feminism as I Taught My Daughters” by Maya Tevet Dayan. It reflects a woman’s awakening to her place in the world.
Director:Bar Zeltser
Shenkar College
Make Yourself at Home
Israel 2024, 51 minutes, Hebrew
Discovering her adoptive grandfather’s true identity shatters Talia’s idealized view of her family and childhood in the kibbutz. Using her camera and home video footage, she seeks the truth and reconstructs her story.
Director: Talia Vekshtein
Production: Talia Vekshtein, Maayan Kapach
The Steve Tisch School of Film and Television, Tel Aviv University
PANORAMA
Left Behind
China / Israel 2025, 86 minutes, Chinese
The journey of a boy (14) who deals with his mother’s absence while trying to find work in the big city. She returns home once every three years. His loneliness leads him to write diaries.
Director: Shosh Shlam
Production: Shosh Shlam, Umit Uludag
Production Company: Corso Films
ARTE
Ada Sereni: The Lady In The Black Dress
Israel 2025, 60 minutes, Hebrew
Who was Ada Sereni, “The Lady in the Black Dress”? Ada was the only woman to command the secret intelligence organization HaMossad Le’Aliyah Bet, but she was marginalized and forgotten from the pages of history.
Director: Noa Aharoni
Production: Levi Zini
Production Company: Doc.Films Ltd
Kan 11
Another One Like Me
Israel 2025, 70 minutes, Hebrew
On the first day of school, a chance encounter between two girls sparks a surprising chain of events. An inexplicable resemblance leads to an emotional journey of hope, fear, and intimate documentation. At eighteen, they set out to uncover a long-held secret.
Director: Tzipi Baider
Production: Mor Tregger Natali Kakon
Production Company: kastina communication
HOT 8
My Bee Family
Israel 2025, 56 minutes, Hebrew
For a decade, Adva documents the men in her family. Three generations of beekeepers. Through the changing seasons, they experience uncertainty, anticipation, aging, and death, alongside renewal and a profound connection to nature, their homeland, and one another.
Director: Adva Ofir
Production: Kobi Azran
Production Company: Solyo Films
YEAR
Israel 2024, 75 minutes, Hebrew
Does the role of a parent end when a child dies? Year depicts the honest attempts of a father whose child has died to cope with the emotional confusion brought on by the most devastating pain experienced in his life.
Director & Production: Yoni Tzruya
Game Changer
Israel 2025, 40 minutes, Hebrew and English
Nevet, an autistic filmmaker who learned to communicate with the world through computer games, embarks on a journey of meeting different people in Israel who use gaming to cope with the challenges in their lives.
Director: Nevet Mazor
Production: Orly Topel, Vivi Halpern
Production Company: Kol Miney Productions
Kan 11
The Jewish Connection
Israel 2025, 52 minutes, Hebrew and English
In the summer of 1970, Jewish gangster Meyer Lansky flees to Israel seeking refuge. His notorious presence triggers a media storm, forcing Prime Minister Golda Meir to choose between granting him citizenship or deportation.
Director: Avi Maor Marzuk
Production: Lee Kuperman, Lilach Shayo, Aviv Ben Slush, Avi Marzuk
Production Company: Zoa Films
Kan 11
ART AND CULTURE
HORA
Israel 2025 , 62 minutes, Hebrew
Hora reveals the dream of local dance. It is an allegory of Israeli identity, both past and present, through the world of folk dancing, the story of the vision to create a new culture, and the struggle for unity through the feet.
Director & Production : Avi Weissblei
Production Company: amorAim Films
HOT8
The Last Dance and Farewell
Israel 2025, 55 minutes, Hebrew
At 96, former renowned Israeli director Naomi Polani races against time. Confined to a wheelchair, she strives to complete her final choreography for an elderly women’s dance troupe. Will her passion prevail, or will old age overpower her?
Director & Production: Yoav Arazi
Production Company: Yoav Arazi Shaar Hagolan
*The films Descriptions were written by the creators and the Docaviv Festival has no responsibility for the content of these Descriptions.
