city Tel Aviv: Last News

Israeli director Hillel Rate’s drama The Good Fence, set against the backdrop of a right-wing religious settlement, has won the $50,000 Grand Prize for the 12th edition of the Jerusalem Sam Spiegel International Film Lab.

The Israeli army has struck Houthi targets in Yemen.

Big Thief has announced the departure of their bassist and founding member Max Oleartchik.The indie-folk band took to Instagram to announce the news, writing: “After many beautiful years together, Max is no longer in Big Thief. Our love for each other is infinite, and we are so grateful for all we have shared these many years together since the beginning of our journey as a band.“We wouldn’t be who we are without Max,” they continued.

Radiohead‘s Jonny Greenwood has defended being part of a musical project with Israeli musician Dudu Tassa and spoken out against “silencing Israeli artists for being born Jewish in Israel”.Greenwood performed with Tassa in Tel Aviv on May 26. The day before, he reportedly participated in protests calling for hostages held in Gaza to be released and new elections to be held.They played material from their collaborative album of Arabic love songs, ‘Jarak Qaribak’, which was released last year.Greenwood’s performance was criticised by pro-Palestine activists who accused him of “artwashing genocide”.The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), a founding member of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement called for “peaceful, creative pressure on his band Radiohead to convincingly distance itself from this blatant complicity in the crime of crimes, or face grassroots measures.”PACBI also pointed out that at the same time that Greenwood’s concert was taking place, Israeli forces were bombing displaced Palestinians sheltering in tents in Rafah, Gaza, which had prompted a large outcry on social media in the last week.

Virgin Atlantic will resume flights between London Heathrow and Israel, the airline has announced. A daily flight will operate in each direction between Heathrow and Tel Aviv from September 5.

K.J. Yossman Israel’s foremost documentary market CoPro has unveiled its main slate ahead of the event next month.

Ellise Shafer Jerry Seinfeld received an honorary degree at Duke University’s commencement on Sunday, but before he could begin his speech, the comedian was met with student walkouts. According to the New York Times, dozens of students left the graduation ceremony and chanted “Free, free Palestine” in protest of Seinfeld, who has been vocal about his support of Israel. Others in the crowd responded to the protesters with applause and cheers of approval for Seinfeld, who began his speech with, “Thank you.

K.J. Yossman Israel’s leading documentary co-production market CoPro is set to return next month for its 26th edition in a hybrid format amidst the ongoing war in the region.

International TV veteran Avi Armoza has bought back his Tel Aviv formats company from ITV Studios.

Iran has launched drones toward Israel today, in highly anticipated retaliatory strikes that the White House said is “likely to unfold over a number of hours.”

Marc Malkin Senior Editor, Culture and Events Growing up in Israel meant that “We Were the Lucky Ones” actor Amit Rahav was taught about the Holocaust at any early age. His childhood in Tel Aviv included a school trip to concentration camps in Poland. “It’s mandatory in the curriculum,” Rahav tells Variety.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent AMC’s streaming service Acorn TV has bought “The Truth,” a crime thriller series co-written by Daphna Levin (“Euphoria”) and Aurit Zamir (“Babysitter”). Sold by About Premium Content, the series was picked up by Acorn TV for the U.S., the U.K. and Australia/New Zealand.

EXCLUSIVE: Top NY comic Modi Rosenfeld has announced that his debut special, Know Your Audience, will be available everywhere via 800 Pound Gorilla on March 22nd. He’s also unveiled a trailer that you can view above.

the Israel-Hamas war rages on. The 44-year-old “Girls Trip” actress and comedian, who found out she was Jewish later in life and had her Bat Mitzvah at 40, went Instagram Live on Tuesday from her “business class” seat on an airplane, letting her 7.4 million followers know that she’s taking a “16-hour” flight from Los Angeles to Israel “to learn and see with my own eyes.”“I’m gonna go meet my future man out there. I’m out.

The Trip despite calls from Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan to film one in America.The show, which sees the pair play fictional/exaggerated versions of themselves and indulge in their love for celebrity impersonations, ran for two series on BBC Two between 2010 and 2014. Two more followed on Sky Atlantic and Sky One, with the most recent being 2020’s The Trip To Greece.Last summer, Coogan said that he and Brydon should make another series ahead of a meeting with Winterbottom.“I think certainly there will be more stuff to say, because middle age is different to just getting old,” said Coogan at the time.

Guns N’ Roses have released the trippy, AI-generated new video for ‘The General’, a track they released in December 2023.Produced with creative director Dan Potter of the London-based studio Creative Works, the video combines live footage with animated sequences that were produced with artificial intelligence. According to Consequence, the band detailed the animated portions of the video in a press release.“Between the concert footage, [the video] dives into the subconscious of a young boy who stares down the monsters of dark childhood memories, blurring worlds in the process,” it wrote.

Massive Attack have spoken out about their boycott of gigs in Israel since 1999.The trip-hop group took to their official X/Twitter account to respond to someone’s comment about their performance in the country. “Your shows in Tel Aviv were fantastic,” read the tweet.Massive Attack replied with: “Massive Attack have not performed (& will not perform) in Israel since the international request was made by Palestinian civic society & artistic institutions in 2002 (reiterated in 05 as BDS) as a form of non-violent pressure on Israel to end its brutal occupation of Palestine.They continued: “The band took a decision not to perform in Israel in 1999 – some years before the Palestinian call for international boycott was made – based on our own observations of military oppression, occupation & apartheid.”Massive Attack have not performed (& will not perform) in Israel since the international request was made by Palestinian civic society & artistic institutions in 2002 (reiterated in 05 as BDS) as a form of non-violent pressure on Israel to end its brutal occupation of Palestine.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Tel Aviv-based sales company Cinephil has acquired world rights for feature documentary “Agent of Happiness,” which delves into the Buddhist kingdom of Bhutan, ahead of its upcoming Sundance Film Festival debut in the World Cinema Documentary competition. Co-directed by Arun Bhattarai, who is Bhutanese, in tandem with Hungary’s Dorottya Zurbó, “Agent of Happiness” revolves around a 40-year-old man named Amber, who is one of the agents employed by the Bhutanese government to measure its so-called Gross National Happiness level.

EXCLUSIVE: On October 9, 2023, two days after the massacre in the south of Israel which has led to an ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas-led Palestinian militant groups, Jewish writer-director Joseph Cedar called his Palestinian friend, fellow writer-director Tawfik Abu Wael. The two had co-created and co-directed the television series Our Boys for HBO (along with Hagai Levi). That series recreated the events surrounding the murder of Palestinian teenager Mohammed Abu Khedeir in 2014, which ultimately led to an outbreak of war in Gaza that year. 

EXCLUSIVE: Actor Lior Ashkenazi has boarded Israeli-American filmmaker Matthew Mishory‘s Mosolov’s Suitcase, exploring the life and legacy of Ukrainian, early Soviet era, avant-garde composer Alexander Mosolov.

EXCLUSIVE: Greenwich Entertainment picked up U.S. distribution rights to the Tel Aviv-set political thriller Shoshana from BAFTA-winning filmmaker Michael Winterbottom (The Trip, A Mighty Heart).