At a geographical, social, and political crossroads that seems to be the hottest topic, we are opening a window to a different kind of cinema - a cinema that breaks conventions and is full of audacity. The Cinema South Festival serves as a home for selected cinema, television and animation works from around the world, alongside the freshest voices in Israeli cinema. Cinema South is an open house for lovers of cinema, culture and art, and throughout the year holds peak events, laboratories, incubators and initiatives of unique original projects that are in a state of constant search and curiosity about the power and magic of the screen arts.

The festival takes place in the city of Sderot and the northern and western Negev. In the "Breaking Boundaries" program, the festival is hosted in nearby towns and councils: Shaar Hanegev, Eshkol, Netivot, Rahat, Beersheba, Ashkelon and others. The festival operates in an area characterized by cultural diversity and complex social ties with the near and far environment, and adapts the work included in it to the spirit of the place.

Since 2001, the festival has been held at the initiative of the School of Audio and Visual Arts at Sapir Academic College. It began as a platform for the school's final film competition, and over the years has become an international film festival, one of the largest in Israel, providing a central platform for excellent and radical Israeli and international cinema.

As an event that has been held for decades in a combat zone, and even more so since October 7th, the Cinema South Festival is not only a cinematic event, but also a visual expression of the southern human spirit - which insists on living, creating and being excited. The festival sees its very existence and activity as a social and cultural mission to restore this unique region, with its many and diverse voices, and to tell the local story of the region in the first person, from a personal experience, and to the highest standards. The festival is produced by the people of the south, and reflects the local culture and aspirations of the region. The organizers of the festival see the combination of the different festival audiences, the deliberate eclecticism of the artistic content, and the unique setting of Sderot, the towns and landscapes of the south as the secret of the festival's power.

The artistic program of the festival over the years has promoted independent and subversive cinema: debut works, cinema, television and animation that are made in the periphery, on the margins, that aim to stimulate a critical dialogue. Cinema South Festival celebrates the paucity of means - which requires original and adaptive thinking. The program offers an artistic menu in a wide variety of works, in terms of length, creative process, genre, narrative and more.

The artistic concept of the festival supports cinema as a versatile and dynamic medium, with a story at its center, and all way of achieving this are acceptable. On this basis, the festival promotes work that breaks through and challenges its own boundaries, always. The festival program refers to and works to promote and encourage cinema, television and animation artists from the beginning of their professional path (graduation) and through their first steps into the local and international industry. The festival aims to create direct meetings between established filmmakers and the community of young creators and to be a significant milestone in the professional and creative story of the next generation of filmmakers. It offers not only film screenings but also workshops, pitching events, events for children and youth, and a rich program of musical performances open to the general public free of charge - turning the festival events into a large-scale cinematic celebration.

The Cinema South Festival is proud to give center stage to works and filmmakers who are on the brink of breaking into international and Israeli awareness, and is delighted to have hosted over the years prominent filmmakers in contemporary cinema from around the world such as Carlos Reygadas, Brilinta Mendoza, Anocha Suwichakornpong, Bruno Domo, Kirsten Johnson, Michel Franco, Natalia Alameda, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Pablo Larrain, Marcel Ophuls, Albert Maysles, Mania Akbari, Roberto Minervini, Dominga Sotomayor, Dennis Cota, Bing Wang, Shialo Gu and many more.

Starting in November 2024, Cinema South will operate in the format of two annual festivals, in June and November, which will be the peak events for its annual activity:

"Cinema South: In First Person Perspective", the fall event of Cinema South, will celebrate the final films of the graduates of the Sapir School of Audio and Visual Arts, alongside a rich variety of industry events and artist workshops for the benefit of graduates of cinema, television and animation studies from all educational institutions in Israel. In parallel with these programs that reflect the future of Israeli cinema, there will be screenings and significant events describing the region and the people living here - in the first person.

The Cinema South International Film Festival will be held again at the beginning of summer, and will include the various festival competitions, retrospectives of influential filmmakers from Israel and abroad, industry events and special focuses, in the presence of guests from Israel and the world. This festival will center on the story of the "Global South" .