Dear alumni and graduates,
This year, yet again, the graduates’ competition is set to break new records in the festival’s history.
A total of 48 graduate projects will be taking part in the competition, featuring a wide range of shorts, web series, TV pilots, documentaries, and graduate films from our master’s program.
Witnessing these young creatives’ work in our various academic tracks, from the artistic awakening in our master’s program to the extraordinary work coming out of our acting track, has been an endlessly surprising, moving experience.
Our bachelor’s program, too, has seen a massive creative surge. Our sound designers, animation, film, and TV creators – all of whom, as usual, were closely mentored all the way to the finish line – ended up producing a range of profound, impactful works with an unshakable social and artistic statement, embodying the school’s core guiding lines that continue to stir and steer inspiration forward.
All of the above are the reasons behind this extraordinary crop of works.
Viewers are in for a moving experience of top-notch filmmaking, quality TV, gripping animation, mind-blowing soundtracks, and solid, convincing performances courtesy of our school’s brilliant actors because, at the end of the day, we are a school that is a creative enterprise, and a creative enterprise that is a school.
As is our practice, our graduate projects are never exclusively marked for their directing and as such, the competition will also be giving out awards for cinematography, editing, production, sound design, composing, and lots more.
Unlike previous years, this year marks my return to the festival and our graduate projects following a sabbatical, and I find myself intrigued and excited in equal measure over everything I’m about to watch.
This is also an opportunity to thank the school’s brilliant students for making the teaching faculty’s jobs, our jobs, so wonderfully challenging, illuminating, thrilling, and rewarding, and making me miss it all so much.
And I have missed you. so here I am. Wishing us all the most fabulous year ahead, especially after the tumultuous one we’ve just had.
And a massive thank-you to our school’s dedicated staff, led by Gali and Julia; thanks to Daniel Cohen, Rotem, Lior, and Yahav; Daniel Bar, Rotem Morat and Dorin; Damian, Ilan, Yaron, and Nathan.
I’d also like to thank everyone at the helm of the Cinema South Festival for curating and creating such an exciting festival for all of us.
Rani Blair
Head of Sapir College’s Television Track
