Take a breath – this won’t be short, but we’ve got lots of exciting updates to share!

Last Thursday our XR Workshop came to an end. Eight teams took part in it after submitting their projects in response to our Open Call for works in new media exploring trauma and resilience. The workshop aimed at refining the proposals through a comprehensive mentorship process with a variety of professionals: Ellen Kuo, Head of the XR Market at the NewImages Festival; Sonka Kirchhof, a leading German creator and producer in new media; Maya Shekel, a director, designer, and XR creator; and Nir Sa’ar, filmmaker, XR creator, and Artistic Director at Makor Media Lab.

Dr. Anat Brunstein Klomek, Dean of the School of Psychology at Reichman University, led a fascinating two-hour session that equipped the teams with key insights into crafting narrative works about trauma and resilience. Following her was Lior Nesher, a screenwriter and script editor, who guided – and will continue guiding – the teams in sharpening and refining their stories in the coming weeks ahead of the final submissions. We were also fortunate to have a masterclass by Pedro Harres, an award-winning XR creator and director of From the Main Square (highly recommended!); Alona Abt, from Hop! Media Group, who discussed impact and partnership building; Adam Weingrod, a filmmaker and XR creator whose latest work, Spots of Light, won the Smart Award at the recent FIPADOC festival and continues to shine on prominent stages worldwide; and Gili Gaon, who conceived the idea for this Open Call and whose involvement lends a better understanding of the media landscape.

As part of the workshop, we held an open industry day about the expanding uses of Unreal Engine for creating 3D environments in film, TV, and new media. Led by Arie Croitoru and Michal Ben-David, and featuring groundbreaking creators: Yoni Geva, Assaf Lapid, Adam Horowitz, Alon Saranga, and Daniel Shamota (all the talks will be posted soon – stay tuned!)

For the first time in the XR Workshop we arranged for a VR viewing room fro creators and staff! This allowed the teams to explore a wide range of international and local VR creations from recent years (some of which we were supported by Makor Media).

To conclude, we thank our amazing partners, without whom none of this would have been possible: Mifal Hapais – Israel Lottery Council for Culture and Arts, The French Institute – The French Embassy in Israel, Goethe Institute, The Advanced Reality Lab (ARL) and the School of Psychology at Reichman University, and NewImages Hub – Forum des Images, Paris.

Good luck to all the teams in their final submissions!

We are pleased to announce that “ANU – Museum of the Jewish People” will be hosting a selection of shorts from the “2 Minutes | Taking Pulse” project, for a month at the Marty and Aviva Pazner Media Pavilion.

As you may recall, A few weeks after the Israel-Hamas War broke out, Makor Foundation for Israeli Films published an open call inviting filmmakers to submit completed short-shorts addressing the situation from a personal perspective, in all its facets. It was, in fact, a creative pulse check. Ultimately, 33 films were selected from dozens of submissions and received production grants from the Foundation, with the support of Alona Abt and Tamir Paul.

On Friday, September 27th, between 10:00-12:00, the museum will host an extended gallery talk on the exhibition “October 7th.” As part of the event, the project will be presented, and filmmakers Tehila Lapidot and Yuval Nitzan will speak about their shorts.

Here is a list of the films in the collection: A Different Time – Yuval Nitzan | Knock Knock – Noam Karmeli, Shiran Buchnik | Paper Butterflies – Neta Shenitzer | War Before Bedtime – Tehila Lapidot | Tunnel Vision – Rani Avidan | Half Mast – Yoni Goodman | Home Front – Oz Zirlin | The List – Mooly Landsman | Breakfast – Nitsan Cohen | Left Behind – Omer Harel | Boar – Ron Justus-Segal | Bonding | Gal Salomon, Alon Galil | Summer, Rain | Omer Rosenberg | Propaganda – Idan Zarmon, Eden Akshoti | Where is home? – Eitan Herman | A Letter to a Man – Amit Erell | Hope – Omer Barak | Illusion of Motion – Yael Bonne.

Good luck to all the creators and producers ❤️