The Sam Spiegel Film and Television School, Jerusalem
Encyclopedia
The Sam Spiegel Film & Television School, Jerusalem was founded by the Ministry of Education and Culture and the Jerusalem Foundation in 1989, has become Israel
's leading school of film and television, achieving international acclaim and standing.
Originally called "The Jerusalem Film and Television School", it was renamed in 1996 to bear the name of the Academy Award-winning American Jewish producer Sam Spiegel
, following his family’s decision to contribute annually to the school.
Located in the industrial area of Talpiot, Jerusalem, the school has a student body of some 170 students in three tracks:
The school is a non-profit public organization. The chairman of its board of directors is Erez Vigodman. Other key figures are:
Today, some 270 students have graduated from the Full Track. According to the school’s data around 80% of its graduates currently work in key professions in the film and television industry.
established a public inquiry
that supported the principles of the students’ position. He then decided to create an independent school for film and television, the first of its kind in Israel, to be directed by filmmakers.
After consulting the idea with mayors of different Israeli cities, the mayor of Jerusalem, Mr. Teddy Kollek
, and Ruth Cheshin, president of the Jerusalem Foundation, saw a window of opportunity to “bring the ocean to Jerusalem”, in their words. They committed to match government funding, and in June 1989 it was decided that the new school will open in Jerusalem. In July 1989, Ruth Cheshin turned to film director Renen Schorr for a blueprint on establishing the school, set to open its doors in just four months at the start of the school year, November 1989.
The establishment of the school in Jerusalem, far from the center of the film industry in the Tel Aviv region, raised strong opposition from many filmmakers and production companies throughout the Israeli film industry, who claimed that a film school must be located close to the actual workplace of other cinematic activities.
, directing fiction, directing documentary, cinematography
, production, editing
, recording
, and more. Emphasis was placed upon providing a theoretical and cultural foundation for its students, with a constant striving for excellence.
Unlike other existing films schools in Israel (like the film department of Tel Aviv University
and the Beit Zvi
school) the Sam Spiegel School worked to classify the short film as a genre
, identifying itself as a “story-telling school” and placed central importance on the hero in the story and the narrative. Similarly, the school stressed the focus of a director’s work, paraphrasing the words of Hitchcock
: “The job of a director is not just to work with the screenwriter, the actors, the cameraman, the editor and the composer, but to direct the audience.” The school was bound to transform the work of a director into an act of sensitivity, directed at reaching and stirring the viewer.
For its first three years, the Sam Spiegel School maintained a silence, refraining from screening its first films and exercises outside the school. This reflected the decision to first focus upon the institution’s direction and style as a school and a cinematic incubator.
In 1992/3, the school went public for the first time, participating in the Jerusalem Film Festival
and a series of Graduate Film Showings in various cinemateques, presenting thirty of its films – first films and final projects of the first graduating class.
The public, the Israeli film community and the media were surprised by the uncommon style of the school’s films, and praised the school and its films (in the Israel Film Institute Competition for Short Films, the school’s films took 12 out of 13 awards). The one film that stood out among the first collection of movies was “Party Line”, directed by Ohav Flantz, whose new campy style aroused a good deal of attention. The film became synonymous with the school in its early days.
The school succeeded in showing the work of its graduates on the new Channel 2, which began broadcasting in late 1992, and built a strategic partnership with one of its franchises, Tel Ad. Every year, from 1993 until its license period ended in 2005, Tel Ad broadcast nationally all of the graduate films in a specially designed series, "Shorts at Midnight". Graduates of the school’s first two classes were quickly absorbed into the television industry, thanks to the creation of Channel 2, among other factors, and the simultaneous development of cable network broadcasting.
In July 1993, the school showed its films in the Jerusalem International Film Festival. The panel of judges, including director of the London Film Festival Sheila Whittaker, director Dusan Makavejev
, critic David Robinson
, actor Haim Topol, and British producer Mark Shivas
, were effusive in praise, stating that all of the school’s entries in the competition were universal in their language and boasted excellent international potential.
In November, 1996, a milestone was reached when the renowned Museum of Modern Art
in New York
presented the school’s first major retrospective. At the opening night ceremony, which was attended by former Jerusalem mayor Teddy Kollek
, the Spiegel family, graduates of the school, an array of film producers and members of the New York film industry, the school’s name was officially changed from the Jerusalem Film and Television School to the Sam Spiegel Film and Television School, Jerusalem.
Speaking at the event, MOMA
Chief Curator Larry Kardish said of the school’s films, “Although each is substantially different from the other, they all seem to share some significant and impressive characteristics. Whether fiction or documentary, narrative or experimental, they are all fresh, quirky, surprising and pithy. That they were well-made is to be expected, but that they also appeared to be effortlessly realized, naturally based in social realities, and psychologically sophisticated is out of the ordinary... The Sam Spiegel School is sending Israeli cinema in a new and exciting direction; its spirit is crossing borders, and its films are a most welcome presence invigorating the international scene. ”
In 1999, the school began a special two-year track for screenwriters, with the aim of creating a model for cooperation between screenwriters and directors, and with a specialization in writing for television. The Screenwriting Track is supported by the Sam Spiegel Foundation and the Beracha Foundation.
In 2004, the school inaugurated a special three-and-a-half year track for entrepreneur producers. The first of its kind in Israel, the program was created to prepare producers to initiate and lead projects in different media, work in cooperation with screenwriters and directors, and navigate the project through the stage of marketing and distribution in Israel and overseas. The Entrepreneur Producer Track is supported by the Rayne Foundation, the Beracha Foundation and the Sam Spiegel Foundation.
Each of the three tracks operates autonomously. The school aims for its students to reach a synergy of the tracks, leading to future cooperation beyond the school framework, based on it guiding principles and spirit.
On December 2008 the school launched a new school wing consisting of two cinema halls. The main hall seats 80 audiences and the smaller hall seats 40. Both have an advanced high definition screening and sound systems. This new wing was built with the support of The Sam Spiegel Foundation (U.S.A.), The Ostrovsky Family Fund (France) and Beracha Foundation (Israel).
Moreover, the school revitalized both the relationship toward and the scope of investment in Israel’s film students. Viewing the students as future cultural leaders, the school has consistently made efforts unprecedented in Israel to endow their students with increased teaching hours; with renowned instructors from the industry who accompany each student through all their years of study; with master classes presented by guest experts from Israel and the world; with a budget for student films; with state-of-the-art video and film equipment; with sending students to international film festivals and workshops; with the granting of monetary stipends; with giving graduates and their works exposure in Israel and the world; and with ongoing support for students breaking into the industry. This policy set new standards for film schools in Israel to confront, a fact which led to a significant improvement in their levels—and eventually effected a change in the face of the film and television industry in Israel and the advancement of Israeli cinema worldwide.
There are those who claim that the very creation of a school specializing in the field of cinema brought about a change in the attitude of the Establishment of film making in Israel, which, until then, was considered the stepchild of the theatre arts and suffered from much smaller budgets as a result.
in the Tel Aviv Cinemateque Bimonthly, July, 2005)
, Berlin
, Venice
, New York
and Tribeca
. International acclaim and appreciation for the school’s works continues to grow in kind. Each year, film schools around the world participating in student international festivals are requested to submit current films for judging. The judges select the outstanding school of the year based upon the quality of its films. To date, the Sam Spiegel School has won the prize for best school in the world 15 times, and its films have won some 235 prizes in international film festivals.
In 2008, "Anthem", the Diploma Film of 14th Graduating Class Member Elad Keidan, scooped First Prize in the Student Film competition within the prestigious "Cinefondation" section of the Cannes Film Festival. This award of First Prize is the first ever such win by an Israeli student film in Cannes.
The school has already been the subject of some 120 tributes and retrospectives at international festivals, including key events such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York (1996), the Rotterdam Festival (1997), the Havana Festival (1999) the Moscow Festival (1999), the Viadolid Festival in Spain
(2000), the Melbourne Festival (2004), Festival FIPA-Biartz (France, 2004) the Berlin Festival (2004), the Hamptons Festival (2005) and the Clermont-Ferrand Festival in France (2005), which is considered to be the “Olympics” of the short film and Sarajevo Film Festival
(2008).
In 2000, Renen Schorr, founder and director of the school, was chosen by 70 of his peers – directors of film schools in Europe – as the president of GEECT, the European association of film schools. In addition, he has initiated international conferences in different educational aspects of the short film in Berlin, Helsinki
, Paris
and Bratislava
. One of Schorr’s main goals was to initiate conferences devoted to introducing, defining and characterizing European cinema in comparison with American film making, as well as the significant role of the creative entrepreneur producer.
, former Israeli president Yitchak Navon and cabinet ministers.
The school also released a special DVD series of its ten best films of all time, selected by 60 leading film personalities from 17 countries. The judges included:Pedro Almodóvar
, Paul Newman
, Gus Van Sant
, Luc Besson
, Nikita Mikhalkov
, Jeanne Moreau
, Peter Weir
, Andrzej Wajda
, István Szabó
, Atom Egoyan
, Paul Auster
, Theo Angelopoulos
, Kirk Douglas
, Anthony Minghella
, Todd Haynes
, Willem Dafoe
, Samira Makhmalbaf
, Patrice Leconte
, Gillo Pontecorvo
, Lawrence Kasdan
, Steve Buscemi
, Dusan Makavejev
, Saul Zaentz
, Walter Murch
, Walter Parkes, Edward Zwick
, and others.
Nir Bergman’s film Sea Horses won the award for the school’s outstanding film of all time.
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
's leading school of film and television, achieving international acclaim and standing.
Originally called "The Jerusalem Film and Television School", it was renamed in 1996 to bear the name of the Academy Award-winning American Jewish producer Sam Spiegel
Sam Spiegel
Sam Spiegel was an Austrian-born American independent film producer.-Life and career:Spiegel was born in Jarosław, Galicia, Austria-Hungary as Samuel P. Spiegel to a German-Jewish father and Polish mother and educated at the University of Vienna. His brother was Shalom Spiegel, a professor of...
, following his family’s decision to contribute annually to the school.
Located in the industrial area of Talpiot, Jerusalem, the school has a student body of some 170 students in three tracks:
- The Full Track – Training students in directingFilm directorA film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
, screenwritingScreenwritingScreenwriting is the art and craft of writing scripts for mass media such as feature films, television productions or video games. It is a freelance profession....
, cinematographyCinematographyCinematography is the making of lighting and camera choices when recording photographic images for cinema. It is closely related to the art of still photography...
, editingEditingEditing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, and film media used to convey information through the processes of correction, condensation, organization, and other modifications performed with an intention of producing a correct, consistent, accurate, and complete...
and production. - The Screenwriting Track – Training students in writingWritingWriting is the representation of language in a textual medium through the use of a set of signs or symbols . It is distinguished from illustration, such as cave drawing and painting, and non-symbolic preservation of language via non-textual media, such as magnetic tape audio.Writing most likely...
for filmFilmA film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
and televisionTelevisionTelevision is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound... - The Entrepreneur-Producer Track – Training students for production in the entire realm of media.
The school is a non-profit public organization. The chairman of its board of directors is Erez Vigodman. Other key figures are:
- Founding Director Renen SchorrRenen SchorrRenen Schorr is a film director, screenwriter, film producer. In 1989, he became head of Israel’s first independent, national school for film and television. He then founded the Sam Spiegel Film & TV School – Jerusalem, and has served as its director since that time.-Background:Son of a physician,...
- Head, Screenwriting Track Tzvika Kertzner
- Head, Entrepreneur-Producer Track Yariv Muzar
Today, some 270 students have graduated from the Full Track. According to the school’s data around 80% of its graduates currently work in key professions in the film and television industry.
Founding
In 1988, a student revolt broke out in the film department of the Beit Zvi School of Art in Ramat Gan, then the sole film school supported by the Ministry of Education and Culture. Charging that Beit Zvi gave preference to the acting track, the film students demanded self rule. The Education Minister at the time, Yitzhak NavonYitzhak Navon
Yitzhak Navon is an Israeli politician, diplomat, and author. He served as the fifth President of Israel between 1978 and 1982 as a member of the center-left Alignment party...
established a public inquiry
Public inquiry
A Tribunal of Inquiry is an official review of events or actions ordered by a government body in Common Law countries such as the United Kingdom, Ireland or Canada. Such a public inquiry differs from a Royal Commission in that a public inquiry accepts evidence and conducts its hearings in a more...
that supported the principles of the students’ position. He then decided to create an independent school for film and television, the first of its kind in Israel, to be directed by filmmakers.
After consulting the idea with mayors of different Israeli cities, the mayor of Jerusalem, Mr. Teddy Kollek
Teddy Kollek
Theodor "Teddy" Kollek was mayor of Jerusalem from 1965 to 1993, and founder of the Jerusalem Foundation. Kollek was re-elected five times, in 1969, 1973, 1978, 1983 and 1989...
, and Ruth Cheshin, president of the Jerusalem Foundation, saw a window of opportunity to “bring the ocean to Jerusalem”, in their words. They committed to match government funding, and in June 1989 it was decided that the new school will open in Jerusalem. In July 1989, Ruth Cheshin turned to film director Renen Schorr for a blueprint on establishing the school, set to open its doors in just four months at the start of the school year, November 1989.
The establishment of the school in Jerusalem, far from the center of the film industry in the Tel Aviv region, raised strong opposition from many filmmakers and production companies throughout the Israeli film industry, who claimed that a film school must be located close to the actual workplace of other cinematic activities.
The early years
At the onset, the academic program was three and a half years long. The school championed providing a broad professional foundation in all aspects of the film industry: writingWriting
Writing is the representation of language in a textual medium through the use of a set of signs or symbols . It is distinguished from illustration, such as cave drawing and painting, and non-symbolic preservation of language via non-textual media, such as magnetic tape audio.Writing most likely...
, directing fiction, directing documentary, cinematography
Cinematography
Cinematography is the making of lighting and camera choices when recording photographic images for cinema. It is closely related to the art of still photography...
, production, editing
Editing
Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, and film media used to convey information through the processes of correction, condensation, organization, and other modifications performed with an intention of producing a correct, consistent, accurate, and complete...
, recording
Recording
Recording is the process of capturing data or translating information to a recording format stored on some storage medium, which is often referred to as a record or, if an auditory medium, a recording....
, and more. Emphasis was placed upon providing a theoretical and cultural foundation for its students, with a constant striving for excellence.
Unlike other existing films schools in Israel (like the film department of Tel Aviv University
Tel Aviv University
Tel Aviv University is a public university located in Ramat Aviv, Tel Aviv, Israel. With nearly 30,000 students, TAU is Israel's largest university.-History:...
and the Beit Zvi
Beit Zvi
Beit Zvi is an acting school located in Ramat Gan, Israel. Graduates of the school are much in demand in the Israeli theater world.-History:...
school) the Sam Spiegel School worked to classify the short film as a genre
Genre
Genre , Greek: genos, γένος) is the term for any category of literature or other forms of art or culture, e.g. music, and in general, any type of discourse, whether written or spoken, audial or visual, based on some set of stylistic criteria. Genres are formed by conventions that change over time...
, identifying itself as a “story-telling school” and placed central importance on the hero in the story and the narrative. Similarly, the school stressed the focus of a director’s work, paraphrasing the words of Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...
: “The job of a director is not just to work with the screenwriter, the actors, the cameraman, the editor and the composer, but to direct the audience.” The school was bound to transform the work of a director into an act of sensitivity, directed at reaching and stirring the viewer.
For its first three years, the Sam Spiegel School maintained a silence, refraining from screening its first films and exercises outside the school. This reflected the decision to first focus upon the institution’s direction and style as a school and a cinematic incubator.
In 1992/3, the school went public for the first time, participating in the Jerusalem Film Festival
Jerusalem Film Festival
The Jerusalem Film Festival is an international film festival held annually in Jerusalem, Israel. The festival was the brainchild of Lia van Leer, who inaugurated it on May 17, 1984...
and a series of Graduate Film Showings in various cinemateques, presenting thirty of its films – first films and final projects of the first graduating class.
The public, the Israeli film community and the media were surprised by the uncommon style of the school’s films, and praised the school and its films (in the Israel Film Institute Competition for Short Films, the school’s films took 12 out of 13 awards). The one film that stood out among the first collection of movies was “Party Line”, directed by Ohav Flantz, whose new campy style aroused a good deal of attention. The film became synonymous with the school in its early days.
The school succeeded in showing the work of its graduates on the new Channel 2, which began broadcasting in late 1992, and built a strategic partnership with one of its franchises, Tel Ad. Every year, from 1993 until its license period ended in 2005, Tel Ad broadcast nationally all of the graduate films in a specially designed series, "Shorts at Midnight". Graduates of the school’s first two classes were quickly absorbed into the television industry, thanks to the creation of Channel 2, among other factors, and the simultaneous development of cable network broadcasting.
In July 1993, the school showed its films in the Jerusalem International Film Festival. The panel of judges, including director of the London Film Festival Sheila Whittaker, director Dusan Makavejev
Dušan Makavejev
Dušan Makavejev is a Serbian film director and screenwriter, famous for his groundbreaking films of Yugoslav cinema in the late 1960s and early 1970s...
, critic David Robinson
David Robinson (film critic and author)
David Robinson is a British film critic and author. He started writing for Sight and Sound and the Monthly Film Bulletin in the 1950s, becoming Assistant Editor of Sight and Sound and Editor of the Monthly Film Bulletin in 1957-1958...
, actor Haim Topol, and British producer Mark Shivas
Mark Shivas
Mark Shivas was a British television producer, film producer and executive. He began his career at BBC Television in the 1960s, and quickly became one of the department's noted producers...
, were effusive in praise, stating that all of the school’s entries in the competition were universal in their language and boasted excellent international potential.
In November, 1996, a milestone was reached when the renowned Museum of Modern Art
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
presented the school’s first major retrospective. At the opening night ceremony, which was attended by former Jerusalem mayor Teddy Kollek
Teddy Kollek
Theodor "Teddy" Kollek was mayor of Jerusalem from 1965 to 1993, and founder of the Jerusalem Foundation. Kollek was re-elected five times, in 1969, 1973, 1978, 1983 and 1989...
, the Spiegel family, graduates of the school, an array of film producers and members of the New York film industry, the school’s name was officially changed from the Jerusalem Film and Television School to the Sam Spiegel Film and Television School, Jerusalem.
Speaking at the event, MOMA
Moma
Moma may refer to:* Moma , an owlet moth genus* Moma Airport, a Russian public airport* Moma District, Nampula, Mozambique* Moma River, a right tributary of the Indigirka River* Google Moma, the Google corporate intranet...
Chief Curator Larry Kardish said of the school’s films, “Although each is substantially different from the other, they all seem to share some significant and impressive characteristics. Whether fiction or documentary, narrative or experimental, they are all fresh, quirky, surprising and pithy. That they were well-made is to be expected, but that they also appeared to be effortlessly realized, naturally based in social realities, and psychologically sophisticated is out of the ordinary... The Sam Spiegel School is sending Israeli cinema in a new and exciting direction; its spirit is crossing borders, and its films are a most welcome presence invigorating the international scene. ”
School Development
In the middle of the 1990s, after its first students met the challenge of becoming absorbed into the industry, the school identified the need for intensifying the professional skills of its many students who wished to work as directors. As a result, the period of curriculum study was extended from three and a half years to four and a half, a time- frame enabling students to glean further experience. The test of student acceptance into the Israeli industry led to the realization that there were a relatively limited number of screenwriters who weren’t directors, as well as a very small number of entrepreneur producers in the fields of film and television.In 1999, the school began a special two-year track for screenwriters, with the aim of creating a model for cooperation between screenwriters and directors, and with a specialization in writing for television. The Screenwriting Track is supported by the Sam Spiegel Foundation and the Beracha Foundation.
In 2004, the school inaugurated a special three-and-a-half year track for entrepreneur producers. The first of its kind in Israel, the program was created to prepare producers to initiate and lead projects in different media, work in cooperation with screenwriters and directors, and navigate the project through the stage of marketing and distribution in Israel and overseas. The Entrepreneur Producer Track is supported by the Rayne Foundation, the Beracha Foundation and the Sam Spiegel Foundation.
Each of the three tracks operates autonomously. The school aims for its students to reach a synergy of the tracks, leading to future cooperation beyond the school framework, based on it guiding principles and spirit.
On December 2008 the school launched a new school wing consisting of two cinema halls. The main hall seats 80 audiences and the smaller hall seats 40. Both have an advanced high definition screening and sound systems. This new wing was built with the support of The Sam Spiegel Foundation (U.S.A.), The Ostrovsky Family Fund (France) and Beracha Foundation (Israel).
The School’s Influence
The Sam Spiegel School has been a main influencing factor on a number of aspects of the Israeli movie industry: regenerating the genre of short films and redefining the cinematic concept of “time”; repositioning the stand of the story’s protagonist and proclaiming the narrative as a value; transforming the director’s role to work through the protagonist’s actions and insight to touch the viewer’s emotions.Moreover, the school revitalized both the relationship toward and the scope of investment in Israel’s film students. Viewing the students as future cultural leaders, the school has consistently made efforts unprecedented in Israel to endow their students with increased teaching hours; with renowned instructors from the industry who accompany each student through all their years of study; with master classes presented by guest experts from Israel and the world; with a budget for student films; with state-of-the-art video and film equipment; with sending students to international film festivals and workshops; with the granting of monetary stipends; with giving graduates and their works exposure in Israel and the world; and with ongoing support for students breaking into the industry. This policy set new standards for film schools in Israel to confront, a fact which led to a significant improvement in their levels—and eventually effected a change in the face of the film and television industry in Israel and the advancement of Israeli cinema worldwide.
There are those who claim that the very creation of a school specializing in the field of cinema brought about a change in the attitude of the Establishment of film making in Israel, which, until then, was considered the stepchild of the theatre arts and suffered from much smaller budgets as a result.
The Uniqueness of the Sam Spiegel School
(excerpts from an article by British critic David RobinsonDavid Robinson (film critic and author)
David Robinson is a British film critic and author. He started writing for Sight and Sound and the Monthly Film Bulletin in the 1950s, becoming Assistant Editor of Sight and Sound and Editor of the Monthly Film Bulletin in 1957-1958...
in the Tel Aviv Cinemateque Bimonthly, July, 2005)
- “There is something different about the Sam Spiegel Film and Television School... Consistently, since its first graduation show in 1992, every year the school has come up with four or five or six films that range from watchable (a merit not to be underestimated in 21st century cinema) to inspired. A more exceptional phenomenon is how many of Jerusalem’s short subjects one still vividly remembers after a decade or more, when many a Hollywood blockbuster has faded into the mists of memory: the post-modernist social irony of Party Line, the comic horror of In Good Hands, the eruption of politics into private life in Home or Cock Fight, parents and children in Personal Goals or Sea Horses. Many Jerusalem films one does not watch as student exercises, but for authentic communication, for insight as well as entertainment...”
International Recognition
The high level of the school’s films, combined with its intensive activities to promote and circulate them, has led to the screening of films at some 100 international film and student film festivals annually, including CannesCannes
Cannes is one of the best-known cities of the French Riviera, a busy tourist destination and host of the annual Cannes Film Festival. It is a Commune of France in the Alpes-Maritimes department....
, Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
and Tribeca
TriBeCa
Tribeca is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, New York in the United States. Its name is an acronym based on the words "Triangle below Canal Street", and is properly bounded by Canal Street, West Street, Broadway, and Vesey Street...
. International acclaim and appreciation for the school’s works continues to grow in kind. Each year, film schools around the world participating in student international festivals are requested to submit current films for judging. The judges select the outstanding school of the year based upon the quality of its films. To date, the Sam Spiegel School has won the prize for best school in the world 15 times, and its films have won some 235 prizes in international film festivals.
In 2008, "Anthem", the Diploma Film of 14th Graduating Class Member Elad Keidan, scooped First Prize in the Student Film competition within the prestigious "Cinefondation" section of the Cannes Film Festival. This award of First Prize is the first ever such win by an Israeli student film in Cannes.
The school has already been the subject of some 120 tributes and retrospectives at international festivals, including key events such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York (1996), the Rotterdam Festival (1997), the Havana Festival (1999) the Moscow Festival (1999), the Viadolid Festival in Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
(2000), the Melbourne Festival (2004), Festival FIPA-Biartz (France, 2004) the Berlin Festival (2004), the Hamptons Festival (2005) and the Clermont-Ferrand Festival in France (2005), which is considered to be the “Olympics” of the short film and Sarajevo Film Festival
Sarajevo Film Festival
The Sarajevo Film Festival is the premier and largest film festival in the Balkans, and is one of the largest in Europe. It was founded in Sarajevo in 1995 during the siege of Sarajevo, and brings international and local celebrities to Sarajevo every year. It is held in August and showcases an...
(2008).
In 2000, Renen Schorr, founder and director of the school, was chosen by 70 of his peers – directors of film schools in Europe – as the president of GEECT, the European association of film schools. In addition, he has initiated international conferences in different educational aspects of the short film in Berlin, Helsinki
Helsinki
Helsinki is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, located in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is , making it by far the most populous municipality in Finland. Helsinki is...
, Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
and Bratislava
Bratislava
Bratislava is the capital of Slovakia and, with a population of about 431,000, also the country's largest city. Bratislava is in southwestern Slovakia on both banks of the Danube River. Bordering Austria and Hungary, it is the only national capital that borders two independent countries.Bratislava...
. One of Schorr’s main goals was to initiate conferences devoted to introducing, defining and characterizing European cinema in comparison with American film making, as well as the significant role of the creative entrepreneur producer.
15th Anniversary Celebration
In 2005, the Sam Spiegel School celebrated 15 years of activity with a series of events: a tribute at the Jerusalem Film Festival, a commemorative booklet published by the Tel Aviv Cinemateque, the naming of the school’s street the “Sam Spiegel Alley”, and a gala evening at the Jerusalem Festival for the school’s graduates from past years, current students instructors, key persons in the industry, and such distinguished guests as then-Acting Prime Minister Ehud OlmertEhud Olmert
Ehud Olmert is an Israeli politician and lawyer. He served as Prime Minister of Israel from 2006 to 2009, as a Cabinet Minister from 1988 to 1992 and from 2003 to 2006, and as Mayor of Jerusalem from 1993 to 2003....
, former Israeli president Yitchak Navon and cabinet ministers.
The school also released a special DVD series of its ten best films of all time, selected by 60 leading film personalities from 17 countries. The judges included:Pedro Almodóvar
Pedro Almodóvar
Pedro Almodóvar Caballero is a Spanish film director, screenwriter and producer.Almodóvar is arguably the most successful and internationally known Spanish filmmaker of his generation. His films, marked by complex narratives, employ the codes of melodrama and use elements of pop culture, popular...
, Paul Newman
Paul Newman
Paul Leonard Newman was an American actor, film director, entrepreneur, humanitarian, professional racing driver and auto racing enthusiast...
, Gus Van Sant
Gus Van Sant
Gus Green Van Sant, Jr. is an American director, screenwriter, painter, photographer, musician, and author. He is a two time nominee of the Academy Award for Best Director for his 1997 film Good Will Hunting and his 2008 film Milk, both of which were also nominated for Best Picture, and won the...
, Luc Besson
Luc Besson
Luc Besson is a French film director, writer, and producer. He is the creator of EuropaCorp film company. He has been involved with over 50 films, spanning 26 years, as writer, director, and/or producer.-Early life:...
, Nikita Mikhalkov
Nikita Mikhalkov
Nikita Sergeyevich Mikhalkov is a Soviet and Russian filmmaker, actor, and head of the Russian Cinematographers' Union.Mikhalkov was born in Moscow into the distinguished, artistic Mikhalkov family. His great grandfather was the imperial governor of Yaroslavl, whose mother was a Galitzine princess...
, Jeanne Moreau
Jeanne Moreau
Jeanne Moreau is a French actress, singer, screenwriter and director.She made her theatrical debut in 1947, and established herself as one of the leading actresses of the Comédie-Française...
, Peter Weir
Peter Weir
Peter Lindsay Weir, AM is an Australian film director. After playing a leading role in the Australian New Wave cinema with his films such as Picnic at Hanging Rock, The Last Wave and Gallipoli, Weir directed a diverse group of American and international films—many of them major box office...
, Andrzej Wajda
Andrzej Wajda
Andrzej Wajda is a Polish film director. Recipient of an honorary Oscar, he is possibly the most prominent member of the unofficial "Polish Film School"...
, István Szabó
István Szabó
István Szabó is a Hungarian film director, screenwriter, and opera director.Szabó is the most internationally famous Hungarian filmmaker since the late 1960s. Working in the tradition of European, auteurist art cinema, he has made films that represent many of the psychological and political...
, Atom Egoyan
Atom Egoyan
Atom Egoyan, OC is a critically acclaimed Armenian-Canadian stage director and film director. Egoyan made his career breakthrough with Exotica...
, Paul Auster
Paul Auster
Paul Benjamin Auster is an American author known for works blending absurdism, existentialism, crime fiction and the search for identity and personal meaning in works such as The New York Trilogy , Moon Palace , The Music of Chance , The Book of Illusions and The Brooklyn Follies...
, Theo Angelopoulos
Theo Angelopoulos
Theodoros Angelopoulos is a Greek filmmaker, screenwriter and film producer.-Life:Angelopoulos studied law at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, but after his military service went to Paris to attend the Sorbonne. He soon dropped out to study film at the IDHEC before returning...
, Kirk Douglas
Kirk Douglas
Kirk Douglas is an American stage and film actor, film producer and author. His popular films include Out of the Past , Champion , Ace in the Hole , The Bad and the Beautiful , Lust for Life , Paths of Glory , Gunfight at the O.K...
, Anthony Minghella
Anthony Minghella
Anthony Minghella, CBE was an English film director, playwright and screenwriter. He was Chairman of the Board of Governors at the British Film Institute between 2003 and 2007....
, Todd Haynes
Todd Haynes
Todd Haynes is an American independent film director and screenwriter. He is best known for his feature films Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story, Poison, Velvet Goldmine, Safe, and the Academy Award-nominated Far from Heaven and I'm Not There.- Style and themes :The writes that "Haynes is...
, Willem Dafoe
Willem Dafoe
Willem Dafoe is an American film, stage, and voice actor, and a founding member of the experimental theatre company The Wooster Group...
, Samira Makhmalbaf
Samira Makhmalbaf
Samira Makhmalbaf is an internationally acclaimed Iranian filmmaker and script writer. She is the daughter of Mohsen Makhmalbaf, the film director and writer. Samira Makhmalbaf belongs to the New Wave movement within Iranian cinema...
, Patrice Leconte
Patrice Leconte
Patrice Leconte is a French film director, actor, comic strip writer, and screenwriter.-Biography:...
, Gillo Pontecorvo
Gillo Pontecorvo
Gillo Pontecorvo was an Italian filmmaker. He worked as a film director for more than a decade before his best known film La battaglia di Algeri was released...
, Lawrence Kasdan
Lawrence Kasdan
Lawrence Edward "Larry" Kasdan is an American film producer, director and screenwriter.-Life and career:Kasdan was born in Miami, Florida, the son of Sylvia Sarah , an employment counselor, and Clarence Norman Kasdan, who managed retail electronics stores.His Brother is the writer/producer Mark...
, Steve Buscemi
Steve Buscemi
Steven Vincent "Steve" Buscemi is an American actor, writer and film director. An associate member of the renowned experimental theater company The Wooster Group, Buscemi has starred and supported in successful Hollywood and indie films including New York Stories, Mystery Train, Reservoir Dogs,...
, Dusan Makavejev
Dušan Makavejev
Dušan Makavejev is a Serbian film director and screenwriter, famous for his groundbreaking films of Yugoslav cinema in the late 1960s and early 1970s...
, Saul Zaentz
Saul Zaentz
Saul Zaentz is an American film producer and former record company executive. He has won the Academy Award for Best Picture three times and in 1996 was awarded the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award....
, Walter Murch
Walter Murch
Walter Scott Murch is an American film editor and sound designer.-Early life:Murch was born in New York City, New York, the son of Katharine and Canadian-born Walter Tandy Murch , a painter. He went to The Collegiate School, a private preparatory school in Manhattan, from 1949 to 1961...
, Walter Parkes, Edward Zwick
Edward Zwick
Edward M. Zwick is an American filmmaker and film producer noted for his epic films about social and racial issues. He has been described as a "throwback to an earlier era, an extremely cerebral director whose movies consistently feature fully rounded characters, difficult moral issues, and plots...
, and others.
Nir Bergman’s film Sea Horses won the award for the school’s outstanding film of all time.
Acclaimed Graduates
- Nir Bergman, director-writer Broken WingsBroken Wings (film)Broken Wings is a 2002 Israeli film directed by Nir Bergman and starring Orly Silbersatz Banai, Maya Maron, and Nitai Gaviratz.- Plot :The unexpected death of the family patriarch throws every member of the Ullmann clan off course. Widow Dafna takes to bed for three months and when she finally...
(2002) - Ra'anan Alexandrovitch, director-writer James' Journey to JerusalemJames' Journey to JerusalemJames' Journey to Jerusalem is a 2003 Israeli film directed by Ra'anan Alexandrowicz and produced by Renen Schorr.- Plot :The film's plot focuses on an African teenager named James whom hails from the fictional African village Entshongweni, who goes on a pilgrimage journey, on behalf of his...
(2003) - Omri Levy, director-writer Miss Entebbe (2003)
- Ruthie Shatz, director producer GardenGardenA garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the display, cultivation, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The garden can incorporate both natural and man-made materials. The most common form today is known as a residential garden, but the term garden has...
(2003)
External links
- The Sam Spiegel School Film and Television Homepage
- The Sam Spiegel School Film and Television Youtube Channel