Competition and Awards

Tom Shoval

Tom Shoval’s distinct visual style and storytelling abilities have won rave reviews and awards in both film and TV. Among his films are YOUTH (2013) and SHAKE YOUR CARES AWAY (2020). His new documentary, A LETTER TO DAVID, premiered at the Berlinale 2025.

Alisa Simon

Currently Lead Programmer for the Palm Springs Film Festival, Alissa was named a 1999 “Chicagoan of the Year” for her innovative programming at Chicago’s Film Center. She has served on numerous international festival juries and is a freelance writer for the American trade paper Variety.

Neta Shoshani

Neta Shoshani is an Israeli documentary filmmaker and screenwriter. She graduated from the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem and teaches Political Documentary at the Sam Spiegel Film School. Neta is a Board Member of the Israeli Documentary Forum. Among her films: 1948 – Remember, Remember Not, Born in Deir Yassin, and House Call.

Doron Djerassi

Doron Djerassi is an Israeli documentary director and editor, best known for his films Once Upon a Time There Was a King, The Voice of Ahmed, Until They All Return, and Death in Umm El-Hiran.
As an editor, he has worked on numerous acclaimed documentary films and series for Israeli broadcasters as well as American television. His credits include projects such as Dirty Tricks, Buried, Mourning in Lod, and many others.

Christian Beetz

Christian Beetz is the CEO of the German documentary powerhouse Beetz Brothers Film Production, which has been operating under the umbrella of LEONINE Studios and Mediawan for the past two years. He has been shaping the documentary film landscape, creating over 300 award-winning films and series for over two decades. His work includes Emmy-nominated documentaries such as The Cleaners and Juan Carlos and multiple productions for Netflix, Amazon, and Sky.
Deeply committed to fostering German-Israeli relations through film, Christian Beetz has long dedicated himself to projects that explore Israel’s political and historical complexities. Among his most recent documentaries are Supernova, which tells the tragic events of the October 7th massacre, and Golda, a portrait of Israel’s former Prime Minister Golda Meir.

Sharon Yaish

Sharon Yaish, winner of the Ophir Award for the film “A Whore Like Me” and the Editing Award at Docaviv. Director and editor for over 25 years. Among her notable projects: “Letter Without Address” (Haifa Film Festival 2024), “Jadu” (2023 Jerusalem Film Festival), “Incoming Call” (film and series for Yes Docu), “South Los Angeles – A Documentary Musical” (Docaviv 2022). Previously served as Creative Director at Keshet Broadcasting.

Hagit Ben-Yaakov

Hagit Ben-Yaakov is a senior visual researcher. She researched many Israeli and international documentaries, specializing in Israeli history and culture.
Hagit won the Israeli Documentary Forum’s Best Research award and the Israeli Academy of Film and Television’s Best Research award.
She was chairperson of the Israeli Documentary Forum, a non-profit organization that supports and expands the reach of Israeli documentary films and filmmakers.

Zvi Landsman

Zvi Landsman graduated from the Sam Spiegel Film School in Jerusalem with honors.
His latest film JACOB DE HAAN: A VOICE OUT OF TIME won awards at the Beverly Hills International Film Festival and the Festival du Cinéma Israélien de Paris.
His film THE THERAPY, documenting two and a half years of gay conversion therapy, received the Sundance Institute production grant and the Jury Award at DocAviv.
His short, AFTER ALL, received honorable mentions in Tel Aviv and Munich student film festivals and accumulated over 30 million YouTube views.
Among his films as cinematographer: THE MUTE’S HOUSE, shortlisted for the Oscars in 2017.

Valérie Montmartin

Head Producer and CEO of Little Big Story, a French film production company based in Paris, which produces mainly international documentaries, as well as animation, fiction, immersive projects, and impact strategies. She is an EAVE (2020) and EURODOC (2015) graduate.

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Nick Fraser

Nick Fraser is the co-founder of documentary production company, Docsville Studios, and founder/former commissioning editor of the BBC’s Storyville strand, through which he broadcast over 600 feature documentaries, including Oscar-winning films. His book, Say What Happened: A Story of Documentaries, was published by Faber & Faber in 2020. Nick has worked as series editor for the global documentary projects Why Democracy? and Why Slavery? and as executive producer of Why Poverty?

Dan Glickzlig

Documentary filmmaker, his films “Muscles” and “State of emergency” premiered at the DocAvic festival. Cinematographer of dozen of documentaries and video works

Ayelet Heller

Ayelet Heller is a documentary film director, a graduate of the Tel-Aviv University Film and Television School, with an exceptional career spanning several decades. Since her first film in 1992 ‘The Unpromised Land’, Heller has gone on to create and direct over 50 films and TV series for both Israeli and international producers, including networks such as ARTE and PBS. Her very latest work ‘The 1957 Transcripts’, sheading new light on a massacre of 49 Arab Israeli Civilians in Kfar Quasim (2024, Doc Aviv film Festival, Joury award, IDFA).

Ohad Milstein

Milstein is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and lecturer at the Bezalel Academy of Art & Design in Jerusalem. His recent film Monogamia (2023) won the Grand Prix, Semaine de la Critique at Locarno Film Festival. Summer Nights (2021) won the Israeli Academy Award – Best Documentary and the First Prize of DocAviv Film Festival. His cinematic works include: Knock on the Door (2023), Flood (2018), Week 23 (2016), and others.

Danel Elpeleg

Danel Elpeleg is a director and editor. She graduated with honors from the Sam Spiegel Film and Television School. Her latest documentary, The Governor, won Best Documentary at the recent Jerusalem Film Festival. Her previous film, Wild (co-directed with Uriel Sinai), won Best Debut Film at Docaviv and the Israeli Documentary Filmmakers Forum.
Her editing works include Dismissed (Season 3), Chanshi, The Other City, The Last Chapter of A.B. Yehoshua, My War Hero Uncle, and more.

Lucie Kon

Lucie is Commissioning Editor on Storyville, the BBC’s landmark international documentary strand where she commissions, co-produces and curates a diverse and distinctive slate that brings the best feature documentaries from around the world to BBC audiences. She is a BAFTA and International Emmy nominated Executive Producer, a mentor, judge and expert panellist, and currently a member of the EBU documentary board.

Maayan Schwartz

Maayan Schwartz is a documentary filmmaker, cinematographer, and producer. His films — Children of Peace, My Friend Yaniv, and Acting Weak — have been selected for international festivals, received prestigious awards, and aired on major broadcasters worldwide.

Philip Dolin

Philip Dolin started his career producing over 50 hip-hop music videos in New York City. He has directed or produced five feature films and made over 100 commercial films for universities, non-profits, and arts organizations.

Noit Geva

Noit Geva is a director, editor, teacher, artistic consultant, and Head of Curriculum in the field of documentary filmmaking. She has co-directed with Dan Geva over 25 award-winning documentaries, among them: What I Saw in Hebron (1999), The Key (2000), Fall (2003), Description of a Memory (2006), and Noise (2012). Geva holds an MA in Communication from the Hebrew University. She has served as the artistic consultant of the New Foundation for Cinema & Television and was the Head of Studies for the Greenhouse development program for the European Union.
Her latest films as an editor include Full Support (2024) by Michal Cohen and The Perfect Housewife (2018) by Jane Bibi, which won the Docaviv International Debut Film Festival prize. Geva received the award for Best Editing at Docaviv International Film Festival for The Beach Boys (2006). She was the Chief Editor of The Devil’s Confession: The Lost Eichmann Tapes (2022) by Yariv Mozer (Ophir award for editing), and the editing supervisor of the Ophir award-winning film Rain in Her Eyes (2020) by Ron Omer.