Jerusalem Lab to grant $80k

Graduates of the Jerusalem International Film Lab 3rd edition will compete for $80,000 in production prizes at a pitching event at the Jerusalem International Film Festival.

Aspiring directors and producers will present 13 full-length film projects to a panel of jurists and industry.

Competing filmmakers include Talya Lavie (Israel), whose her first feature Zero Motivation won the two awards at the Tribeca Film Festival, Ritesh Batra (India), whose his first feature The Lunchbox premiered last year in Cannes Critics’ Week; Nora Martirosyan (Armenia), who won the ARTE International Prize in Cannes’ Atelier (2014), and Ása Hjörleifsdóttir (Iceland), who received the VFF Talent Highlight Pitch Awards at the 2014 Berlinale.

The jury, headed by Michele Halberstadt of ARP, comprises Manfred Schmidt (executive director of the MDM, Germany), Katriel Schory (executive director of the Israel Film Fund),  Charles Tesson (artistic director of the Cannes Critics’ Week), Rémi Burah (Deputy CEO of ARTE France Cinéma), Sonja Heinen, (head of the Berlinale Co-Production Market) and Pia Marais (Director, Germany).

Nadav Lapid’s The Kindergarten Teacher, which was developed in the Lab’s first edition (2012) and received the Lab’s grant of $30,000, will screen during the festival.

Run, the Lab’s first prize winner, directed by Ivory Coast native Phillipe Lacôte, screened in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard sidebar.