Sam Spiegel Film and Television School
The Sam Spiegel Film and Television School is a film and television school in Israel that was founded in 1989. It was renamed in honor of Sam Spiegel in 1996, with the support of the Sam Spiegel Estate. The school has been the subject of some 190 tributes and retrospectives in 55 countries at international festivals, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York (1996), the Rotterdam Festival (1997), the Havana Festival (1999), the Moscow Festival (1999), the Valladolid Film Festival (Spain, 2000), FIPA Festival - Biarritz (France, 2004) the Berlin International Film Festival  (2004), the Hamptons Festival (2005) and the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival in France (2005), and Sarajevo Film Festival (2008). In 2016 the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at Cambridge University held a tribute to the school. The School has been the subject of a number of tributes and retrospectives. The school's films have won 420 international and local prizes, including twice the First Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. In 2008 "Anthem", by Elad Keidan was awarded First Prize in the Student Film competition at the prestigious Cinéfondation section. This marked the first ever such  win by an Israeli student film in Cannes, and in 2015 Or Sinai won for her film "Anna." 76% of the school's graduates work in the industry. Among the school’s most prominent alumni are Rama Burshtein, Nadav Lapid, Talya Lavie, Tom Shoval, Nir Bergman, Noah Stollman, Elad Keidan and Ra'anan Alexandrowicz. The former director of the New York Film Festival, Richard Peña, said in 2011 at the tribute to the school at Columbia University: “Israeli cinema can be divided into two periods—before and after the establishment of the Sam Spiegel Film & Television School.” History. In 1988, a  student protest took place at the film department of the Beit Zvi School of Art in Ramat Gan, then the sole film school supported by the state. Charging that Beit Zvi gave preference to the acting track, the film students demanded independence. The Education and Culture Minister at the time, President Yitzhak Navon established a public inquiry that supported their claims. He then decided to create a new independent, well-funded school for film and television, the first of its kind in Israel. The mayor of Jerusalem, 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. In July 1989, Ruth Cheshin charged film director Renen Schorr with the task of making this new school a reality in four months’ time. The school opened in Jerusalem in November 1989. Renen Schorr served as the founding director of the school. He stepped down in November 2019. The board of directors then appointed Dana Blankstein Cohen to head the school. In June 2021 Shir Shoshani was appointed deputy school director & head of the film and television department. Educational tracks. The school works  on a triangular model. One track is the "Full Track". In 1999, the school began a 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. In 2004, the first four-year track for entrepreneur producers in Israel was launched at the school. Each of the three tracks operates autonomously. The school trains its students to reach a synergy of the tracks, leading to future cooperation beyond the school framework. Milestones. The school has worked to promote its students and graduates – and by extension  Israeli film and international film in general.