[2] The Festival was established by Israel Prize recipient and founder of the Jerusalem Cinematheque and Israeli Film Archive, Lia Van Leer.

[1] Already in its first year, the Festival had the honor of hosting key cinematic figures such as Jeanne Moreau, Lillian Gish, Warren Beatty and John Schlesinger.

[1] Since 2005, the Festival has included the Pitch Point, a platform for Israeli artists to present their full-length feature projects in stages of development and production, to select members of the international film industry.

Through these competitions, nearly 10 million dollars in prizes have been awarded to Israeli filmmakers in the fields of feature, documentary, student, and short films.

(International Premiere) Janus Merzovsky (Bad Boy), Gil Goldstein (Producer, Valentine Road), Jason Hot, Janet Tobias, Nadav Shirman, Goren Paskelievitz, George Slutzer, Neil Bersky, Rogero Gabay, Yael Melamed