Sam Spiegel School Film and Television - Critical Acclaim

Critical Acclaim

Excerpts from an article by British critic David Robinson in 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...”

The school's films have been screened at international film festivals and student film festivals around the world. 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.Play it again, Sam, Jerusalem Post

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 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 Valladolid Film Festival (Spain, 2000), the Melbourne Festival (2004), FIPA Festival - Biarritz (France, 2004) the Berlin International Film 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.