The Film Bus is TISFF’s flagship project. The project was established with a desire to promote cultural events that combine cinema and creativity with social and community gatherings in the periphery of Israel.
Equipped with a projector, a large screen, a sound system, and popcorn, and full of Israeli and international students, the Film Bus sets out on a week-long journey and passes through various places throughout the country. During the week, films are screened for the general public under the stars. The Film Bus project allows TISFF to spread its magic around Israel, with the belief that cinema stimulates fruitful and enriching discourse.
The Film Bus Project in 2025 is held with the encouragement and support of the Matanel Foundation.
The CoPro X TISFF Student Film Labs program, a collaboration between the CoPro Foundation and the Tel Aviv International Student Film Festival, is a prestigious initiative designed for a group of 12 outstanding film students from schools across Israel. The program features 6 promising fiction projects and 6 documentary projects, all with strong potential for international audiences.
Over the past few months, the participating filmmakers took part in a series of specialized workshops aimed at preparing their films for the global market.
The program’s main event is the Documentary & Fiction Pitching Forums, where the students will present their projects to leading professionals from the international film industry. The Pitching Forums will take place during the festival days.
Short on The Way project is a joint initiative of the Gesher Multicultural Film Fund and TISFF.
The project aims to strengthen the status of the short film and allow young filmmakers at the beginning of their career in their journey towards their debut feature.
The Short Film Development Lab for women is a joint initiative of the Festival and the New Fund for Cinema and Television. Up to six participants receive personalized professional guidance, with a focus on script development and directorial vision. At the end, one project wins a production grant. The Lab’s goal is to promote up-and-coming female filmmakers working on short independent films, to provide a creative platform to enhance their cinematic style, and to encourage storytelling from diverse and unique points of view
Cinema takes the dimension of time and simplifies it to a comprehensible number of frames per second. Animation takes the physical dimension and simplifies it to a comprehensible number of lines in each frame. During these strange times, the “Short Animation” project by Makor Foundation for Israeli Films (NPO) gathers and supports animation creators for a taste of comprehensible meaning.
As part of the Speed Dating event, there will be short personal meetings between filmmakers and producers. Each filmmaker will meet a number of senior producers for up to 15 minutes and present their project, whether it is a feature film, documentary, experimental work or TV series. These encounters are the first practical step in the filmmakers’ paths to the big screen.
During the festival, industry events are held that serve as a key bridge between film and television studies and the Israeli and international industries, as well as the professional world beyond graduation.
The goal of these events is to expose the festival audience—composed mainly of students and emerging filmmakers—to new creative avenues, and to make accessible working methods and tools they may not yet know or may be hesitant to explore.
As events that bring together the student audience of the festival with leading figures from the industry, they represent the most significant bridge the festival can offer between studies and professional life.
Some of the industry events are held in collaboration with various professional guilds within the Israeli film industry, aiming to connect young creators with the guilds’ work and members.
In addition, the festival hosts industry events in English with international professionals, offering a global perspective and introducing participants to international processes and networks of creation, production, and distribution.
