Arava Film Fund
‘Shorts in the Desert’ is a project initiative for producing short films whose source of inspiration and filming locations are the Negev-Arava’s vast landscapes. Since its establishment, ‘Short in the Desert’ has strived to develop the Negev and Arava region and promote local filmmaking endeavors. A decade later, we reap the fruits of our efforts, as the local filmmaking community is continuously growing.
Each year, a group of young filmmakers is invited to tour the Negev-Arava region with its vast open spaces, and become better acquainted with the area, its unique geographical landscapes and exceptional residents, and draw inspiration to write short film scripts.
In the second phase of the project, the short scripts resulting from the ‘inspiration tour’ are submitted to an artistic committee. The prominent short scripts are selected to continue on to the production phase. The films supported by the film fund are produced and shot in the region, and their worldwide premieres are held in the following year’s Arava International Film Festival.
In 2020, we established the ‘Arava Film Fund’ in collaboration with Gesher Multicultural Film Fund and Arava Community Center, with support from the Ministry of Culture and the Central Arava Regional Council. The fund serves as an additional, ongoing channel for filmmaking activities in the Central Arava region, with the international film festival and the ‘Shorts in the Desert’ project at its core, and is an active greenhouse for developing and producing feature films, documentaries, animated films and international collaborations.
Mr. Eyal Shiray is the Director of the Arava Film Fund.
Arava Film Fund website: www.aravafilmfund.com
In the framework of the Twelfth Arava International Film Festival, we are proud to present three short films from the ‘Short in the Desert’ project, produced with support from the ‘Arava Film Fund’ during the past year.