Sponsors & Partners for Festival 2015

This year States of Minds aims to promote cultural exchange, understanding, and cooperation between the United States and Israel through an American Film Festival in Tel Aviv.

Official Partners

The U.S. Embassy in Israel

The U.S. Embassy in Israel sees cinema as one of the most effective tools for bringing people of different cultures and ethnicities together. U.S. State Department programs, such as “U.S. Documentary Showcase,” speaker programs featuring prominent American film makers, and International exchange programs that expose local film makers to the U.S. film industry are only a few examples of the effective “film diplomacy” developed by the American government to enhance cultural understanding between the U.S. and foreign countries. The U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv supports numerous local programs in the field of film making-projects that educate, inspire and empower communities.  The U.S. Embassy is proud to support this innovative cinematic project as it embodies many of the important values we hold dear.

The American Center

The American Center is a section of the Office of Public Affairs and is an information resource as well as an educational and cultural center with a range of activities aimed at the Israeli public. The Center strives to initiate and strengthen bonds between Israelis and the United States, and to promote understanding of U.S. policies, society, values, and culture. It also provides a platform for English language teaching.

Federation of Israeli Chambers of Commerce

The FICC was founded in 1919 as an independent and non-profit entity. Regarded as one of the most influential business organizations in Israel, the FICC is the leading economic organization representing the trade and service sector, the largest sector in Israel. The FICC serves as a roof organization to over 5000 businesses and organizations operating in more than 120 divisions: export, import, trade, real estate, financial and business services. The organization encompasses six regional Chambers of Commerce: Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa, Beer Sheva, Eilat and Nazareth. In the last decade, the FICC led several domestic and international sectorial challenges:

  • The reduction of purchasing tax
  • Abolishing import barriers and opening the market to competing imports
  • Advocating policy changes in standardization requirements and reducing import barriers
  • Petitioning against strikes initiated by employees of essential public services
  • Succeeding to reduce corporate taxes
  • Campaigning to reduce market monopoly
  • Amendments and equality in the Tender Act Law, enabling more equal opportunities for small and medium enterprises

Clareo

Clareo is proud to sponsor the States of Minds Festival, recognizing the power of a multi-media platform to raise awareness, form partnerships and scale meaningful change. Clareo helps leaders create new ways to grow. We assist clients in improving strategy execution, developing entrepreneurial capability, commercializing new ideas, exploring plausible futures, adapting to emerging threats and increasing competitiveness through corporate venture capital. Our clients look to Clareo when they want bold new ideas, outside-in thinking fueled by a network of leading global experts and plans that lead to action and results.

The Tel Aviv Cinematheque

The Tel Aviv Cinémathèque was the first cinematheque in Israel and is the most prestigious place for film industry professionals in Israel.  The Tel Aviv Cinémathèque seeks to heighten public awareness of the art of filmmaking, reflecting a belief that filmmaking also embodies an expression of other art forms.  Drawing about 30,000 visitors each month, the Cinematheque is a key component of the cultural-social scene in Tel Aviv-Yafo and provides a platform for both Israeli and foreign films.

The Jerusalem Cinematheque

The Jerusalem Cinematheque is the oldest and most important cinema institution in Israel. Established more than thirty years ago, and overlooking Jerusalem’s Old City walls, the Jerusalem Cinematheque is a film and cultural center like no other, showcasing the very best of classical and modern, known and rare, world and local cinema, with an emphasis on diverse audiences, intercultural dialogue, and coexistence.

The Holon Cinematheque

Cinematheque Holon Logo.jpg

The Holon Cinematheque promotes a love for the art of movie-making by exposing its audience to the world’s cinematic abundance from diverse eras and genres. Screening over 40 films a month in two theaters, it offers a unique experience for everyone, emphasizing full interaction with the audience.

The Cinematheque is also committed to exposing audiences of all ages to animation as a cinematic genre and technique, and it screens short animated films at the beginning of many of its showings. The Cinematheque promotes the creation of short animated films by staging an annual competition called MaraToon, and maintains an animation archive, which aims to collect, register and document all Israeli animated works.

The School of Media Studies at COMAS

The School of Media Studies at COMAS is Israel’s leading school of media studies. Its mission is to train the new generation of media professionals in Israel. Many of the key people in field of media, the business world, politics and academia in Israel number among the thousands of graduates of COMAS’ School of Media Studies. The School is a center of diverse activities held in collaboration with the media industry and media organizations. Furthermore, COMAS’ School of Media Studies initiates many projects in close collaboration with a variety of media bodies, allowing the students to develop a sort of “professional identity card” towards their entry into the dynamic, ever developing world of media.

The Israeli Center for Digital Art

“The Israeli Center for Digital Art is a dynamic platform for thinking, researching, producing, presenting, and analyzing contemporary art, as well as providing a meeting point for exchange between contemporary artists, curators, critics and the public. The center is a non-profit organization supported by the city of Holon. As a public art space it consistently questions the place of art institutions within their society. In an effort to stimulate discourse in Israeli society, the center devotes a significant part of its work on art projects that foster questions about identity, ethnicity, nationalism and cultural exchange. The activities of the center are concentrated in five main areas: the video archive, public presentations, the residency program, publications, and education. The Israeli Center for Digital Art’s educational program aims at increasing the visibility and involvement of the Israeli Center for Digital Art in the communities of Holon. Through the implementation of artistic tools and methods, programs are geared towards building social responsibility, and youth agency.”

Kibuttzim College of Education Technology & Arts

At Kibbutzim College of Education Technology & Arts, the Department of Media and Film Studies prepares students for careers in television and the cinema, journalism and advertising. This is the only academic program in Israel that offers a joint degree in Media and Film and a Teaching Certificate for Secondary Schools in both these fields. The curriculum is multi-disciplinary and has been developed on the premise that these two fields have much in common. The films produced by our students during the course have received prizes and are exhibited the world over.The Department of Media and Film is located in the heart of Tel Aviv, a city full of life. This fact together with the objectives of the Program creates a feeling of dedication to progress and inventive technology. The teaching staff includes academics as well as media and cinema experts who have set as their goal to train and develop the next generation of media and film professionals and teachers.

The Sapir College

The Sapir College brings to the Negev a pulse of creativity, critical thinking and renewed energy that plays a crucial role in the ability to affect the country as a whole. The School of Audio and Visual Arts is currently producing a new generation of talented professionals who creatively relate both to their own experiences and to the world around them. They provide a new cinematographic way of telling stories, often stories that have fallen by the wayside. These are the unheard voices of Israel’s periphery, in films made by those who live there and don’t fear facing their reality. The School of Audio and Visual Arts is a school that seeks to redraw the social and cultural agenda of Israel and the relationship to its surroundings. The School has initiated and established a number of cultural and social enterprises, including the creation of the Sderot Cinematheque, as well as cinema communities in Israel’s southern population centers, and the International Cinema South Festival.