12.07.2010 - 13:38 Uhr

Katriel Schory recognised as Film Ambassador of his Country

Filmstiftung NRW and Arte will honour the director of the Israel Film Fund at the Jerusalem International Film Festival today

Katriel Schory at Filmstiftung's International Film Conference

Katriel Schory, director of the Israel Film Fund, will receive recognition for his services to European film by the Filmstiftung NRW and Arte at the Jerusalem International Film Festival (8th 17th July). Together with ARTE editor Rémy Burah, Claudia Droste-Deselaers, director of the Filmstiftung NRW, will personally honour Schory in Jerusalem on 12th July. The Filmstiftung and the German-French television channel Arte intend this honour as thanks to Katriel Schory for his untiring commitment to European film. The initial idea was put forward by former CEO of the Filmstiftung, Michael Schmid-Ospach. He has promoted coproductions between Israel and Europe and so improved the exchange of cultures sending his own message of peace in this way.

Katriel Schory with "Heimatfilm"- producer Bettina Brokemper and "Lebanon"-director Samuel Maoz

Schory, who has worked as a successful producer himself, has been running the Israel Film Fund since 1999. Heading the biggest Israeli film funding institution, he has been able to shape its work decisively. His period in office has included European coproductions such as “The Syrian Bride”, “Sweet Mud” or “Lebanon” (Golden Lion in Venice) as well as the Oscar-nominated cinema films “Paradise Now” and “Waltz with Bashir”. Many of these productions were made in cooperation with the Filmstiftung NRW, which has been working closely with Schory and the Israel Film Fund for ten years now. Production companies in NRW, like the Cologne companies Heimatfilm or Ariel Films, have also made successful coproductions with Israel and the Israel Film Fund in recent years.

“I am delighted at our long-lasting and meanwhile very solid relationship, which will also provide the basis for cooperation on exciting, challenging films in the future,” Droste-Deselaers said in recognition of the continuing collaboration between filmmakers in NRW and Israel. Michael Schmid-Ospach, who headed the Filmstiftung for nine years, praises Katriel Schory as “a driving force in European cinema and an outstanding world-wide ambassador for his country. His engagement for film evidences his great respect for all those who make films and material for television.”

Besides being director of the Israel Film Fund, Schory is also chairman of Israels Film and Television Producers Association, a member of the national committee for the development of television and film, and a lecturer at Tel Aviv University - Department of Film and Television.