The 22nd edition of the Docaviv Film Festival is set to take place in Tel Aviv from 3-12 September, after being postponed from its original dates in May due to the coronavirus. This year’s festival will take on a hybrid format, with both online and physical screenings – all in compliance with social-distancing guidelines. Audience events will take place both indoors and outdoors throughout the city, as well as on the festival’s website, whereas industry events are planned to move entirely online.

Docaviv’s artistic director, Karin Rywkind Segal, says: “The decision to plan a hybrid festival was made after realising that the safety restrictions that may apply once the cinemas in Israel reopen could limit the capacity of the large crowds that the festival usually enjoys. As a big audience festival, we want to accommodate our loyal audiences who may not be able to attend cinema screenings. Other festivals that went online and a successful curated online programme we launched in May have both proven that an online programme is a wonderful way of reaching people that reside outside of Tel Aviv as well as audiences with disabilities that do not allow them to attend physical screenings. We cannot predict the future, but we are working towards the best and safest solutions to showcase the wonderful films we have curated for this year's programme.”

At the time of writing, no date has been announced for the reopening of cinemas in Israel. The decision to open them on 14 June was withdrawn on 8 June owing to a new rise in COVID-19 cases in the country.

The festival has also announced the line-up of the Israeli Competition, which features 16 titles, 12 of which are world premieres. These include Kings of Capitol Hill [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] by Maya Sarfaty, Ma mère Raymond by Yael Abecassis, No Hard Feelings by Arthur Abramov, Rain in Her Eyes by Ron Omer, The Three Yossi by Yael Kipper and Ronen Zaretzky, Rockfour: The Time Machine by Gad Aisen, The War of Raya Sinitsina [+lire aussi :
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interview : Maya Zinshtein
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Another two Israeli films will world-premiere in the newly established Beyond the Screen competitive category, for films whose subjects work to change our political, social and ecological reality: A Waste of Space by Noam Demsky and Ido Bahat, and Marry Me However by Mordechai Vardi.

Other Israeli films set to be screened at the gathering include Another Day in Paradise by Tomer Halfon, Little Victories by Michal Warshai Arluk and Murder at Cinema North by Avida Livny, in the Panorama strand; Coda for a Captain by Keren Alexander and Tuning by Ilan Yagoda, in the Depth of Field competition; and Nurith Aviv's Yiddish [+lire aussi :
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