The projects selected to participate in this year’s competition:

Love in Hard Places – Winner of the Van Leer Foundation Award (€5,000), Jerusalem Film Festival
Director: Barchi Haishrik | Producers: Tami Cohen, Adar Shafran | Content Editor: Henia Brodbecker
Love in Hard Places is a documentary that for the first time captures sexual therapy within the ultra-Orthodox world. Dr. Michal Prince, a religious sexologist, accompanies Haredi men and women on a deeply personal and transformative journey as they grapple with questions of identity, relationships, and freedom within a conservative society. The director, herself from the Haredi community, grants the film rare access, offering an intimate and moving glimpse into a silenced world.

The Lucky Ones
Directors: Ido Chen, Dana HaCohen | Producers: Kobi Mizrahi, Ohad San
This film reveals the story of Ohad Cohen, an Israeli football agent in Ghana, who scouts young talents and guides them through a relentless, demanding system. The documentary exposes the human struggles behind financial transfers, alongside the cultural and psychological challenges the young players face in a foreign land.

Children of Glass
Director & Producer: Kinneret Hai-Gilor | Producer: Hedva Goldschmidt | Impact Producer: Inbal Rotem Sagiv
The film follows four autistic residents of Kfar Ofarim as they cope with the sudden death of their friend Shlomik and their complex relationships with their parents. With a loving, non-judgmental gaze, the film immerses us in a sensory experience that brings us closer to their authentic lives.

Standing Alone Together
Director & Producer: Maayan Schwartz | Producer: Sarah Rosen
Two courageous activists – a Jewish man and a Palestinian woman – lead a movement for social change in a fractured, fearful Israel. They navigate between global admiration and harsh criticism, threats, and isolation. The film takes us behind the scenes, into the doubts and strength of those who keep fighting – even when the odds seem impossible. Is this true hope, or an illusion?

Tlushim
Director: Avishai Mellesan Tzegahun | Producer: Yoav Leshem | Impact Producer: Merav Schiffman
A “detached” – an Ethiopian Israeli who immigrated as a child or was born to parents who arrived with a 2,500-year-old dream, only to abandon their cultural heritage so their children could assimilate and become Israeli. Yet, the detached soon realizes that the struggle to become the “new Sabra” has failed: Israeli society still sees him as “the Ethiopian” at best, or “the Black” at worst.