City Tel Aviv Showbiz Latest News and Updates

EXCLUSIVE: Prime Video has added Israeli dramas Kvodo and Just for Today to its service in the U.S.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentThe first feature by Berlin-based visual artist and filmmaker Ann Oren, which is titled “Piaffe,” is launching on Aug. 11 from the Locarno Film Festival’s Piazza Grande.Described by the director as “a love letter to the less recognized magicians of cinema and a playful celebration of otherness,” this German film is produced by Kristof Gerega, Sophie Ahrens and Fabian Altenried of Berlin-based Schuldenberg Films.Beijing-based Rediance, as previously announced, has taken international sales.“When her sibling Zara suffers a nervous breakdown, the introvert Eva is forced to take on Zara’s job as a foley artist.

Naman Ramachandran Tel Aviv-based Ananey Studios, part of Paramount Global, has signed a deal with Indian content producer Abundantia Entertainment to develop an Indian remake of the hit Israeli live-action teen drama, “The Hood” (“Schuna”).The original series, created by Giora Chamizer (Netflix’s “Greenhouse Academy”), is set in The Hood, a dingy cluster of low-income housing, where blue-collar families live, located in the middle of one of the richest districts. Kids in The Hood regularly prank the rich community’s snobbish teens, while the mayor constantly tries to get rid of the The Hood altogether.

Shirley Halperin Executive Editor, MusicThe estimated $55 million music market in Israel, like the Middle Eastern country’s comparatively small size, would quantify as the equivalent of a rounding error for a global music company. But its recorded music revenue growth was up 10.2% in 2021, per the IFPI, and the majors are taking notice.In 2021, UMG opened a Tel Aviv office housing a recorded music division and an arm of Universal Music Publishing Group (headed by managing director Yoram Mokady and general manager Itamar Shafrir, respectively).

EXCLUSIVE: Faraway Road Productions, the production label founded by Fauda creators Lior Raz and Avi Issacharoff and which was acquired this year by Kevin Mayer and Tom Staggs’ Candle Media, has hired Salome Peillon and Adi Ezroni, as Chief Operating Officer and EVP of Content, respectively.  

Andrea Bocelli's daughter first performed with him in December 2020 when she was just 8-years-old. Virginia Bocelli joined her father on stage for his virtual Believe in Christmas concert during the pandemic. The rising star joined the Italian maestro on stage at the Teatro Regio di Parma, handing him an acoustic guitar before starting their goosebump-inducing duet.

Jamie Redknapp's wife Frida treated fans to a beaming snap of her rarely seen children on Monday.MORE: Jamie Redknapp’s wife Frida shares stunning sun-kissed snaps for a very special occasionTaking to her Instagram Stories, the Swedish model posted an upbeat photograph of herself bursting with pride alongside two of her children. Posing inside a sports hall, the trio appeared to be attending a fencing competition in Tel Aviv.WATCH: Jamie Redknapp's baby son Raphael takes after his dad in adorable videoDressed in white fencing armour, Frida's eldest daughter showed off her impressive sporting prowess.

marveled viral tweets in Hebrew following Leo’s birth. (A follow-up tweet earlier this month noted that there are now two such little ones in Israel.)Shortly after marrying, the couple bought a six-bedroom, 2,900-square-foot villa on Elkakhi Street in Ramat Aviv Gimmel, a quiet neighborhood in northern Tel Aviv and within spying distance of the Mediterranean.

Shirley Halperin Executive Editor, MusicWhen Israeli singer Mergui took the stage at the Sun Rose in Los Angeles on Thursday night, it was clear the 22-year-old has some big-time backers in his corner. Chief among them: Haim Saban, the veteran businessman, philanthropist, owner of the Power Rangers IP and label head, who launched Saban Music Group in 2019, and was seated front and center (doubly-masked and wearing surgical gloves) to cheer on his latest signing.

Quentin Tarantino and his wife Daniella have welcomed their second child together over the fourth of July weekend. A representative for the couple confirmed the news in a statement to People on Monday (4 July). The statement read: “Daniella and Quentin Tarantino are happy to announce that Daniella gave birth to their baby girl on 2 July, 2022, a little sister to Leo, their first child.

Marta Balaga Following the success of Ofir Raul Graizer’s debut feature “The Cakemaker,” acquired by Netflix in the U.S. and already optioned for a Hollywood remake, securing financing for his second film “America” was much easier. But then the pandemic came.

Cineworld and its CEO, Mooky Greidinger, have been found guilty by an Israeli court of infringing merger conditions dating back to 2010 over the supply of films to a movie theater in Tel Aviv. A suit brought by the local competition authority argued that Cineworld’s local distributor, Forum Film, did not provide eight movies over a ten-year period to the Tel Aviv-based Lev Cinema. The court found in favor of the plaintiffs this week with a fine to be set in October.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorThe trailer has debuted for “America,” a drama directed by Ofir Raul Graizer (“The Cakemaker”), which will world premiere at Karlovy Vary Intl. Film Festival in the Crystal Globe Competition. Beta Cinema is handling world sales.The film centers on Eli, an Israeli swimming coach living in the U.S.

Liraz has announced her third album ‘Roya’ and released new single ‘Azizam’. The record again sees her working with Iranian musicians, who remain anonymous for safety reasons, although on this occasion they managed to work face to face, rather than remotely.Raised in Israel, Liraz used her debut album ‘Naz’ as a way to connect with her Persian roots – mixing tradition and more modern music and singing entirely in Farsi. After the album was released, she found that Iranian musicians, working under the radar of Tehran’s secret police, began getting in touch.Eventually, she and some of those musicians began working together online on what would become her second album, ‘Zan’, which was released in 2020.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentMusic Box Films has acquired North American rights to “Rodeo,” the bold feature debut of Lola Quivoron which premiered in Un Certain Regard at Cannes where it won the Coup de Cœur du Jury special prize. Produced by Charles Gillibert (“Annette”) at CG Cinema and represented by Les Films du Losange, “Rodeo” stars newcomer Julie Ledrue a Julia, a hot tempered and fiercely independent young woman who infiltrates an underground dirt bike community in France.After a chance meeting at an urban ‘Rodeo,’ Julia finds herself drawn into a clandestine and volatile clique and striving to prove herself to the ultra-masculine group, but is she is faced with a series of escalating demands that will make or break her place in the community.

EXCLUSIVE: Emile Hirsch (Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood) has signed on to star alongside actor-director Danny A. Abeckaser in his latest feature, The Engineer. The project is the pair’s second together, on the heels of the crime drama The Gemini Lounge—also starring Lucy Hale, Ashley Greene, Robert Davi and Vincent Laresca—which is set for release this fall.

Naman Ramachandran Tel Aviv-based sales company Cinephil has acquired worldwide sales rights for documentary feature “A Story of Bones,” which is in competition at the ongoing Tribeca Festival. Directed by Joseph Curran and Dominic Aubrey de Vere and produced by Yvonne Isimeme Ibazebo, the documentary follows Annina Van Neel, who, as the chief environmental officer for Saint Helena’s troubled $360 million airport project, learned of the island’s most terrible atrocity – an unmarked mass burial ground of an estimated 9,000 formerly enslaved Africans in Rupert’s Valley, one of the most significant traces of the transatlantic slave trade still on earth.

Big Thief have pulled out of two upcoming live shows in Israel and issued an apology for the “recklessness and naivete” of a statement they had previously shared defending the booking. Backlash to Big Thief's decision to play two shows in Tel Aviv in July began over the weekend with multiple social media users calling the band out for seemingly ignoring the BDS cultural boycott of Israel.

Big Thief have cancelled two shows in Tel Aviv, less than a week after they were first announced, following criticism over their decision to play in Israel.The band, who released new double album ‘Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You’ back in February, were set to play a pair of shows in bassist Max Oleartchick’s hometown on July 6 and 7.But today (June 9), they’ve confirmed that both shows will be cancelled.“We would like to start by clarifying a few things from our first post. When we spoke of loving ‘beyond disagreement’ and not knowing ‘where the moral high ground lies,’ that was in specific referred to playing shows in Israel during a time where BDS (The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement is a Palestinian-led movement promoting boycotts, divestments, and economic sanctions against Israel) is calling for a cultural boycott,” starts the post.

Shirley Halperin Executive Editor, MusicWarner Music Group has opened an office in Israel. The new recorded music affiliate is headed by Mariah Mochiach, a veteran of the Israeli music industry and longtime conduit to the local scene who’s held A&R positions, managed artists and served as a liaison and consultant for such labels as Beggars Group, Domino Recordings and Kobalt Music Group, among others.Warner Music Israel, based in Tel Aviv, will locally market and promote artists from the WMG roster — Anitta, Bruno Mars, Cardi B, Coldplay, David Guetta, Dua Lipa, Ed Sheeran, Paulo Londra, Red Hot Chilli Peppers and Saweetie are listed in the release announcing the news — as well as local signings.Recorded music revenue in Israel saw a rise of 10.2% in 2021, per the latest report by industry trade group IFPI, and international music companies have taken notice, with Live Nation and Universal Music Group opening Tel Aviv outposts in recent years.

Award-winning Israeli director Tomer Heymann is touring the United States in support of his latest documentary, Jonathan Agassi Saved My Life, a film that has earned praise in newspapers as geographically disparate as The New York Times and Israel’s Haaretz.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentBritish director Michael Winterbottom will start shooting his long-gestating “Promised Land,” a thriller set during the leadup to the 1948 partition of Palestine and the subsequent creation of the state of Israel, this fall in Italy.U.K. actors Douglas Booth (“The Dirt,” “That Dirty Black Bag”) and Harry Melling (“The Ballad of Buster Scruggs”) and Russia’s Irina Starshenbaum, who was in Cannes in 2018 with Kirill Serebrennikov’s “Leto,” are attached as the pic’s main cast. Italy’s Vision Distribution, which is headed by veteran sales agent Catia Rossi, is launching pre-sales on “Promised Land” in Cannes.Based on real events, “Promised Land” is a political thriller that unfolds during the British Mandate in 1930s Tel Aviv.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorBerlin-based sales outfit M-Appeal has closed sales on Berlin Panorama title “Concerned Citizen” – Idan Haguel’s satirical feature on privilege and prejudice set in Tel Aviv – for several additional territories.Distribution in the U.K. and Ireland will be handled by Peccadillo Pictures; Arti Film will be distributing the film in Benelux, with a nationwide theatrical release at selected cinemas planned later in the year; Tongariro Releasing has taken the rights for Poland, planning a festival run and theatrical release in arthouse cinemas for summer 2022; and Queer Kino has come on board to handle the film in the Czech Republic, where it will have a national premiere at Mezipatra Queer Film Festival and a theatrical release is planned for early 2023.

Naman Ramachandran The latest in the Downton saga, Universal’s “Downton Abbey: A New Era” topped the U.K. and Ireland box office with £3.07 million ($3.8 million), according to numbers released by Comscore.

Tel Aviv’s CoPro 24 — The Israeli Coproduction Market will welcome back the international doc community for the first time in two years later this month. The event, which has over the years unveiled award-winning features such as The Gatekeepers and Advocate, has also unveiled an initial slate of 12 projects.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent“The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem,” Yes Studios’ award-winning historical series, has been picked up by Netflix for multiple territories, including the U.S., U.K., France and Spain. The multi-language series is represented in international markets by Yes Studios, the Tel Aviv-based producer and distributor behind “Fauda,” “Your Honor,” “Shtisel” and “On the Spectrum.”Set in the early-mid 20th century, “The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem” is adapted from Sarit Yishai-Levi’s bestselling novel of the same name and tells the story of a family set against the backdrop of the Ottoman Empire, The British Mandate and Israel’s War of Independence.Opening in 1917, the show sheds light on Judeo-Spanish traditions and the history of a fledgling country.

Robert Marich In addition to Constantin Films’ Martin Moszkowicz receiving CinemaCon’s Career Achievement in Film, other executives will be feted at this year’s trade show.Global Achievement in ExhibitionRenana Teperberg Chief Commercial Officer, Cineworld GroupTeperberg lives the lifestyle of her CinemaCon Global Achievement in Exhibition Award. As chief commercial officer at Cineworld Group, Teperberg lives in Tel Aviv, but is a frequent traveler on weekdays to the London headquarters of her multinational circuit and also its Regal Cinemas operation based in Knoxville, Tenn.Her duties range from e-commerce, marketing, food service, HR, new product and business development.

Roy Trakin The origins of 4/20 as a national cannabis holiday — what President Day is for mattress sales and St. Patrick’s Day is for wearing another kind of green — dates back to 1971, when a group of stoner buddies at San Rafael High School in Marin County dubbed the Waldos — for their predilection to hang out and smoke on a campus wall — would meet by a statue of chemist Louis Pasteur on the campus at 4:20 p.m.

The woman who drew up Oskar Schindler’s lists and helped save hundreds of Jews during the Holocaust in World War II has died aged 107.

When I returned to Manchester Airport’s Terminal 1 today with a bag to check in I was expecting the worst. With the airport boss quitting yesterday after daily pictures and stories of mayhem, I was not hopeful in having a smooth journey to Malaga in the south of Spain.