Film Festival

Shorts Program

Date : Sunday, May 18, 2025

This package brings together six powerful and thought-provoking Israeli short films that explore love, identity, and the complexities of relationships. From confronting exes in unexpected places to navigating secret lives, cultural expectations, and familial challenges, each film offers a unique and intimate perspective on the human experience.

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Shorts Program

This program is proudly supported by the Israeli Engagement Fund: A JCC Association of North American Program Accelerator and Ministry of Diaspora Affairs.

Exes

Dir. Itay Segal | 2023 | Israel | 20 min
For some time, Roy had been planning what he would say to his ex when he ran into him. He never imagined that it would happen in his one-night stand apartment. They haven’t seen each other since Ben left their shared apartment in Tel Aviv. What does one say at such a moment? Are people able to move on and mend a broken heart, only if they have closure?

The Holiness

Dr. Daniel Moreshet | 2025 | Israel | 17 min
Vered and Avihai, a religious Jewish couple, secretly embrace a secular life behind closed doors. Their carefully hidden double life unravels when their teenage daughter catches them watching TV on Shabbat—the holiest night in Judaism—forcing them to confront the cracks in their carefully constructed facade.

Conversation with director Daniel Moreshet and producer Harel Ben Melech following the screening.

Kosher Test

Dir. Riki Rotter | 2023 | Israel | 19 min
Tamar, an ultra-Orthodox girl from an extremist community, is taken to the hospital by her beloved father, who thinks she has had sex. Her relationship with her father and her virginity are tested.

More Than Friends

Dir. Omri Laron | 2023 | Israel | 19 min
A quirky lesbian mom discovers a love letter written by her 11-year-old son to another boy. Concerned for her son’s social status, she crashes into a birthday party to keep a close eye on him.

Puffs

Dir. Chaya Moshayev | 2024 | Israel | 14 min
Ella and Edik, brothers of a traditional Bukhari family, arrive early on holiday to their childhood home. There they find their homophobic father – dead and dressed in women’s clothes.

See You ‘Round the Block

Dir. Daniel Gat | 2023 | Israel | 15 min
As the morning rises over Tel Aviv, Dror encounters Eitan, his ex. Both are on their way back home from a long night out. When it turns out that Eitan has moved right across the street from Dror’s apartment, they realize that they have no choice but to take their “walk of shame” together.

Daniel Moreshet is a Tel Aviv-based actor, writer, and director. Born in 1993 and raised in the Orthodox Jewish community of Rehovot, he left religion as a teenager. A graduate of the Yoram Loewenstein Performing Arts Studio (Class of 2021), Daniel has been acting in film, television, and theatre for over a decade. He is best known for his roles in The Stronghold, Sissu Ve’Simchu, and Shababnikim. The Holiness marks his directorial debut.

Harel Ben Melech is a lead producer with nearly a decade of experience in the Israeli film industry and the founder of Tiara Films. She holds a B.A in Communications, Journalism, and Philosophy from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and is a graduate of the Thelma Yellin High School for Arts. She has produced numerous short films, including The Visit (Cannes, Palm Springs, HollyShorts, Vimeo Staff Pick), The Sun Rises Down Below (Best Short, Jerusalem Film Festival), and While We Stayed Home (Best Short, Utopia & Cinequest.) She has also worked as a line producer and co-producer in dfeatures and series such as Life Without Cover (Haifa IFF 2024), Pagum (Kan 11, Israeli TV Academy Award Nominee) and Saving the Wildlife (Kan 11, Israeli Academy Award Winner).