This exhibition provides a concise survey of Israeli cinema from its beginnings up until the end of the 20th century, while highlighting a few holdings in film from the UT Libraries Israeli Cinema & Film Collection. Teaching and learning through filmic content provides valuable insights into historical events, cultural contexts, social issues, and artistic expressions. Textual content documents the evolution of film theory, criticism, and production. By preserving this body of knowledge and the intellectual heritage of filmmakers, critics, and scholars, the collection supports the research of Israeli society through cinema and film.

We collect everything that is or about Israeli cinema and film, including pre-1948 items, in all languages and in all formats. This collection comprises of Audio-Visual content in various genres (features, documentaries, shorts, TV series) and on various media (VHS, DVD, streaming), as well as textual materials, either in print or digital, such as books, periodicals, film festival catalogs & programs, film screening programs, film school publications, original scripts, exhibition catalogs, promotional/commercial publications, theses and dissertations, instructional materials, film industry documentation, governmental reports, and ephemera. We do not collect posters or archival materials such as correspondence and photographs. The collection is discoverable through the UT Libraries catalog and could be brought together virtually by a note in each item’s bibliographic record, namely Israeli Cinema & Film Collection. Items are housed across several locations on and off campus, and are cataloged and classified according to the Library of Congress subject headings and classification schemes. Rare and unique items do not circulate but are available for consultation on location.

This exhibition gives a short overview of the filmic production in Israel from its beginnings in pre-1948 Palestine until the end of the 1990s. Each section describes cinematic trends or phenomena, and shows how they were analyzed through films. [1]

[1] Film titles appear here in their English translation. Bibliographic records would usually show titles both in transliteration and in translation. Titles that are not linked to the catalog are not yet held in the collection.

A few footnotes are repeatable in multiple sections of the exhibition text.

All images scanned from items held by the University of Texas Libraries, unless otherwise cited.