WomanFilms (formerly Greenhouse Women) was established in 2014 in order to create a unique and tailor-made environment to nurture women documentary filmmakers from diverse backgrounds across Israel.
The program exceeded our expectations when the first film to emerge, Wall by Moran Ifergan, won the Best Film Award at the prestigious Docaviv International Film Festival in Tel Aviv in 2017. That year, four out of thirteen titles competing for that award, were films developed through this program.

 WomanFilms Documentary Film Hub is based on the hugely successful model of a program we established in 2006 called Greenhouse MENA, which ran for 12 consecutive years. WomanFilms targets women filmmakers from diverse and often marginalized backgrounds across Israel. At a time when intolerance and discrimination are unfortunately on the rise, we recognized an urgent need to foster mutual understanding and build bridges between the various communities that make up Israel. In addition, we wanted to help promote and empower women filmmakers and increase the number of women filmmakers who are successful in seeing through (and finding financing for) their film projects. Creating a safe, women-only environment, enables filmmakers from more closed societies to participate. The program is a wonderful meeting point for filmmakers to exchange ideas and create new collaborations, as well as an ever-growing community of filmmakers committed to social change.

To date there have been six cycles of the program and eight films have been successfully completed, with many more in various stages of production. These films participated in international festivals, were broadcast on TV and are often used for educational purposes. Our growing community of filmmakers includes 65 talented artists who have graduated the program.

Each year, WomanFilms brings together around 10 talented filmmakers from diverse religious, ethnic and cultural backgrounds, and supports them in the development of compelling documentaries that amplify women’s voices about important contemporary and social issues. The participating filmmakers receive in-depth professional guidance from three top-tier women mentors and participate in lectures, workshops and masterclasses by leading professionals, in order to hone their cinematic skills and navigate a very successful, yet highly-competitive Israeli film industry. The one-year program includes three 5-day residential workshops that enable the filmmakers to delve into the development process away from work and family duties.

The hub’s activities are enabled by our kind supporters and partners over the years – The Dobkin Family Foundation, The Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, The Fidelio Foundation, Mifal Hapayis, The Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund, EMID/Matanel, Ms. Anat Kerem Angel, The Jewish Women’s Foundation of the Greater Palm Beaches, The US Embassy Israel, The Israel Estates Committee, The Jacob Burns Film Center, The Diamond Charity Fund and anonymous contributors.

Following the success of the documentary hub, we launched a sister program – WomanFilms Narrative Film Hub for the development of feature-length narrative film scripts by women filmmakers, in collaboration with Mifal Hapayis and The Israel Film Fund.

So far, 19 films have emerged from WomanFilms Documentary Film Hub: Wall/Moran Ifergan (winner of the Best Documentary Award at the 2017 DocAviv IFF); Fence Your Best/Liat Mer; In My Room/Ayelet Albenda (winner of the Best Soundtrack Award at the 2017 DocAviv IFF); Stains/Katy Diakova; The King of Borek/Orit Ofir Ronell; A Perfect Housewife/Jane Bibi (winner of the Jury Award at the 2018 DocAviv IFF); Open your Mouth/Tamara Mamon (official selection Docaviv 2019); Victor’s Curse/Meirav Hadas Hadad; Little Victories/Michal Warshai Arluk;Coda for a Captain/Keren Alexander; The Green Line/Judith Kahana; Yamna’s Blessing/Ilanit Swissa; How to Say Silence/Shir Newman (winner of the Best Debut Film at the 2021 Docaviv IFF); Honey Trap/Aalam-Warqe Davidian; Cinema Sabaya/Orit Fouks Rotem (Israel’s official selection for the 2023 Oscars. A full-length narrative film that started out as a documentary in our first WomanFilms cohort); Knock on the Door/Aya Elia; The First Night/Rachel Elitzur; Zipora and Rachel are not Dead/Hadar Morag; On Parole/Neta Pat Ben-Itzhak

2014 Hub: Ayelet Albenda | Esti Almo Wexler | Jane Bibi | Carmen Elmakiyes-Amos |Orit Fouks | Gitit Ginat | Samah Haik | Oshri Hayun | Moran Ifergan | Marwa Jbara Tibi |Talia Krevsky | Alamork Marsha

2015 Hub: Anat Vovnoboy | Orit Ronell | Yosra Abu Kaf | Samah Salaime Egbariya | Yehudit Kahana |  Racheli Vasserman | Rajaa Ghanem ElDanef and Helen Zananiri | Ekaterina Diakova | Liat Mer | Yael Gur | Ilanit Swissa

2016 Hub: Rozeen Bsharat | Samah Bsoul | Hadass Dissen | Odeya Geuliov | Lydia Ginzburg | Meirav Haddad | Tzipi Huri | Yifat Makbi | Adva Ofir | Bruria Pasternak | Tehila Ra’anan Frenkel | Irit Shravit | Samah Wattad

2017 Hub: Sharon Luzon | Bar Mayer | Tamara Mamon | Elsin Davidi | Sona Dagesh | Aviva Zimmerman | Suheir Hani Khoury | Mor Company | Nava Levy | Keren Alexandroni | Marwa Jbara Tibi | Hadar Morag 

2018 Hub: Shir Newman | Neta Pat | Michal Varshai | Maayan Kapach | Yasmin Bakariya | Shuruk Bader | Sigal Emanuel | Dana Hacohen | Anat Vogman | Lutza Sheresh | Samira Haj Yahya | Dafna Friedlander | Liraz Pank 

2019 Hub: Aya Elia | Danel Elpeleg | Manya Lozovskaya | Naomi Meroz | Keren Bergman | Yael Lotem | Rachel Elitzur | Zahra Saeed | Shemer Gaon Baraba 

2020 Hub: Aviva Yalem Reuven | Gal Dor | May Elimelech | Michal Brunshcwig | Michal Cohen | Maayan Boni | Miriam Baron | Noa Amiel Lavie  | Naama Dashevsky

2021 Hub: Avital Koren | Elia Shwarz | Hava Rokhlin | Noa Ben Shalom | Nechama Yehoshafat | Emmanuelle Mayer | Roni Benisti | Shirly Halfin | Shaked Orbach 

2022 Hub: Gal Rosenbluth | Hadas Neumann | Helen Yanovsky | Livi Kessel |Michal Ben-Tovim | Noga Chevion | Adi Yaffe Cohen | Rotem Dimand | Tamar Peled