Draft:Benjamin Freidenberg

Benjamin Freidenberg (born March 12, 1980) is a screenwriter,director,  lecturer,  and film researcher.

Biography
Freidenberg is a graduate of the Sam Spiegel Film and Television School and Television with high honors (2003-2008). His films have been screened in numerous museums and festivals, including the Locarno Festival, MoMA, Jerusalem Film Festival, etc. Between 2010-2016, he managed content at the Judaica photography collection of Hollis Harvard University Library's Catalog, which includes images from the genesis of photography in the mid-19th century to the end of the 20th century. Since 2016, he has worked as the head of content and preservation of Micha Shagrir Collection at the Jerusalem Cinematheque - film archive open to the public, dedicated to the work of  producer and filmmaker Micha Shagrir Freidenberg founded the Jerusalem Filmmakers Forum (NGO) in 2017 and managed the organization until 2021. As of 2019, he is a lecturer at the Department of Screen-based Arts at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design Jerusalem.

Since 2020, Freidenberg is the director of the Sam Spiegel School for Film and Television and Television school's study programs in Arabic.

Freidenberg is a graduate of the Hebrew University's Department of Linguistics, with a bachelor’s and a Master's degree (2010-2018). He is currently a PhD candidate in the Department of Italian and French Studies at the Hebrew University. His research targets film language and the influence of historical linguistics on the study of the syntax and pragmatics of cinematography and editing. His PhD focuses on the Institute of Filmology at the Sorbonne post World War II. The institute worked to transform the study of cinema to a scientific discipline by applying Natural Sciences, Humanities and Social Sciences.

Freidenberg curated variety film programs at the Jerusalem Cinematheque and served as a lecturer, as well as at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque and the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. He wrote essays and edited an issue for the film magazine Takriv (Close up). He also translated from Italian Pier Paolo Pasolini's 1967 essay 'Thoughts on the Long Shot' concerning the assassination of President Kennedy. Since 2022, Freidenberg has been writing reviewson cinema, video art and animation in the digital magazine 'Culture Treasures'.

Director

 * Karl Marx. The Activist (full-length documentary, broadcast May 11, 2023).
 * Ethiopia Street (short documentary film, Sam Spiegel Film and Television School, 2013).
 * Guided Tour (short feature film, Sam Spiegel School of Film and Television, 2009).
 * Rehearsal Room (video-dance in collaboration with choreographer Iris Erez, Sam Spiegel School of Film and Television, 2007).
 * Journal (short feature film, Sam Spiegel Film and Television School, 2007).
 * Quiet Street (short documentary film, Sam Spiegel Film and Television School, 2006).

Casting director

 * "Son of Saul" (Hungary, 2015, winner of the Academy Award for Best International Film).

Screenwriter

 * 'Wafa' - TV series (in production) in collaboration with screenwriter director Ihab Jadallah.
 * Karl Marx. The Activist (full-length documentary, broadcast May 11, 2023).
 * Ethiopia Street (short documentary film, Sam Spiegel Film and Television School2013).
 * Guided Tour (short feature film, Sam Spiegel School of Film and Television 2009).
 * Journal (short feature film, Sam Spiegel School of Film and Television, 2007).
 * A Quiet Street (short documentary film, Sam Spiegel School of Film and Television, 2006).

Awards

 * TWestEnd Production Company Award at Sam Spiegel Series Lab in Collaboration with Netflix (2022).
 * Jerusalem Film and Television Fund Prize - Sam Spiegel Film Lab (2013).
 * ARTE Award for Promising Director - Jerusalem Film Festival's Pitchpoint(2012).
 * Best Short Feature Film Award - Jerusalem Film Festival (2009).
 * CILECT International Association of Cinema, Audioviusal and Media-Schools Award (2009).
 * Best Film Award - International Competition of The Tel Aviv Students Film Festival (2010).

Activism

 * Co-founder and CEO of the Jerusalem Filmmakers Forum (NGO 2016 – 2022).
 * Co-founder and co-director of the International Jerusalem Women’s Film Festival (2020-2022).
 * Board Member of Women in the Frame for Gender Equality in the film and television industry (NGO; since 2023).
 * Board Member of Wild Kids - Artist as Educator organization for youth education in the arts (NGO, since 2024)