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Tag: Arts & Culture

Munich Philharmonic Names Lahav Shani its Next Chief Conductor

The 34-year-old Israeli musician and Tel Aviv University alumnus adds another top-notch orchestra to his portfolio.

Lahav Shani, Music Director with the Israel Philharmonic since 2020 and alumnus of Tel Aviv University’s Buchmann-Mehta School of Music, will take over as chief conductor of the Munich Philharmonic, a leading German and international orchestra, starting September 2026.

The announcement was made last week by the mayor of Munich, Dieter Reiter, who underscored the freshness Shani would bring to the orchestra as one of the youngest chief conductors in the ensemble’s history: “Lahav Shani is a perfect fit for the Munich Philharmonic. The city orchestra, with its tradition and renown, has been rejuvenated and is awakening a new excitement for classical music,” Reiter said.

Shani’s appointment was decided by the Munich City Council on the recommendation of the orchestra. He was present in the southern German city to sign the contract. “I met the orchestra just last year for the first time, and the relationship was immediately very strong, which is very promising (…) I’m looking forward to the coming years,” he said in a video which was posted on his own Instagram account, as well as on the Munich Philharmonic’s Twitter account following the signing.

Shani will continue his role at the Israel Philharmonic, and will be conducting both orchestras once he steps into his new role. 

“Requiem for a Whale” Won Best Student Film Award at the IDA Documentary Awards Ceremony

Ido Weisman’s short documentary film won the award at the world’s most prestigious event dedicated to the documentary genre.

“Requiem for a Whale”, a short documentary film by Ido Weisman, an alumnus of The Steve Tisch School of Film and Television at Tel Aviv University’s Faculty of the Arts, won the best student film award at the IDA Awards Ceremony, considered the most prestigious award in the world of documentary films. The ceremony was held recently at Paramount Studios in Los Angeles.

The film also won the Israeli Documentary Forum Annual Awards in the same week.

“Requiem for a Whale”, which was produced as part of a Tisch School alumni project, was screened for the first time in June 2022 at the Docaviv International Documentary Film Festival, where it took second place and won the cinematography award in the student competition. Since then it has been screened at the Brisbane International Film Festival and at the DOC NYC festival (both in November 2022).

The film’s plot centers on a stormy night in early 2021, when a whale’s body is washed ashore at Nitzanim Beach in Israel. During the documentation of the encounters between people and the carcass, the viewer hears from several witnesses, who are reflecting on their impressions of the rare event. From the fabric of responses, a collective experience forms, addressing the dialogue between life and death.

Docaviv Film Festival judges commented that the film won second place “for finding beauty and meaning in a bleak corner of reality these days. For the ability to take a news story and turn it into a poetic cinematic piece on life and death and about the cruel encounter between humans and their environment.” The cinematography award went to Weisman “for smart and precise photography that takes the film to poetic places and adds deep layers to the story.”

Featured image: Ido Weisman on the red carpet (Photo: private collection)

Eradicating Deadly Brain Tumors by ‘Starvation’

A groundbreaking study at Tel Aviv University effectively eradicated glioblastoma, a highly lethal type of brain cancer. The researchers achieved the dramatic outcome using a method they developed based on their discovery of two critical mechanisms in the brain that support tumor growth and survival: one protects cancer cells from the immune system, while the other supplies the energy required for rapid tumor growth. The researchers found that both mechanisms are controlled by brain cells called astrocytes, and in their absence, the tumor cells die and are eliminated.

The study was led by Ph.D. student Rita Perelroizen, under the supervision of Dr. Lior Mayo of the Shmunis School of Biomedicine and Cancer Research and the Sagol School of Neuroscience, in collaboration with Prof. Eytan Ruppin of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the USA. The paper was published in the scientific journal Brain and was highlighted with special commentary.

Focusing on Tumor Environment

The researchers explain: “Glioblastoma is an extremely aggressive and invasive brain cancer, for which there exists no known effective treatment. The tumor cells are highly resistant to all known therapies, and, sadly, patient life expectancy has not increased significantly in the last 50 years. Our findings provide a promising basis for the development of effective medications for treating glioblastoma and other types of brain tumors.”

“We tackled the challenge of glioblastoma from a new angle,” explains Dr. Mayo. “Instead of focusing on the tumor, we focused on its supportive microenvironment, that is, the tissue that surrounds the tumor cells.”

 

“In the absence of astrocytes, the tumor quickly disappeared, and in most cases, there was no relapse – indicating that the astrocytes are essential to tumor progression and survival.”

“Specifically, we studied astrocytes – a major class of brain cells that support normal brain function, discovered about 200 years ago and named for their starlike shape. Over the past decade, research from us and others revealed additional astrocyte functions that either alleviate or aggravate various brain diseases. Under the microscope we found that activated astrocytes surrounded glioblastoma tumors. Based on this observation, we set out to investigate the role of astrocytes in glioblastoma tumor growth.”

Using a lab model, in which they could eliminate active astrocytes around the tumor, the researchers found that in the presence of astrocytes, the cancer killed all lab models with glioblastoma tumors within 4-5 weeks. Applying a unique method to specifically eradicate the astrocytes near the tumor, they observed a dramatic outcome: the cancer disappeared within days, and all treated lab models survived. Moreover, even after discontinuing treatment, most of the lab models survived.

WATCH: Dr. Lior Mayo explains the dramatic breakthrough in addressing glioblastoma, a deadly brain cancer

 

Exposing Mechanisms of Double Agents

“In the absence of astrocytes, the tumor quickly disappeared, and in most cases, there was no relapse – indicating that the astrocytes are essential to tumor progression and survival,” notes Dr. Mayo. “Therefore, we investigated the underlying mechanisms: How do astrocytes transform from cells that support normal brain activity into cells that support malignant tumor growth?”

To answer these questions, the researchers compared the gene expression of astrocytes isolated from healthy brains and from glioblastoma tumors. They found two main differences – thereby identifying the changes that astrocytes undergo when exposed to glioblastoma:

  1. The first change was in the immune response to glioblastoma. Dr. Mayo clarifies, “The tumor mass includes up to 40% immune cells – mostly macrophages recruited from the blood or from the brain itself. Furthermore, astrocytes can send signals that summon immune cells to places in the brain that need protection. In this study, we found that astrocytes continue to fulfill this role in the presence of glioblastoma tumors. However, once the summoned immune cells reach the tumor, the astrocytes ‘persuade’ them to ‘change sides’ and support the tumor instead of attacking it. Specifically, we found that the astrocytes change the ability of recruited immune cells to attack the tumor both directly and indirectly – thereby protecting the tumor and facilitating its growth.”
  2. The second change through which astrocytes support glioblastoma is by modulating their access to energy – via the production and transfer of cholesterol to the tumor cells. The malignant glioblastoma cells divide rapidly, a process that demands a great deal of energy. With access to energy sources in the blood barred by the blood-brain barrier, they must obtain this energy from the cholesterol produced in the brain itself – namely in the astrocytes’ ‘cholesterol factory’, which usually supplies energy to neurons and other brain cells. “We discovered that the astrocytes surrounding the tumor increase the production of cholesterol and supply it to the cancer cells,” explains Dr. Mayo. “Therefore, we hypothesized that, because the tumor depends on this cholesterol as its main source of energy, eliminating this supply will starve the tumor.”

The Tumor’s Vulnerability, a Therapeutic Opportunity

Next, the researchers engineered the astrocytes near the tumor to stop expressing a specific protein that transports cholesterol (ABCA1), thereby preventing them from releasing cholesterol into the tumor. Once again, the results were dramatic: with no access to the cholesterol produced by astrocytes, the tumor essentially ‘starved’ to death in just a few days. These remarkable results were obtained in both lab models and glioblastoma samples taken from human patients and are consistent with the researchers’ starvation hypothesis.

 

“The challenge now, is to develop drugs that target the specific processes in the astrocytes that promote tumor growth. Alternately, existing drugs may be repurposed to inhibit mechanisms identified in this study.”

 

Dr. Mayo notes: “This work sheds new light on the role of the blood-brain barrier in treating brain diseases. The normal purpose of this barrier is to protect the brain by preventing the passage of substances from the blood to the brain. But in the event of a brain disease, this barrier makes it challenging to deliver medications to the brain and is considered an obstacle to treatment. Our findings suggest that, at least in the specific case of glioblastoma, the blood-brain barrier may be beneficial to future treatments, as it generates a unique vulnerability – the tumor’s dependence on brain-produced cholesterol. We think this weakness can translate into a unique therapeutic opportunity.”

The project also examined databases from hundreds of human glioblastoma patients and correlated them with the results described above. The researchers explain: “For each patient, we examined the expression levels of genes that either neutralize the immune response or provide the tumor with a cholesterol-based energy supply. We found that patients with low expression of these identified genes lived longer, thus supporting the concept that the genes and processes identified are important to the survival of glioblastoma patients.”

“Currently, tools to eliminate the astrocytes surrounding the tumor are available in lab models, but not in humans,” notes Dr. Mayo. “The challenge now, is to develop drugs that target the specific processes in the astrocytes that promote tumor growth. Alternately, existing drugs may be repurposed to inhibit mechanisms identified in this study. We think that the conceptual breakthroughs provided by this study will accelerate success in the fight against glioblastoma. We hope that our findings will serve as a basis for the development of effective treatments for this deadly brain cancer and other types of brain tumors,” he concludes.

Can Music Help Prevent Severe Cognitive Decline?

TAU researchers developed musical tests to detect mental deterioration in old age.

Modern technology contributes to increased longevity and thus to the growth of the elderly population. It is therefore important to take steps to ensure their quality of life, including inventing tools for accessible and quick diagnosis of age-related conditions. While preventative tests are commonly accepted for a variety of physiological problems such as diabetes, high blood pressure or breast cancer, no method has yet been developed to enable routine, accessible monitoring of the brain for cognitive issues.

 

Researchers at Tel Aviv University have developed a method that employs musical tests and a portable instrument for measuring brain activity to detect cognitive decline in old age. The method entails measuring 15 minutes of electrical activity in the subject’s brain while he or she performs simple musical tasks and can be easily implemented by any staff member in any clinic, without requiring special training. The researchers believe the method could pave the way towards early detection of cognitive decline when treatment and prevention of severe decline are possible, improving the quality of life of millions around the world

 

Many Powers of Music

The study was led at Tel Aviv University by PhD student Neta Maimon from the School of Psychological Sciences and the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music, and Lior Molcho from Neurosteer Ltd, headed by Prof. Nathan Intrator from the Blavatnik School of Computer Science and the Sagol School of Neuroscience. Other participants included: Adi Sasson, Sarit Rabinowitz, and Noa Regev-Plotnick from the Dorot-Netanya Geriatric Medical Center. The article was published in the journal Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience.

 

As part of the study, the researchers developed a groundbreaking method combining a portable device for the measurement and innovative analysis of electroencephalography (EEG), developed by Neurosteer, and a short musical test of about 12-15 minutes, developed by Maimon.

 

“We have actually succeeded in illustrating that music is indeed an effective tool for measuring brain activity.”

 

Maimon, who specializes in musical cognition, explains that music has great influence on different centers in the brain. On the one hand, music is known to be a quick mood stimulant, particularly of positive emotion. On the other hand, in different situations, music can be cognitively challenging, activating the frontal parts of the brain, especially if we try to concentrate on different aspects of the music, and at the same time perform a particular task. According to Maimon, if we combine these two capabilities, we can create cognitive tests that are quite complex, yet also pleasant and easy to perform.

 

Neta Maimon specializes in musical cognition

 

Furthermore, music that is positive and reasonably rhythmic will enhance concentration and performance of the task. Thus, for example, the famous “Mozart effect,” whereby subjects perform better on intelligence tests after listening to Mozart’s music, has nothing to do with Mozart’s music, but rather the fact that music creates a positive mood and stimulates us to a state that is optimal for performing intelligence and creativity tests.

 

Accordingly, the researchers hypothesized that with musical tools, it would also be possible to challenge the subjects to an extent that would enable testing of the brain’s frontal activity as well as raising their spirits, thus enhancing their performance on the test while the overall experience is pleasant.

 

Enabling Early Detection of Cognitive Decline

The study included an experiment testing 50 elderly people hospitalized at the Dorot-Netanya Geriatric Medical Center. “Anyone hospitalized at Dorot, or any other geriatric rehabilitation institution, undergoes a standard test called ‘mini-mental,’ designed to evaluate their cognitive condition as a routine part of the intake process,” explains Maimon.

 

During the test, the subject is connected to the portable EEG device by means of an adhesive band with three electrodes attached to the forehead. The test includes a variety of tasks, including enumerating the days of the week or months of the year backwards. The subject performs a series of musical-cognitive tasks according to audible instructions given automatically through earphones. Short melodies are played by different instruments, and the subjects are instructed to perform various tasks on them at varying levels of difficulty. For example, pressing a button each time any melody is played or pressing it only when the violin plays. In addition, the test includes several minutes of musically guided meditation designed to bring the brain to a resting state, as this state is known to indicate cerebral functioning in various situations. Up to 30 points can be accrued, a high score indicating normal cognition.

 

“Our method enables the monitoring of cognitive capability and detection of cognitive decline already in the early stages, all by simple and accessible means.”

 

“The participants scored 18-30 on the mini-mental test, indicating various levels of cognitive functioning,” explains Maimon. “The EEG device registered the electrical activity in the brain during the activity, and the results were analyzed using machine learning technology. This allowed mathematical indices to be identified that were precisely correlated with the mini-mental test scores; in other words, we obtained new neuro-markers [brain markers] that may stand alone as indices of the subject’s cognitive status.”

 

Maimon adds: “We have actually succeeded in illustrating that music is indeed an effective tool for measuring brain activity. The brain activity and response times to tasks correlated to the subjects’ cerebral conditions (correlating to the mini-mental score assigned to them). More importantly, all those who underwent the experiment reported that, on the one hand, it challenged the brain, but on the other it was very pleasant to perform”.

 

The researchers conclude: “Our method enables the monitoring of cognitive capability and detection of cognitive decline already in the early stages, all by simple and accessible means, with a quick and easy test that can be conducted in any clinic. This method is of special importance today due to the increase in longevity and accelerated population growth, particularly among the elderly. Today, millions of people around the world already suffer or are liable to suffer soon from cognitive decline and its dire consequences, and their number will only increase in the coming decades. Our method could pave the way towards efficient cognitive monitoring of the general population, and thus detect cognitive decline in its early stages, when treatment and prevention of severe decline are possible. It is therefore expected to improve the quality of life of millions around the world.”

BOG 2022: Standout Students Win Michel Gelrubin Prize in Architecture

Three international students and three TAU teams recognized for projects that redefine architecture.

The 2022 Michel Gelrubin Prize in Architecture (MIG Prize) was awarded to students—both from international institutions and from Tel Aviv University—on May 16, at a ceremony held during TAU’s Board of Governors meeting.

Now in its ninth year, the Prize is awarded annually to students from around the world whose work demonstrates a combination of vision and talent in architecture and interior design. This year’s theme was “Extending Architecture,” or concepts that take architecture to unfamiliar domains and thereby redefine the status, form and materiality of the discipline.

TAU Governors Leslie Gelrubin Benitah and Samuel Gelrubin established the Prize in honor of their late father, French philanthropist and real estate investor Michel Gelrubin, who was a dedicated supporter of Israel, education and TAU. Leslie, Samuel and their mother Lyne Gelrubin all attended the ceremony.

Winners were chosen by renowned architect Kobi Karp along with a jury of experts in the fields of design, business, construction, journalism, and architecture.

The international category recipients were:

  • 1st place—Shoya Ishiguro, Waseda University, Toyko
  • 2nd place—Zhuo-ming Shia, Delft Technical University, Netherlands
  • 3rd place—Ramona Scheffer, Delft Technical University, Netherlands

 

The recipients from TAU’s Azrieli School of Architecture were:

  • 1st place—Barak Weizman and Mai Whiteson
  • 2nd place—Gabriel Abboud and Noa Natanson
  • 3rd place—Raz Baran and Noa Shimoni

 

“Since 2013, my brother Samuel and I have had the privilege to award architecture students who are looking ahead and imagining the future—students who we hope will have the kinds of careers and opportunities that our jurors have had,” said Leslie Gelrubin Benitah, a member of TAU’s Global Campaign cabinet. “Our goal is to identify new architectural talent and give them the opportunity to get some international recognition.”

Also speaking at the event, TAU Vice President Amos Elad said: “Every year we see the growth of the talent, and we understand the need for this important Prize.”

Prof. Eran Neuman, Dean of the David and Yolanda Katz Faculty of Arts, moderated the event. This year’s selection process saw entries from top global institutions, including Harvard University, Princeton University, University of Pennsylvania, McGill University, and Sapienza University of Rome.

For more information on the prize and past winners: https://migprize.com

Featured image: From left: Samuel Gelrubin, 2022 Michel Gelrubin Prize winner Mai Whiteson, and Leslie Gelrubin Benitah. (Photo: Chen Galili)

TAU Student Film “Kinship” to Compete at Cannes

Steve Tisch School to grace the red carpet for the 17th time.

We are excited to share that the film “Kinship” by TAU student Orin Kadouri will be screened at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival on May 26, as part of the La Cinéf competition. The competition was established within the Cannes Film Festival in 1998 and aims to discover the next generation of leading filmmakers. The film will have its local premiere and compete at the International Student Film Festival taking place in Tel Aviv on June 12-18.

Orin Kadouri, 26, is a third-year student at The Steve Tisch School of Film and Television, The David and Yolanda Katz Faculty of the Arts. In the film, Kadouri’s first, a young girl explores new boundaries in her relationship with her widowed father following the entry of a new woman into his life. Spoiler: The daughter will do everything in her power to become the center of her father’s life again. The film was supervised by journalist and director Dalia Karpel and Head of the Tisch School, Prof. Yaron Bloch.

Red Carpet Return 

This is the 17th time that the School has been accepted to the official Cannes Student Competition. “Im Hukim” (With Rules), by director Dover Koshvili, was the first film to be accepted to the competition (in 1999), earning second place. In 2002, Aya Somekh won another second place with her film “Questions of a Dead Worker”, and in 2005 the director Mia Dreyfus won yet another second place with her film “Visiting Hours.” Other young TAU directors who have walked the red carpet over the years include: Hadar Morag, Haim Tabakman, Amit Skomsky, Yaniv Berman, Maayan Rif, Yuval Shani and others.

Eti Tsicko, Industry Relations Responsible of The Steve Tisch School says, “Although this is the 17th time the School is competing at Cannes, we’re still very excited for and with Orin and her thought-provoking film and wish her good luck!”

 

Orin Kadouri

Featured image: Scene from the movie “Kinship” (Photo: Eugene Grebenchuk) 

Raising the Bar in Film

TAU student Bar Cohen is bringing Israeli spirit and transgender representation to the big screen.

“I like to explore myself through film, as a woman and a transgender woman; filmmaking is always personal,” says Bar Cohen, a student at Tel Aviv University’s Steve Tisch School of Film and Television.

Cohen wrote and directed the semi-autobiographical film Her Dance, which in June won two awards at the Palm Springs International ShortFest—Best Student International Short and the Audience Award for Best Student Short.

Her Dance along with her upcoming release, Bug, are fictional short films inspired by her experiences as a transgender woman whose family has roots in the Orthodox Jewish community. The intimacy and pain expressed by Cohen’s work are hitting a nerve with audiences, and successfully bringing representation from the lesser-known transgender community in Israel to the local and world stage.

A Rising Auteur  

Cohen, 26, realized at an early age that filmmaking was her calling.

“I’ve had a camera in my hand since I was eight years old,” she says. Cohen studied in a cinema track in high school and began her journey at TAU following her IDF service and after transitioning from the male gender assigned to her at birth to identifying as a woman.

Cohen, who recently completed her final year of undergraduate studies, is a scholarship recipient of both the Blavatnik Student Film Production Fund at TAU and Israeli transgender rights organization Ma’avarim (transitions).

Bar Cohen at Tel Aviv University

“The most amazing thing here at Tel Aviv University is the diversity of voices among the teachers,” she says. That range, she adds, provides a broad pool of mentors who can help students craft their own artistic expression. Cohen credits her academic mentor, Maya Dreifus, for providing invaluable guidance and inspiration.

“The best advice she gave me was to believe in myself and not worry about the opinions of others, because there will always be critics,” explains Cohen, who took that advice and ran with it.

Inspiration from the Heart

Cohen explains that lean budgets require Israeli filmmakers to rely on creativity and strong plotlines, rather than blockbuster action and overblown special effects.

“Israeli film brings heart,” she says. “Our main strength is telling meaningful stories.”

Cohen’s work is extremely close to her heart; she draws inspiration from the most vulnerable and authentic of sources—her own life.

A scene from Bar Cohen’s award-winning short film Her Dance

“It can be frightening to display elements of your real life on the big screen, but it’s the only way to create something of consequence,” she says.

A Journey of Self-Discovery

Originally from Bnei Barak, Cohen’s parents separated when she was three. Afterward, she lived with her mother in a secular home while her father remained Orthodox. At age five, Cohen told her mother that she didn’t feel like a boy, but rather a girl.

“My mom didn’t really understand it and thought it was just a phase,” explains Cohen.

“For a good part of my life, I was playing a role that wasn’t the real me. I was acting,” she says. That experience, she adds, contributed to her desire to study film.

Following a post-army trip to India, Cohen urgently felt the need to live her truth and told her parents that she had decided to transition to live as a woman.

“My parents lost a son, but gained a daughter,” she muses, noting that she made Her Dance to convey the complexities of that reality.

On the World Stage

Her Dance follows Aya, a secular transgender woman who arrives uninvited to her estranged, Orthodox family’s house during celebrations for her sister’s wedding. The heartrending 22-minute film debuted at the 2020 Tel Aviv Student Film Festival before premiering internationally.

WATCH: The trailer for TAU student Bar Cohen’s film Her Dance:

 

“It was the first time I saw my film in-person on the big screen since festivals went virtual due to COVID-19,” she explains shortly after returning from the Palm Springs ShortFest. “The audience was so receptive. After the screening, they had tears in their eyes and even gave me a standing ovation!”

In addition to Her Dance, the festival selected three other films by students of TAU’s Tisch School among the showcase of over 300 works from around the world: Borekas by Saleh Saadi, Neurim by Shaylee Atary, and Complicated by Isak Kohaly.

Her Dance was also among the competitions at the Aspen ShortFest, the BAFTA Student Film Awards, and the Indy Shorts International Film Festival.

Boosting Transgender Representation

For her next production, Cohen will soon shoot her graduation film about two friends navigating life and love after transitioning. It will feature a reprisal of the character Aya from Her Dance.

Following graduation, Cohen aims to create a TV series expanding upon the universe of her existing works.

While Cohen plans to initially establish her career in Israel, she notes that it is difficult to find local transgender actors and actresses.

“It’s important for me to bring real representation from the community,” she says. “It’s important for trans directors, actors and writers to take a part in our own stories.”

While transgender representation has made some significant steps in recent years with shows like Netflix’s Pose and the HBO adaption of Israeli drama Euphoria, Cohen acknowledges that there is still a long way to go.

And she believes she is well-position to help bring about that change.

Featured image: Bar Cohen accepts two awards at the Palm Springs International ShortFest (Photo: Nathan Cox, Palm Springs International ShortFest)

Show Me Your Playlist And I’ll Tell You Who You Are

Could you be inadvertently channeling your inner Beyonce or Eminem?

A new study shows that three songs from a playlist are enough to identify the person who chose the songs. Hence, companies like YouTube and Spotify can accumulate a great deal of information about their users based only on their musical preferences. The study was led by Dr. Ori Leshman of The Jaime and Joan Constantiner School of Education at Tel Aviv University and Dr. Ron Hirschprung of the Department of Management and Industrial Engineering at Ariel University. The study was published in the journal Telematics and Informatics. The study included about 150 young people (all undergraduate students), in 4 groups of about 35 people each. Participants were asked to identify group members based on only three songs from their favorite playlist. The variety of the students’ musical preferences was wide and very diverse, including, for example, both old and new Israeli music (from Sasha Argov to Kaveret, Zohar Argov, Omer Adam and Hanan Ben Ari), classic rock and pop (from the Beatles and Pink Floyd to Beyonce and Ariana Grande), Israeli and international hip hop (from Kendrick Lamar and Eminem to Hadag Nahash and Tuna) and more. The song choices were then analyzed according to a mathematical model developed by the scholars. The findings surprised even the researchers. The analysis of the data showed that the group members were able to identify the study participants according to their musical taste at a very high level of between 80-100%, even though the group members did not know each other well and had no prior knowledge of each other’s musical preferences. Dr. Leshman and Dr. Hirschprung explain: “Music can become a form of characterization, and even an identifier. It provides commercial companies like Google and Spotify with additional and more in-depth information about us as users of these platforms. In the digital world we live in today, these findings have far-reaching implications on privacy violations, especially since information about people can be inferred from a completely unexpected source, which is therefore lacking in protection against such violations. Visiting YouTube is perceived by the ordinary person as an innocuous act, but this study shows that it can reveal a lot about that person. On the other hand, this knowledge can be used as a bridge between people and perhaps in the future lead to the creation of new diagnostic methods and fascinating intervention programs that will make use of people’s favorite music.”

Michal Bat Adam Receives Israel Prize for Film Art

Broke barriers to become one of Israeli cinema’s first directors.

The Israel Prize for Film Art was awarded this week – to Michal Bat Adam, a lecturer at TAU’s The Steve Tisch School of Film and Television, who has written and directed 13 full sized movies, among them: “Moments“ (1979), “The Lover” (1985), “A Thousand and One Wives” (1989), “Aya: Imagined Autobiography” (1994), Love at Second Sight (1999), Life Is Life (2003), Maya (2010), The Road to Where (2016) and more. In addition, Bat Adam has starred in numerous movies, plays and on TV. She starred in many films by her late husband, Moshe Mizrahi, such as: “I Love You, Rosa” (1972), “The House on Chelouche Street” (1973) – both of which were nominated for an Oscar in the ‘foreign-language film’ category – “Daughters, Daughters” (1973), and Madame Rosa (1977), which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Two years ago, Bat Adam was awarded the Ophir Award for Lifetime Achievement (2019). The Ophir Award is colloquially known as the Israeli Oscars or the Israeli Academy Awards – awards for excellence in the Israeli film industry awarded by the Israeli Academy of Film and Television The Israel Prize committee said in a statement that, “Michal is a groundbreaking artist in Israeli cinema for five decades…[E]ven in a low-budget reality, at a time when there were still no government funds that supported filmmaking moviemaking as is customary today, Bat Adam has, over the years, produced 12 additional full length films that constitute a unique and original cinematic space. Her fruitful and meaningful film career is a significant inspiration for creators who dream of working in cinema.” Bat Adam is a director, screenwriter and actress committed to a unique, female cinema – uncompromising and groundbreaking. As an inspiring teacher and creator, she continues to influence the students at the school, as well as creators in Israel and around the world. Tel Aviv University, the Faculty of Arts and the School of Film and Television congratulate Michal on receiving the award and wish her continued productive work. featured image:
Actress and Film Director Michal Bat Adam has received the prestigious Israel Prize

And the Oscar goes to…

Tel Aviv University Team Receives Prize for Significant Technological Impact to Film Industry.

The American Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences announced the Academy Award winners in the Scientific & Engineering category for 2021: Prof. Meir Feder of the Iby and Aladar Fleischman Faculty of Engineering at Tel Aviv University, and his former student and co-founding partner of the startup company Amimon, Dr. Zvi Reznic. Amimon’s senior executives Guy Dorman and Ron Yogev also share the Award. Amimon was founded in 2004 by Prof. Meir Feder, Dr. Zvi Resnic and Noam Geri (also a TAU graduate).

Watch TAU Prof. Meir Feder’s reaction to winning an Oscar:

 

 

Used in the Global Film Industry

Every year, in addition to the winners of the traditional Oscar Awards, the American Academy of Motion Pictures announces winners in various scientific and technical categories, honored for their substantial impact on the global film industry. Last night, the Academy announced that the wireless video technology developed by the Amimon team, and implemented through Amimon’s chip-set, is the winner of the prestigious Award for significant scientific and engineering contribution to the film industry.

Prof. Feder says that the prize-winning technology is now used throughout the global film industry. He explains that the technology is able to transmit very high quality video shots, reliable and without delays, from a large number of cameras, in real time, to monitors on the set. This provides the film’s director and the control crew full control of all shooting angles simultaneously.

Joseph Pitchhadze, a film creator from The Steve Tisch School of Film and Television explains that “The main importance of Prof. Meir Feder’s technological development is shortening the set building in Multi Camera productions. This novel technology saves production time and frees significantly more time for the creation itself.”

The Academy Award Committee stated: “By using novel extensions of digital data transmission and compression algorithms, and data prioritization based on error rate, the Amimon chipset supports the creation of systems with virtually unrestricted camera motion, expanding creative freedom during filming.”

Proud Moment for TAU

Prof. Feder: “This is a very exciting day for me, and a proud moment for Tel Aviv University. We developed the basic technology in 2004-2005, when everyone thought that the task was very difficult or even impossible. We knew that it was a real technological achievement, but never imagined we would win the Oscar for it. About a year ago, the Prize Committee notified us that we had been nominated, but I thought it was just a gimmick.

“About a month ago, I suddenly got an official email from the Academy in Hollywood, informing us that we had won the Oscar. We were elated. I have won many academic awards, but the Oscar is certainly the most famous, an award that every person in the street knows. For me and the great team who took part in developing the technology, this is an enormous achievement and I feel very proud.”

Featured image: The Happy Team (from left to right): Guy Dorman, Dr Zvi Reznic, Prof. Meir Feder and Ron Yogev

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