Our work is more important now than it ever has before, as art and culture continues to rise beyond national state identities and official political narratives. In a region that has been greatly affected by war and turmoil this past year — we work even harder to bring pivotal stories to light. As always, we stand in solidarity with the filmmakers on the ground capturing their realities in these harsh conditions. Despite the hardships, we are happy too also highlight some good news coming from CLOSE UP:

• We held three successful online workshops and, despite the challenges of being virtual, were deemed extremely beneficial by our filmmakers
• We screened several works-in-progress at FILM Middle East NOW Festival in Florence, Italy
• THE THERAPY had its world premiere at Docaviv Film Festival and won the Special Jury Award in the Israeli Competition
• NO OTHER LAND received grants from both IDFA Bertha Fund and Sundance Institute Documentary
• Two Close Up projects — OUT OF PLACE and CONCRETE LAND — received grants from Hot Docs CrossCurrents International Doc Fund
• We formed a new collaboration with the German Federal Foreign Office for our very first Storytelling Edit Lab that will take place in Berlin from December 1st to 6th, 2021
• Jude Chenab, director of Q, was awarded a post-production residency at the Jacob Burns Film Center after the pitch at the Close Up Pitching Forum in June 2021
• Founder and Executive Director Sigal Yehuda joined The WHY FOUNDATION as a new editorial board member
• Our 2021 / 2022 call for applications received around 60 submissions from across the region including: Afghanistan, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Turkey, and Yemen
• Sixteen projects were selected for our upcoming 2021 / 2022 edition. This year’s cohort – 24 directors and producers – hails from Afghanistan, Egypt, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Palestine, Qatar, Sudan, Syria, Turkey, and Yemen.
• In the past two years of Close Up, we have been able to support 48 filmmakers. Of these projects, 60% are in production or post-production, with some very promising projects to be released in 2022
• and many, many more…

We wish our filmmakers continued success and happiness as we look forward now to 2022.