Director Renen Schorr, influential founder of Sam Spiegel Film School, dies at 72

Renen Schorr, the founder of Jerusalem’s Sam Spiegel Film School, died on Wednesday, the school said. He was 72 years old.

No cause was given, but the school described his death as “sudden.”

Schorr was credited with an essential role in helping establish the Israeli film industry.

“The Sam Spiegel community is heartbroken by the news of the death of our teacher, Renen Schorr, the founder of the school, who established in Jerusalem his life’s work, a work that changed Israeli cinema and Israeli culture as a whole,” said Sam Spiegel’s executive director Dana Blankstein Cohen.

“Renen, who led Sam Spiegel for over a generation, did so with unparalleled passion and made this institution one of the most significant and leading in the world film industry,” she said.

As a director, screenwriter and film editor, Schorr made his directorial debut with “Late Summer Blues” in 1987, a coming-of-age story that won best film, screenplay and original music at the 1988 Ophir Awards.

The film was considered a groundbreaking movie, telling the story of four 18-year-old Israelis about to enter the army. It was the first time an Israeli film showed what Israeli teens were thinking about, creating a new path in the still nascent Israeli film industry.

In 1989, Schorr created the Sam Spiegel Film School, situated in an ordinary industrial building in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Talpiot. It was renamed for film director Sam Spiegel in 1996, after a first initial bequest from the director’s estate.

Schorr saw the film school as an opportunity to find the right way to teach filmmaking in Israel, helping along an industry that was still in its infancy.

“We created a goal for ourselves, to make a change in Israeli film and culture,” said Schorr to The Times of Israel in a 2017 interview. “The job of the school was to create a dialogue with the Israeli public.”

He led the film school for 30 years.

Many Israeli filmmakers, including Oscar nominee Joseph Cedar, Nir Bergman and Talya Lavie, studied at the school, gaining the experience and directing chops needed to make films that would appeal to Israelis and an international audience.

“Israel isn’t a popular country, but filmmakers from the US and Europe appreciate Israeli filmmaking because it succeeds in surprising them,” Schorr told The Times of Israel. “That builds bridges.”

Schorr successfully pushed for Israel to be included in the European Film Academy in 2001 and founded cinematheques in Herzliya and Holon.

He won the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Culture Ministry in recognition and appreciation for his work over the years as a filmmaker and founder of the Sam Spiegel Film School.