"Her Dance" by Bar Cohen wins two awards at ShortFest 2021

"Her Dance" by Bar Cohen, a student of the Steve Tisch School of Film and Television, won Best Student International Short and the Audience Award for Best Student Short at ShortFest 2021, the prestigious Palm Springs International Short Film Festival. The festival is one of the most prestigious international short film festivals; the winning films are automatically shortlisted for the Academy Awards in the short film categories. Three other films made by students of the Steve Tisch School of Film and Television participated in the festival: "Borekas" by Saleh Saadi, "Neurim" by Shaylee Atary and "Complicated" by Isak Kohaly.

"Her Dance" (22 minutes) was made by Bar Cohen as part of her 2nd-year studies at the School of Film and Television, under the mentorship pf Maya Dreifuss. It is a family melodrama inspired by Cohen's experiences as an "off the derech" Jewish transgender woman. Aya, the film's protagonist, who is estranged from her family, shows up uninvited to her sister's wedding Shabbat night, where her presence threatenes to reveal family secrets and lies. The film was produced with the support of the Blavatnik Student Film Production Fund, and has participated in various film festivals in Israel and abroad, among them the Tel Aviv International Student Film Festival and the prestigious Aspen ShortFest.