Israel
Israel produces film and television out of all proportion to its size. Its art-house cinema travels widely — The Band's Visit, Footnote, Waltz with Bashir, Foxtrot — and its television industry has become one of the world's most influential exporters of formats: BeTipul became In Treatment, Prisoners of War became Homeland, and the original ideas behind Euphoria and Fauda began there. A 1985 agreement connects this output to Canada — one of the oldest instruments Canada holds — and Israel now backs incoming production with a cash rebate of up to 30%. The human bridge is real and concentrated: a Hebrew-speaking community within the larger Jewish-Canadian population of Toronto and Montreal, which the treaty's Hebrew-version provision speaks to directly.
The 1985 agreement is an older instrument and carries no automatic incentive of its own. On the Canadian side, CPTC and provincial credits apply to eligible Canadian expenditure. The Israeli draw is the Fund for the Promotion of Foreign Productions — a rebate of up to 30% of qualifying Israeli spend, with a further 10% for post-production and animation, capped at roughly US$4.8M — alongside the Israel Film Fund's national support for Israeli features, accessed through the Israeli producer. Confirm current rebate terms and caps before budgeting. Current as of June 2026.
Israel's production sector is small, technically strong, and unusually export-minded. The country sustains an internationally respected auteur cinema and, more distinctively, a television development culture that has become a global engine of formats — Israeli series and the ideas behind them have been remade and distributed worldwide, and the writers' rooms and creators who built that reputation are a genuine resource for a co-producing partner. Crews are experienced and accustomed to international work, and English is widely spoken at the professional level. The bilateral record with Canada is modest and has run mainly through documentary, including National Film Board co-productions such as Flipping Out (2007).
The financial draw for an incoming production is the Fund for the Promotion of Foreign Productions, which rebates up to 30% of qualifying Israeli spend, with a further 10% available for post-production and animation, to a cap of roughly US$4.8M. It is underpinned by several Israeli ministries together. Domestic feature financing flows through the Israel Film Fund, accessed on the Israeli side of a co-production. The institutional center for treaty certification is the Israel Film Center.
The festival calendar centres on the Jerusalem Film Festival, whose industry programme — Jerusalem Pitch Point — is a dedicated co-production forum connecting Israeli projects with international partners, and the Haifa International Film Festival. Both are accessible points of contact for meeting Israeli producers and seeing the work in context.
Why this corridor
Israel is a corridor whose strength is the calibre and reach of its output. A film and television culture this productive, paired with a 30% production rebate and a deep television-development tradition, gives a Canadian partner a serious creative and financial base — and the 1985 agreement, one of the oldest Canada holds, is a standing instrument ready to carry it. The corridor is most naturally suited to auteur-driven fiction, documentary, and the kind of format and series development Israel does as well as anywhere.
The human foundation is concrete. The Hebrew-speaking community within the larger Jewish-Canadian populations of Toronto and Montreal provides cultural and linguistic ties, and the treaty's Hebrew-version provision connects directly to that audience and talent base. Rubedo is looking for Israeli producers and creators — in feature film, documentary, and series development — and for Canadian producers drawn to a corridor with an outsized creative track record and a working incentive behind it.
Where to start
If you're a researcher, student, or filmmaker interested in this corridor, here's where to begin.
Start here
The Israel Film Center (within the Ministry of Economy and Industry) handles treaty co-production matters on the Israeli side, and the Fund for the Promotion of Foreign Productions publishes the rebate terms and application process; Telefilm Canada administers the treaty on the Canadian side. Confirm current rebate caps and windows directly before budgeting.
The co-production forum
The Jerusalem Film Festival's Jerusalem Pitch Point is a dedicated forum for matching Israeli feature projects with international co-producers and is the most direct route to meeting Israeli producers at the project level. The Haifa International Film Festival is a second major industry gathering.
Television and format development
Israel's distinctive strength is television and format creation — the development culture behind a long run of internationally remade series. For a Canadian producer or broadcaster interested in scripted series, the Israeli writers'-room and format-development sector is the corridor's most globally proven asset, and worth approaching directly through the festival and market circuit.
From the Canadian side
The Hebrew-speaking community concentrated within the Jewish-Canadian populations of Toronto and Montreal is a genuine foundation for this corridor — cultural and language ties, community institutions, and festivals that program Israeli work. Hebrew-language fluency is a practical production asset given the treaty's versioning provision.
Cultural signal
The Band's Visit (Eran Kolirin, 2007) — internationally acclaimed and later adapted into a Tony Award-winning musical — is a clear measure of how far Israeli cinema travels on craft and humane storytelling. It is the register this corridor is well suited to support.If you're an Israeli filmmaker, producer, or series creator interested in developing this corridor — or a Canadian producer curious about what a first Canada-Israel structure could look like — we'd like to hear from you.
contact@rubedo.ca