Irit Shimrat has been Director of International Relations at the New Fund for Cinema and Television (NFCT), Israel, since 2014. The NFCT is a leading and veteran non-profit and nonpartisan organization that supports and promotes Israeli films and filmmakers, with a special focus on documentary filmmaking.
In addition to work with local and international supporters of NFCT, Irit runs the NFCT’s WomanFilms Hubs – two large-scale film hubs for women filmmakers from diverse backgrounds across Israel, one for the development of documentary projects and the other for the development of feature-length narrative film projects.
Prior to her time at the NFCT, Irit was a freelance film producer working on large-scale documentary film productions, from concept, through fundraising, production, budget management and promotion and distribution. Her filmography includes titles such as 24 Hours Jerusalem (a German-Israeli co- production with multiple directors); and Six Million and One (by David Fisher).
She also worked at the NFCT between the years 2004-2008 and was in charge of international relations and special projects. She led the team that established and raised EU funding for the Greenhouse Middle East and North Africa Program, which ran for 12 consecutive years and was a documentary development hub for filmmakers from across the Middle East and North Africa.
Irit holds a B.F.A in Film and Television from the Tel Aviv University and lives in Tel Aviv with her partner and son. She has dual citizenship (Israeli and British) and is a native speaker in both English and Hebrew.