Docaviv festival is considered as one of the most top rated documentary festivals in Israel. The 17th edition of this festival is scheduled from May 7th – 16th 2015. The recent news from the corner is regarding the finalization of official selection.

The festival will open with the screening of ‘Citizenfour’ directed by Laura Poitras. The Academy Award winning documentary will showcase the ongoing Edward Snowden saga.

75 Israeli films were being submitted to the ‘Israeli Competition‘ section, and out of this list, the organizers have selected 13 films for the final competition.

The festival offers a whooping $ 18,000 as the prize money, and this amount is the largest prize money offered for documentary filmmaking anywhere in Israel.

One of the main highlights of this year’s festival is the screening of ‘Cobain: Montage of Heck‘ directed by Brett Morgen. The director is known for making documentaries like, ‘The Kids Stay in The Picture’ and ‘Chicago 10′ which are considered as milestone films in documentary making. Brett Morgan will also conduct a special masterclass.

Other eminent personalities who will attend the festival includes, Naum Kleiman, founder of the Eisenstein Centre and former director of the Moscow Cinema Museum, renowned film critic Boyd van Hoeij, David Courier of Sundance Film Festival etc.