Michèle Ohayon

Michele Ohayon is an award winning director writer and producer Born in Casablanca and raised in Israel Michele graduated from Tel Aviv University Film Television after serving in the army Her critically acclaimed feature documentaries include It was a Wonderful Life 1987 narrated by Jodie Foster PBS Colors Straight Up 1997 Nominated for an Academy Award Directors Guild of America Spirit awards and won 13 National awards Cowboy del Amor 2005 winner SXSW both jury and audience award Steal a Pencil for Me 2007 produced with Netflix Winner Jerusalem Film Festival SOSState of Security 2010 Berlin film festival and Solar Roadways Tribeca film festival In 1984 she received the Israeli Best Film Award for Pressure one of the first dramatic films on the IsraeliPalestinian conflict In 1987 she moved to Los Angeles where she went on to direct many acclaimed documentary features In 2013 Ohayon made the Academy of Motion Pictures tribute film for Angelina Jolie narrated by Morgan Freeman and for Jolies Governors academy award for her humanitarian work and in 2014 tribute film for Jean Claude Carriere Academy Award narrated by Jeremy Irons with Irons Richard Gere Natalie Porman Juliet Binoche and Isabelle Huppert Michele has also moderated the first TV summit for the Berlin Film Festival 2014 followed by Hollywood Inside and Out at the Sarajevo film festival 2014 and served on juries of various festivals including Berlin and Sarajevo Michele is the CEO and CoFounded the Kavana Entertainment based in Los Angeles with a mission to bridge between Hollywood and Europe and offer seminars lectures and consulting for filmmakers around the world Michele is also a fiction film writer with numerous screenplays developed by major studios such as MGM Focus Films and Starz cable She has been a guest speakerlecturer at various schools and colleges including UCLA AFI USC UVA Georgetown Wesleyan Stanford Chapman Kenyon and more For her body of work Michele received the 1996 and the 1998 Artists Grant from the Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department and was recognized for her fiction writing in the Chesterfield Writing Competition 2000 Michele is one of the founders of Cinewomen She is a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures where she serves on the International committee foreign film committee and the educationalgrants committee She is also a member of the WGA PGA and IDA