Rafael Balulu is an award-winning filmmaker and recipient of the Israeli Minister of Culture Award for Cinema, as well as the World Sephardi Federation’s Pioneer Award in Film. He is the co-founder of the production company BFILMS and serves on the Cultural and Arts Council of the lottery, where he is Chairman of the Film Committee and a board member of the Landau Prize for Science and Arts. Balulu is a member of the Israeli Academy of Film and Television. Previously, he served on the board of the Israeli Documentary Filmmakers Forum and taught cinema at the Technion’s Faculty of Architecture.
His acclaimed films include The Last Righteous Man, A Song of Love, Levantine, Tapes of Revolution, and Death in Umm al-Hiran, among others. His works explore the narratives and histories of MENA Jews and Jewish–Muslim relations, and have been screened, honored, and awarded at major international festivals, including Berlin, New York, Jerusalem, Auckland, Toronto, Kosovo, Seoul, and Hong Kong.
Balulu is an alumnus of Berlinale Talents, the TIFF Filmmakers Lab, and the Greenhouse Documentary Development Program. He studied at the Sam Spiegel Film and
Television School, is an alumnus of the Mandel Institute’s Jewish Culture Leadership Program, and a Fellow of the Frankel Institute for Advanced Judaic Studies at the
University of Michigan.