Julie Shles is a film director. Shles began her film career with a number of well-received documentary films she had directed, including St. Jean (1993) which won a prize at that year’s Jerusalem Film Festival, and Baba Luba (1995) which won an Ophir award for Best Documentary. In 1997, Shles had her feature-length directorial debut with Afula Express. The film went on to win six Ophir awards, including Best Film and Best Director. Now, an established box-office hit and a critics’ darling, the film went to many festivals around the world, including the Berlin International Film Festival, Rome Film Fest, and the Hong Kong International Film Festival. Afula Express won top honours at the Jerusalem Film Festival, taking home the Best Film award.
Highlights of Shles’s other films include five-time Ophir award-winner, Joy (2005) that was showcased at the Jerusalem Film Festival and a host of others, an Israel and worldwide, and Broke (2015), which won an Ophir award in the Best Documentary Short category.