Zvi Spielmann (1925-2013) was an Israeli film producer. Polish-born Spielmann spent his early years in Dresden, Germany. At the age of eight, he and his family moved to Palestine. As a young man, he married Miriam Rosner and soon thereafter, was made an offer by her mother, Margot Klausner, who had invited him to join her at Herzliya Studios [now United Studios Israel] of which she was a founding member. Spielmann began his film career as an apprentice in the lab and went on to dabble in a variety of roles before eventually starting and managing the production company’s largest studio.
In 1965 he stepped down from Herzliya Studios to start Israfilm, a production company that was behind many Israeli films and co-productions such as A Boy and a Camel (Osamu Takahashi, 1968), and Death of a Jew (Denys de La Patellière, 1969). At the same time, the burgeoning company also specialised in providing a range of production services for foreign companies shooting their films (whether partially or in full) in Israel, including Bloomfield [aka The Hero] (Richard Harris & Uri Zohar, 1970), A Woman Called Golda (Alan Gibson, 1982), Schindler’s List (Steven Spielberg, 1993), and Don’t Mess with the Zohan (Dennis Dugan, 2008).
Highlights of his film production credits include: Is Tel Aviv Burning? (Kobi Jaeger, 1967); The Dress (Judd Ne’eman, 1969) that was featured in the Cannes Film Festival’s ‘Directors’ Fortnight’ section; The Customer of the Off Season (Moshé Mizrahi, 1970) which made the official selection for the Berlin International Film Festival and also earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Foreign Film; A Thousand Little Kisses (Mira Recanati, 1982) that was shown at the Cannes Film Festival as part of the ‘Un Certain Regard’ section; One of Us (Uri Barbash, 1989), Weekend in Tel Aviv [aka ‘Sof Shavua B’Tel Aviv] (Dror Zehavi, 2008), and Tel Aviv Salsa (Jorge [Yohanan] Weller, 2011).
In 2000, Spielmann was handed a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Israeli Academy of Film and Television.
Spielmann was the father of director and producer Mooly Landsman.
