Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design

Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem balances historical craft traditions with contemporary digital media production. For students pursuing animation, digital storytelling, and visual effects, the academy's primary creative and technical center is the Department of Screen-Based Arts, which offers a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree.

Screen-Based Arts Curriculum

The curriculum dissolves boundaries between classical cinema, animation disciplines, and interactive media. Progression begins with foundational two-dimensional expression, including drawing, illustration, and graphic design, before moving into three-dimensional mechanics. Students engage with multiple production formats across their studies:

• Traditional Foundations: Classical 2D animation, stop-motion, character anatomy, storyboarding, and observation.
• Digital Production: 3D character animation, body mechanics, modeling, texturing, rendering, and VFX compositing.
• Interactive & Emerging Media: Virtual reality, augmented reality, and virtual production workflows.

Courses emphasize independent authorship and full pipeline ownership. Through studio classes such as 3D Animation Directing, students navigate each production phase from initial concept and asset development through lighting, simulation, and post-production.

Facilities and Real-Time Technology

Bezalel integrates current industry tools across its research and teaching pipelines, training students on software such as Blender, Substance Painter, Autodesk Maya, ZBrush, Houdini, and Adobe After Effects. As an Unreal Engine Academic Partner, the academy has expanded into real-time rendering and virtual production, supported in part by an Epic MegaGrant for its Sandbox initiative dedicated to independent filmmakers.

Interdisciplinary Campus and Showcase

In 2023, Bezalel moved to the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Campus in downtown Jerusalem. Designed by SANAA in collaboration with HQ Architects, the 42,000-square-meter facility features transparent glass facades, open floor plates, and visual corridors that connect screen-based arts studios with neighboring departments in visual communication, industrial design, and fine arts.

Study culminates in the annual End of Year Graduates Exhibition, which opens the campus to the public and displays final projects across disciplines, providing a venue for students to present their films, games, and installations to visiting industry professionals and studio recruiters.