Adi Halfin doesn’t follow filmmaking conventions - she has built her own, guided by instinct and trained by rigour. A director whose work is defined by intuitive energy and visual poetry, Halfin discovered her voice through the visceral language of bodies in motion, music, and emotional archaeology. “There’s an age where people stop drawing and painting,” she says. “I never did.” Her restless creativity and refusal to choose just one form of expression shape everything she creates.

Born in Jerusalem and raised between Israel and London, Halfin graduated with honours from the Sam Spiegel Film School, creating three acclaimed narrative short films that screened at Cannes and Berlinale and forging her own path by embracing experimental work over conventional narrative. Her early films explored surveillance, borders, and identity with a painter’s eye, but her true breakthrough came through dance.

In 2014, Halfin directed HOME ALONE for the legendary Batsheva Dance Company, and what was meant to be a simple promotional video became a viral phenomenon and a revelation in dance cinema. Shot over two days of pure exploration with all movement improvised and every frame a discovery, the film captured something audiences had never seen: bodies revealed through radical intuition rather than convention. HOME ALONE won 10 international prizes, including Best Commercial at the LA Film Awards and Best Short at the San Francisco Dance Film Festival, and continues touring worldwide.

Her interpretation of Radiohead’s “True Love Waits” featuring world-renowned dancer-choreographer Bobbi Jene Smith won seven awards, including Best Unofficial Music Video at the Los Angeles Music Video Festival. She won the Genero TV contest for Mark Ronson’s “Daffodils”, chosen by Ronson himself as one of his top three. Halfin directed two standout short documentaries for Toyota’s “Impossible Stories” - one an arresting portrayal of athlete Dergin Tokmak, which was shortlisted at Cannes. Her commercial work brings the same exploratory spirit to brand storytelling, with distinct work for Volkswagen, Calia, Answear, and McDonald's, among many other clients, often returning.

Trained in art history rather than film, with a lifelong passion for music, Halfin brings her a painterly eye for composition and instinct for rhythm to everything she creates. Her instinct is hard-earned, built on time learning craft and discipline as first assistant director to acclaimed filmmakers such as Amos Gitai, then refined through her own rigorous process. Her camera dances. She choreographs entire environments where movement, light, location, and edit pulse with the same rhythmic intelligence, embracing both commercial polish and raw experimentation.

This distinctive methodology is what Halfin shares through film schools and dance film workshops worldwide. She teaches filmmakers to prepare rigorously whilst remaining open to discovery: immerse yourself in the space, understand your collaborators deeply, and create the conditions for the unexpected. Work intuitively, embrace mistakes, and know your intention even when following instinct.

For Halfin, filmmaking is perpetual exploration and a journey without arrival. She refuses to be one kind of filmmaker, approaching every project - whatever its form - with the same commitment to discovery. In an industry that demands you choose a lane, Halfin prefers to swerve between them.

“Film has been the most expensive and effective therapy for me. I can't not make films. I need it.”

AWARDS

  • Best Music, LA Fashion Festival, 2021 - Earth Odyssey
  • Outstanding Achievement Award, Dance Camera West, 2021 - Earth Odyssey & Lost Horse
  • Best Music Video, Short to The Point, 2020 - Lost Horse
  • Best Music Video, Istanbul Fashion Film Festival, 2020 - Lost Horse
  • Best Dance Short, Pittsburgh Fashion Week, 2020 - Earth Odyssey
  • PEARLS Artist Prize, POOL Festival & DOCK11, 2020 - Lost Horse
  • Documentary Award, The One Club Awards 2019 - Toyota, Dergin Tokmak
  • Jury Award, Macau ROLLOUT Festival 2018 - True Love Waits
  • Best Unofficial Music Video, LA Music Video Festival, 2017 - True Love Waits
  • Best International Film, honorable Mention - Bestias Danzantes, Chile, 2017 - True Love Waits
  • PEARLS Artist Prize, POOL Festival & DOCK11, 2107
  • Best Film ,Mexico City Videodance Festival 2017 - Home Alone
  • Best Commercial, LA Film Awards 2017 - Home Alone
  • Best Inspirational, LA Film Awards 2017 - Home Alone
  • Best Experimental Film, LA Film Awards 2017 - True Love Waits
  • Winner, POOL International Dance Film Festival, Berlin 2017 - True Love Waits
  • Best Dance Video DaMuVi Fest 2017 - True Love Waits
  • Jury Award, Macau ROLLOUT Festival 2017 - Home Alone
  • Audience Award, InShadow Film Festival, Lisbon 2016 - Home Alone
  • Audience Award, Dance@30fps Ohio, 2016 - Home Alone
  • Bronze Dance on Camera, Shortwaves Film Festival Poznan 2016 - Home Alone
  • Genero TV contest winner 2015 for Mark Ronson's "Daffodils"
  • Best short under 5min,  San Francisco Dance Film Festival 2014 - Home Alone
  • Best of The Fest, Oklahoma Dance Film Festival 2014 - Home Alone
  • Best Dance Film, SESIFF 2014 - Home Alone
  • Best Fiction, Potsdam Babelsberg Film Festival 2005 - Whatever It Takes
  • Director's Award Jerusalem 2003 - Homecoming