Nadav Lapid

Nadav Lapid was born in 1975 in Tel Aviv

Lapid was born on April 8, 1975, in Tel Aviv. His father is the writer Haim Lapid and his mother was the film editor Era Lapid. He went to Ironi Dalet high school in Tel Aviv.

After the army he wrote about sports for the Tel Aviv paper Ha'Ir and studied philosophy and history at Tel Aviv University. He lived in Paris for 2 years and studied French literature. Back in Israel he studied film at the Sam Spiegel school in Jerusalem.

In 2001 he published the book Keep Dancing, and he worked as a television, film and literary critic. His first feature, Policeman, won the Special Jury Prize at Locarno in 2011. The Kindergarten Teacher followed in 2014, and Synonyms won the Golden Bear in 2019.

Ahed's Knee won the Jury Prize at Cannes in 2021. In 2022, as head of the jury in Goa, he criticized The Kashmir Files, which caused a dispute in India. His film Yes premiered at Cannes in 2025.

Lapid has lived in Paris since 2021 and is a critic of the Israeli government. He is married to the actress Naama Preis. In 2026 he withdrew from a French festival after a boycott was called against him.