From Haifa to Hollywood

Award-winning Hollywood writer-director, Dror Soref, began his career as a screenwriter when the president of 20th Century Fox read Soref's first screenplay and offered it to icon of international cinema, Francois Truffant to direct. While the latter was too sick to accept, the Studio chief hired Soref as his story editor.

At the encouragement of Fox president, Soref began directing music videos for "Weird Al" Yankovic, helping to establish the rock parodist as a major star. Following his success in music videos, Soref directed Platinum Blonde, an inspirational short that drew the attention of Paramount Studio's president. Consequently, Soref was retained under contract to develop projects at Paramount. With the help of the Studio, The Seventh Coin became Soref's debut as a feature film writer/director. The Seventh Coin, starring Peter O'Toole, won two festival awards including Best Picture.

During the early years of Soref's 25-year relationship with Paramount, Soref founded Orbit Productions, serving as one of its commercial directors. Some of Orbit's clients include such brands as Ford, Coca Cola, Toyota, McDonald's, and Fujifilm, with ads broadcast on the Super Bowl and Academy Awards shows.

Soref also dabbled in episodic television, directing several episodes of Power Rangers, the hit children TV series. He parlayed a successful career in television and commercials back into feature films, signing a multiple-picture deal with legendary Hollywood mogul Mike Medavoy with one for Soref to direct. The first motion picture under this deal was Basic starring John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson, released by Columbia Pictures.

Soref later wrote and directed the critically acclaimed thriller Not Forgotten, starring Simon Baker, Paz Vega and Chloe Grace Moretz. The film was selected for a Special Screening at the Slamdance Film Festival and was accorded rave reviews by The Hollywood Reporter and Daily Variety. It was nominated for the Saturn Award by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror.

Soref was later hired to write and direct a trilogy of feature films titled The Amani Chronicles, a young-adult adventure inspired by Jan Austin's most famous novel Pride and Prejudice. The first film in the trilogy, Island Girl, is currently (2025) in pre-production.

Soref served in the Israeli Defense Force as a combat officer in the elite Golani Brigade, where the unit under his command was cited for excellence by the IDF's former Chief of Staff.

Soref received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from the University of Haifa, Israel, graduating with Honors. While a student, he frequently wrote on Israeli- Palestinian relations, and was nominated by his party, at age of 23, to run for Parliament. Soref later studied film production for Master of Fine Arts, School of Cinema Arts, at the University of Southern California (USC).