an insider's perspective on Israeli culture
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Avi Nesher’s latest film, Our Loves, will open the 42nd Haifa International Film Festival, and he will be honored at the festival’s opening ceremony with a Lifetime Achievement Award, for his cinematic excellence and outstanding contribution to Israeli culture. The film has been nominated for Ophir Awards in 12 categories, including best picture, director, screenplay, […]
The Metula Poetry Festival will once again take place in Jerusalem, from August 25 to 27, 2026, with the hope of peaceful days and of returning to its home in the Galilee. The festival was founded in Metula twenty-nine years ago, but since 2024 it has been temporarily moved to Jerusalem due to the damage […]
Animix, the annual Israeli International Animation, Comics, & Caricature Festival will take place this year from August 4 – 8, 2026, at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque. Now in its 26th edition, the festival showcases a diverse array of outstanding local and international animation, provides a platform for an emerging generation of cartoonists and animators, reflects […]
Dream High is my movie of the summer – exhilarating, funny, and surging with youthful energy in its rhymes and beats. Directed by Amit Ulman, with a screenplay by Ulman and Omer Havron (Jimbo J), like Ulman’s previous film, The City, it is a rap opera based on the stage play by Ulman, Havron, and […]
The 43nd Jerusalem Film Festival announced the competition winners in a ceremony that took place on Thursday, July 16, 2026, at the Jerusalem Cinematheque. The total value of prizes awarded this year reached approximately one million NIS. International Competition Jury: Angela Schanelec, Lionel Baier, Nanako Tsukidate Nechama Rivlin Award for Best International Film: The Dreamed Adventure, […]
As he recalls shooting Howard Hugh’s (Leonardo DiCaprio) plane bursting into flames in The Aviator (2004), cinematographer Robert Richardson muses, “I lost a little bit of my eyebrow.” For the legendary cinematographer, winner of three Academy Awards, taking risks is part of the job. Jana Hojdová’s documentary Robert Richardson: The White Devil, screened at the […]
One of the great pleasures of the film festival is the opportunity to talk about a film with the filmmaker. Award-winning writer and director Angela Schanelec conversed with Yaara Ozery following the screening of her film My Wife Cries at the Jerusalem International Film Festival, offering insight into her creative process and perspective on film. […]
Set in 1949 and spanning just a few days in the lives of Nobel Laureate Thomas Mann and his children Erika and Klaus, Fatherland, directed by Paweł Pawlikowski (Ida, Cold War), with the luminous black and white cinematography of Łukasz Żal, distils an abundance of complex emotional, political, and historical themes into its tightly constructed […]
War, faith, trust, memory, and discovery – here’s my take on the three movies I’ve seen that will be screened at the Jerusalem Film Festival, taking place from July 9 – 19, 2026. In the Land of Arto In the Land of Arto, written and directed by Tamara Stepanyan in her fiction feature debut, looks […]
The Israeli Opera will close its 40th season with an exciting new production of Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca, directed by Ido Ricklin, and conducted by Maestro Dan Ettinger. Together with the creative team of Set Designer Herold Falko, Costume Designer Ula Shevtsov, and Lighting Designer Nadav Barnea, they present an intriguing, contemporary perspective on the opera: […]
