The thirty seventh Israel Film Festival in Los Angeles opened on February 4th with a gala occasion highlighting producer Lawrence Bender. Tiffany Haddish, an actress and comedian recognized for her roles in movies equivalent to Girls Trip and Netflix specials, introduced Bender with the competition’s 2026 Visionary Award.
The competition, which can run by way of February 19 and will likely be screened on the Saban Theater in Beverly Hills, the Regal North Hollywood, and the Fine Arts Theater in Beverly Hills, will function the most effective of latest Israeli cinema.
Opening evening occasions included a tribute to Bender and the Los Angeles premiere of Tom Shoval’s Ophir Award-winning documentary about lately freed hostage David Cunio, the competition’s opening movie, Letters to David.
The opening gala was sponsored by NATAL, Israel’s main trauma-focused group that gives complete providers to people, households and communities affected by battle, terrorism and violence.
Bender, who has produced various Oscar-winning movies together with Quentin Tarantino’s basic Pulp Fiction, Inglourious Basterds, Good Will Hunting and An Inconvenient Truth, has been praised for a profession that has mixed business attain with a provocative sense of storytelling.
Bender lately traveled to Israel to government produce “Red Alert,” a Paramount+ collection set for launch in October 2025 that dramatizes the Oct. 7 terrorist assaults.
The competition will even award the 2026 Film Achievement Award to director Eran Risklis, and also will display screen his newest movie, Reading Lolita in Tehran, based mostly on the best-selling memoir about an Iranian literature professor. Riklis is understood for movies equivalent to The Syrian Bride, The Lemon Tree, and Borrowed Identity.
Israeli Film Festival opens in Los Angeles, runs by way of February nineteenth
The competition will centerpiece a memorial to the late actor Alon Aboutboul with the fortieth anniversary screening of his 1986 movie about troopers combating within the First Lebanon War, which helped outline his cinematic legacy.
The competition will function Eti Chicco’s Nandauli, Youssef Abo Madejem’s Eid, Dani Rosenberg’s The Dog and the Man, Yariv Moser’s We Will Dance Again, Zohar Shachar and New Israeli movies will likely be screened, together with function movies and documentaries equivalent to Jamal Hareilly’s Bela, Nir Bergman’s The Pink Lady, Ben Bashar’s Saving Shri San and Mama of Or Sinai.
Meir Fenigstein, founder and government director of the Israel Film Festival, stated the occasion comes at a very vital time for cultural celebrations in Israel.
“Now, greater than ever, is a time for all of us to return collectively to share and have a good time Israeli tradition with our wealthy and culturally numerous group.
“Audiences at this yr’s Israel Film Festival will likely be actually entertained by gripping dramas, hilarious comedies and compelling documentaries produced by new and established Israeli filmmakers and starring a number of the nation’s most proficient actors,” stated Fenigstein, a musician and member of the supergroup Kaveret, who based the Israel Film Festival whereas a music scholar in Boston.
“We additionally look ahead to recognizing the precious inventive contributions of this yr’s honorees, Lawrence Bender and Elan Rix, and remembering the late actor Aron Aboutboul.”
Ticket data and the total schedule may be discovered on the competition’s web site: https://israelfilmfestival.com.
Leave a Reply