ByHANNAH BROWN

JULY 4, 2026 04:25

Conflicts may arise and fade, yet the Jerusalem Film Festival, running from July 9 to 19, stands as a steady beacon highlighting cinema's ability to reveal and enrich our surroundings.

Now in its 43rd year, the gathering launched by Lia van Leer to deliver outstanding worldwide movies to Israel and advance domestic productions will occur at the Jerusalem Cinematheque along with the Lev Smadar theater.

Roni Mahadav-Levin serves as CEO of the Jerusalem Cinematheque and leads the festival as executive director, while Orr Sigoli acts as artistic director.

Over 25 international visitors will join this edition, led by renowned Ukrainian filmmaker Sergei Loznitsa, honored as guest of honor with a special tribute during the opening ceremony at Sultan's Pool on July 9.

Loznitsa, a leading figure in modern European cinema, will also chair the jury for the Israeli Competition.

Loznitsa recognized for documentaries and features

Born in Belarus and raised in Ukraine, Loznitsa excels in both documentaries and narrative works such as My Joy, In the Fog, Maidan, A Gentle Creature, Donbass, State Funeral, Babi Yar, Context, and his newest release Two Prosecutors, which debuted in competition at Cannes.

Twelve of his productions have appeared at the Jerusalem Film Festival, earning awards in the In the Spirit of Freedom and Chantal Akerman sections.

International jury members include German performer Corinna Harfouch, German filmmaker Angela Schanelec who will introduce her latest My Wife Is Crying, French critic and historian Nanako Tsukidate, Swiss director Lionel Baier, Argentine Jorge Stamadianos who heads the Mar del Plata Film Festival, French producer Marc-Benoit Creancier accompanying The Impact, French organizer Helene Schoumann who leads the Israeli Film Festival in Paris, Isaac Zablocki who co-directs the Carole Zabar Center for Film in Manhattan and runs the Other Israel Film Festival, plus Alissa Simon a senior programmer at the Palm Springs International Film Festival and Variety contributor.

Local jurors comprise directors Roni Aboulafia, Nir Bergman, and Yona Rozenkier.

International attendees presenting their works include Kai Stanicke from Germany with The Trial of Wine, Tamara Stepanyan from Armenia with In the Land of Arto, Benjamin and Jono Bergmann from Austria with Noga focusing on singer Noga Erez, Hungarian performer Aniko Fur with Mother in Blue, French producer Carine Ruszniewski with The Golden Age, Czech director Ondrej Provaznik with Broken Voices, German actress Sabine Thalbach with Sorry for the Disturbance, Polish filmmaker Rafael Kapelinski with Budapest Days, Czech director Jana Hojdova with Robert Richardson: The White Devil, US creators Polaris Banks and Mor Cohen with And Her Body Was Never Found, German producer Sebastian Weyland with The Fall of Hercules, Russian director Sergei Borukhov with Foreign Lands, and US filmmaker Vincent Grashaw with Don't Say a Word.

Tell Me Everything set for opening night

The opening film will be the Israeli debut of Tell Me Everything, the latest from Moshe Rosenthal, at Sultan's Pool. It features Assi Cohen, Keren Tzur, Yair Mazor, Ido Tako, Mor Dimri, and Neta Orbach, shown with the creative team and cast in attendance.

Tell Me Everything premiered globally at the Sundance Film Festival this year, the first full-length Israeli feature in that event for ten years.

Produced by Green Productions and United King Films, it follows Boaz who uncovers a startling family secret before his bar mitzvah concerning his father Meir. Nine years later Boaz searches for his distant parent and must face the recollections and decisions that have lingered.

Prizes across the Israeli and international contests will total around one million NIS.

The Haggiag Competition for Israeli Feature Films features Amal directed by David Ofek and Nahd Bashir, recounting a mother's fight to protect her son and halt revenge cycles amid escalating clan tensions in her village.

The Wedding Entertainer (The Tale of Moishe Badhan) directed by Gidi Dar was scripted by Shuli Rand from a tale by Rand and Dar, starring Rand, Tal Friedman, Elon Gold, and Tzofit Grant-Rand.

It centers on a former top Jerusalem party host whose drinking ended his success, now striving to reclaim his reputation while employed by an American.

Ruthy Pribar's What is to Come receives its Israeli premiere in Jerusalem. It stars Ronit Yudkevitz, Yaakov Zada Daniel, and Tovit Addis-Samai, depicting Yehudit who relocates to Eilat after a near-fatal event to restart her life.

The Diamond Competition for Israeli Documentary Films includes Find Me, OK? directed by Yula Gidron, an affecting work chronicling two years with the mother and sisters of slain hostage Eden Yerushalmi as they labored to secure her release from Hamas tunnels before seeking ways to continue without her after nearly a year.

A special world premiere will screen David Fisher's documentary The Survivor in a Tuxedo: In Search of Elie Wiesel. It provides a close look at Nobel Peace Prize recipient Elie Wiesel, probing themes of drive, recollection, and the weight of testimony.

Honoring Israeli cinema heritage, the festival and Israel Film Archive will show restored digital editions of Uri Barbash's notable prison drama on coexistence themes, plus the shorts Crows by Ayelet Menahemi and A Big Girl by Nirit Yaron.

Entries that claimed major honors at global events will feature prominently.

Romanian director Cristian Mungiu, famed for the intense abortion drama 4 Months 3 Weeks and 2 Days, secured his second Palme d'Or at Cannes this year for Fjord.

The film stars Renate Reinsve from Sentimental Value and Sebastian Stan from The Apprentice as a Romanian household in Norway facing local distrust.

Ilker Catak's Yellow Letters earned the Golden Bear at the Berlinale this year. It portrays a Turkish family relocating to Istanbul after job losses and facing adaptation challenges.

For admirers of American independent cinema, two titles stand out. Steven Soderbergh, known for Sex Lies and Videotape, Traffic, and Logan Lucky, offers the new work The Christophers.

This dark comedy involves adult offspring of a British artist played by Ian McKellen who enlist a forger portrayed by Michaela Coel to finish a famed portrait series the artist abandoned.

James Gray presents Paper Tiger, which competed at Cannes. Gray, who created the Jewish coming-of-age tale Armageddon Time, revisits crime settings to follow two brothers entangled with the Russian mob in the 1980s.

Miles Teller and Adam Driver portray the siblings, with Scarlett Johansson as the spouse of Teller's character.

Katie Aselton, who collaborates with husband Mark Duplass, brings Their Town about two teens connecting during a nighttime journey.

Works from acclaimed international directors include Fatherland by Pawel Pawlikowski, tracing a Cold War road trip Thomas Mann (Hanns Zischler) took with his daughter (Sandra Huller from Anatomy of a Fall) through postwar German ruins.

French-Jewish filmmakers Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano, recognized for The Intouchables and The Specials, contribute Just an Illusion starring Louis Garrel and Camille Cottin as a coming-of-age story set in suburban Paris in 1985.

Films addressing history and Jewish themes remain central. This year features a work by Daniel Auteuil, celebrated for Jean de Florette among others.

He directed, co-wrote, and stars in When the Night Falls, chronicling a 1942 operation that rescued over 100 Jewish children from a transit camp near Lyon.

Hungarian-Jewish director Laszlo Nemes, known for the Holocaust drama Son of Saul, recently condemned antisemitism in global filmmaking.

His new film Moulin will screen, recounting Jean Moulin (Gilles Lellouche) who rallied French resistance under de Gaulle after landing in occupied territory and endured capture and torture by Gestapo leader Klaus Barbie.

The Spirit of Freedom competition spotlights human rights and justice themes, including Skateboarding is Not for Girls by Dina Duma which received the Nora Ephron Award at Tribeca.

Set in Macedonia, it depicts an impoverished family weighing street life against arranging a daughter's marriage.

The Cinemania section presents films about filmmaking, such as Robert Richardson: The White Devil on the cinematographer's frequent work with Quentin Tarantino.

A fresh documentary on neorealist pioneer Roberto Rossellini will appear, alongside several of his classics.

Another highlight in Classics is the 1957 Western 3:10 to Yuma adapted from Elmore Leonard's novel and starring Glenn Ford and Van Heflin.