Australian Première
A MATTER OF SIZE
There may be no more hilariously funny or original film this year than this Festival début from the Israeli team of Sharon Maymon and Erez Tadmor. Deftly composed of many humorous scenes and amusing subplots, A Matter of more...
A HISTORY OF ISRAELI CINEMA
This engrossing documentary offers a first-hand reflection on Israel's history and ongoing legacy. Directed by award-winning filmmaker Raphaël Nadjari (whose 2007 Tehilim and 2004 Avanim screened at past more...
A TOUCH AWAY
If you thought smartly written and superbly acted television dramas were the provenance of the British, think again: A Touch Away takes a slice of contemporary Tel Aviv life and spins a marvellous multi-family drama that more...
ACNE
A mischievous comedy about boys growing up in a Jewish family, Acné will either infuriate audience members with its hormonally charged plot, or send them gasping for breath as they laugh at this clever satire. At more...
ADAM RESURRECTED
Based on Yoram Kaniuk’s 1968 novel, this astonishingly vivid film from director Paul Schrader features a tour-de-force performance from Jeff Goldblum, who plays Adam Stein, a former Berlin magician and charismatic circus more...
BEING JEWISH IN FRANCE
Yves Jeuland's sweeping new documentary explores the rich history of being Jewish in France, the first country to grant Jews full citizenship. Beginning with Revolutionary cries of "Vive la France" in Yiddish, the film explores more...
BRIDE FLIGHT
Following the international success of his Oscar-nominated Twin Sisters, Dutch director Ben Sombogaart returns with an equally impressive and compelling drama set in the recent past. Inspired by real events – the Last Great more...
BROKEN PROMISE
A rare and superb entry from the Slovakia in the genre of Holocaust drama, Broken Promise is a compelling story of survival that is based on the real events in the life of teenager Martin Friedmann. A talented more...
CYCLES
In this accomplished début feature, Cyril Gelblat weaves together the lives of three different generations of a French-Jewish family, each contending with family relationships at a critical juncture in their lives. Judith (a more...
EMPTY NEST
This new film from Argentinean director Daniel Burman, whose Waiting for the Messiah, Lost Embrace and Family Law have all opened past Festivals, is arguably his best. Aided by a splendid cast that includes more...
EYES WIDE OPEN
Israel, the new millennium, and bombs are going off on the edges of Jerusalem. But in Haim Tabakman’s controversial, taboo-breaking début feature, these are nothing like the fireworks exploding behind the closed doors of the more...
FOR MY FATHER
Israeli filmmaker Dror Zahavi takes a familiar genre – a romantic drama in which a Palestinian and Israeli fall in love – and turns it and its clichés inside out. In this compelling thriller, Terek, a would-be more...
FROM HELL TO HELL
We are delighted to offer festival-goers an opportunity to see this brilliant dramatisation of the events leading up to the Pogrom of Kielce in 1946 - from the producer of Europa Europa, Artur Brauner, and the director of Get more...
THE GIFT TO STALIN
This emotionally uplifting film in the tradition of Kolya and Nuovo Cinema Paradiso is set in rural Kazakhstan in 1949 (an area larger than Western Europe, and then a Soviet domain of enforced exiles and labour more...
THE GIRAFFE (MESCHUGGE)
A dazzling political thriller from the producers of Run Lola Run, Dani Levy's (Go for Zucker) 1998 breakout film, The Giraffe, has become a classic on the Jewish film festival circuit. Set in 1990s New York more...
HE'S MY GIRL
French filmmaker Jean-Jacques Zilbermann plays the end against the middle in this buoyant sequel to his hilarious 1998 romantic comedy and Festival hit, Man is a Woman. Antoine de Caunes plays Simon Eskénazy, the more...
HELLO GOODBYE
In this entertaining romantic comedy, French acting greats Gérard Depardieu and Fanny Ardant (The Secrets) play Alain and Gisèle, a middle-aged Parisian couple who give up their enviable lifestyle and move to more...
INSIDE HANA'S SUITCASE
This superb adaptation of Karen Levine's internationally acclaimed best-seller, Hana's Suitcase, is one of few films about the Holocaust seen in the past 20 years that is suitable for children. It tells the present-day story more...
KHROUSTALIOV, MY CAR
A film of stunning visual beauty and invention that constantly surprises and delights, Khroustaliov, My Car! was first screened at the Festival in 1998. Set in Moscow during the 1950s, it tells the story of Yuri Glinsky, a more...
KILL DADDY GOODNIGHT
Michael Glawogger's searing feature tells not one but two stories of converging lives. Rupert "Ratz" Kramer is a 35-year-old shaggy-haired, hash-smoking bohemian, who is fighting his own quiet inner battles. Tortured by more...
KILLING KASZTNER
Why are thousands of non-Jews who saved Jews during the Holocaust memorialized in Yad Vashem, while the one Jew who saved thousands of Hungarian Jews is virtually forgotten? This is the question at the heart of this stimulating more...
LEAVE THE STONES THERE
As the daughter of Holocaust survivors, Melbourne journalist Julie Szego grew up with the death camps as a casual topic of conversation. At times, it was all too much. She resented the shadow of her parents' past in wartime Hungary falling more...
LEFT LUGGAGE
A popular hit at our Festival when first shown in 1999, Left Luggage is a powerful adaptation of Carl Friedman's autobiographical novel, The Shovel and the Loom, by actor-turned-director Jeroen Krabbé. Set in more...
OPERATION MOSES
An extraordinary documentary from Romanian-born French filmmaker Radu Mihaileanu, and a companion to his Live and Become (which opened our 2005 Festival), Operation Moses tells the true story behind the emergency more...
PHYLLIS AND HAROLD
This remarkable documentary is destined to become a touchstone of contemporary Jewish non-fiction cinema. New York film and video artist Cindy Kleine has spent years examining aspects of her personal family history that most people more...
THE WEDDING SONG
Following the international success of her prize-winning feature début, Little Jerusalem, director Karin Albou returns with a remarkable film that maps a place where Jewish and Arab culture and religion meet. Set in more...
WRONG SIDE OF THE BUS
In this wonderful new documentary by local filmmaker Rod Freedman (Uncle Chatzkel), Sidney Bloch, an internationally recognized professor of psychiatry, loving father, communal stalwart and more...
Z32
Festival-goers who were impressed with the soul-searching of Waltz With Bashir, and its depiction of Israeli soldiers at war in Lebanon, will find an echoing note in Z32, a genre-breaking, original work from more...
ZION AND HIS BROTHER
Eran Merav’s stunning first feature offers a fresh, razor-sharp perspective on the loving and sometimes fraught relationship between brothers. Set in a working-class suburb of Haifa, this gritty drama (which premiered to more...
