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For many New Yorkers on the Upper West Side, the Marlene Meyerson Jcc Manhattan is a spot to play pickleball, grab a cup of coffee, or dump your kid off for a ceramics class. From June 4 through June 10, however, it will be the nexus of current Israeli cinema, hosting the 12th Annual Israel Film Center Festival. And considering what has transpired lately at Columbia University just a few subway stops away, it could make for some particularly lively post-screening Q&As.

Jcc stands for Jewish Community Center, and while you don’t have to be Jewish to go and use their pool, the vast Amsterdam Avenue facility is not not connected to Israel. In its lobby you’ll find a wall boasting “Jerusalem stone,” no shortage of Hebrew classes, and various lectures and symposiums concerning the Middle East.

In addition to film screenings throughout the year, the Jcc maintains the Israel Film Center,...

Exclusive: Oscar Isaac, Evangeline Lilly, Elliott Gould and Billy Zane will voice the Gidi Dar-directed animated movie Legend of Destruction.

The Ushpizin‘s filmmaker’s latest project has been nine years in the making incorporating a unique visual style with 1,500 original still paintings by David Polonsky and Michael Faust, the artists behind Waltz with Bashir and The Congress. The paintings are edited together to produce an innovative cinematic language, in creating a full-fledged experience of an epic action war film.

The pic is set in 66 Ad, Judea, under Roman rule; a virtual powder keg waiting to explode. Its society is polarized, and there is rampant social injustice and corruption. When the Jews revolt against the Roman Empire, the situation quickly deteriorates into a brutal civil war and the Roman war beast is unleashed to crush the rebellion. The film ends in...

Film won best picture at Israeli Film Academy awards automatically making it Israeli Oscar submission.

Eran Kolirin’s Let It Be Morning will be Israel’s submission to the 2022 Oscars after it won best film at the Israeli Film Academy annual awards, known locally as the Ophirs, on Tuesday (October 5).

The Israeli production unfolds against the backdrop of a Palestinian village situated in Israel close to Jerusalem that is suddenly cut off from the city by an unexplained army roadblock.

Israeli director Kolirin adapted the mainly Arab-language feature from the 2006 novel of the same name by celebrated Palestinian writer Sayed Kashua.

Other contenders include Avi Nesher’s Image Of Victory and Nadav Lapid’s Cannes Jury Prize winner Ahed’s Knee.

Israeli filmmaker Eran Kolirin’s new film Let It Be Morning had a contentious festival launch in Cannes this July after its mainly Palestinian cast led by Alex Bakri, Juna Suleiman and Salim Daw refused to attend the world premiere in Un Certain Regard.

They explained in a collective statement that their non-appearance was aimed at highlighting the “decades-long colonial campaign of ethnic cleansing… against the Palestinian people” and the “latest wave of violence and dispossession.”

Three months later, in an unexpected turn of events,...

This week on “TheWrap-Up,” hosts Sharon Waxman and Lawrence Yee discuss the lack of diversity among the Primetime Emmys acting winners, preview TheGrill 2021 with LA Times executive editor Kevin Merida and executive Casey Wasserman and explore why the casting of “Dear Evan Hansen” Broadway star Ben Platt may hurt the film adaptation’s chances.

Then, an interview from the Toronto International Film Festival with “The Guilty” director Antoine Fuqua and star Jake Gyllenhaal on “The Guilty” and how toxic male rage permeates the new Netflix thriller.

And finally, a chat with Israeli director Gidi Dar on his film “Legend of Destruction” and how it serves as a warning both America’s and Israel’s increasing fractured societies.

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“TheWrap-Up” won the Best Hard News Feature award from the L.A. Press Club in 2021 for the segment “The Complexities Black Journalists Face This Week Covering Protests.

Jerusalem Film and Television Fund’s animation event The Hop, Skip & A Jump is aiming to grow the city’s fledgling animation scene.

The first edition of a new event aimed at Jerusalem’s nascent animation industry – called The Hop, Skip & A Jump – kicks off on the fringes of Jerusalem Film Festival on July 13. The three-day meeting, comprising mentoring sessions, master-classes and the pitching of 14 new Israeli animation projects, has been put together by Jerusalem Film and Television Fund director Yoram Honig, who says it is the third stage in his fund’s campaign to build an animation industry in Jerusalem.

The first stage was direct investment in Israeli animation features Including Albert Hanan Kaminksi’s Being Solomon [pictured] and Gidi Dar’s Legend Of Destruction which are currently in production (Being Solomon was also part of this year’s Pitch Point event). The second stage was the introduction of a 30% rebate for every dollar spent in Jerusalem...