The 42nd edition of the Jerusalem Film Festival has announced its exciting lineup of international films! These include major award-winners from the world’s leading film festivals: Berlin, Cannes, Venice, Sundance, IDFA, San Sebastián, Locarno, Tallinn, SXSW, Tribeca, and Rotterdam, among others. This year’s festival also includes two world premieres! Narrative, documentary, and experimental films will be screened in a range of sections – the International Competition, International Debuts, In the Spirit of Freedom, and the Chantal Akerman Competition, as well as Masters, Panorama, Gala, and Intersections. The festival will take place from July 17 to July 26. Films will be screened at the Jerusalem Cinematheque and Lev Smadar. The full program is available on the Jerusalem Film Festival website.
Selected Highlights from the International Program:
The Secret Agent – The new film by Kleber Mendonça Filho, winner of Best Director at Cannes, is a political thriller, set in Brazil of 1977, where Marcelo (Wagner Moura), a teacher, is trying to escape persecution. Moura won Best Actor at Cannes for this role.
Urchin – British actor Harris Dickinson (Triangle of Sadness, Babygirl) wrote and directed his debut feature Urchin, which stars Frank Dillane as Mike, a homeless person trying to turn his life around. Dillane won Best Actor at Cannes Un Certain Regard for this role.
The Young Mother’s Home (Jeunes Mères) – The latest film by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, winner of the Best Screenplay Award at Cannes. The film follows five teenage mothers living in a maternal support home, their struggles and relationships.
The Things You Kill – A mystery film by Iranian-Canadian director Alireza Khatami, winner of the Best Director Award at Sundance’s International Competition. Ekin Koç stars as Ali, a Turkish-born university professor who teaches in the United States. Haunted by his mother’s death in Turkey, he enlists the aid of a gardener, Reza, to avenge her.
South of Winter Lies the Snow – World Premiere. A poetic documentary by Sebastián Vidal Campos about the lives of settlers in Chile.
April – A film by Dea Kulumbegashvili, winner of the Special Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival 2024. Nina (La Sukhitashvili), an obstetrician, perseveres in assisting patients seeking abortions, despite the legal prohibitions, but faces accusations of negligence following the death of a newborn.
Sound of Falling – Directed by Mascha Schilinski, winner of the Jury Prize at Cannes. The film follows four women – Alma, Erika, Angelika, and Lenka – from different historical periods, yet they are connected through the secrets harbored by a remote German farm where each had spent her youth.
Two Prosecutors – The new film by Sergei Loznitsa, featured in the Official Competition at Cannes, is a historical drama, based on the eponymous novel by Georgy Demidov. Set in the Soviet Union of 1937, during the time of Stalin’s purges, Aleksandr Kuznetsov stars as Kornyev, a prosecutor seeking justice for a prisoner.
Dreams – The new film written and directed by Michel Franco, screened in the Official Competition at the Berlin Film Festival. Jessica Chastain stars as Jennifer, a wealthy socialite, who falls in love with Fernando, a young ballet dancer from Mexico who dreams of international fame.
Tow – A drama based on a true story, produced by and starring Rose Byrne, with performances by Octavia Spencer (Oscar winner, The Help), Ariana DeBose (Oscar winner for West Side Story), Dominic Sessa (The Holdovers), and Demi Lovato. Byrne stars as Amanda, an unhoused woman living out of her 1991 Toyota Corolla, whose problems escalate when her car is stolen and then impounded. From the Tribeca Film Festival lineup.
No Dogs Allowed – Winner of Best Debut Feature, Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival. Carlo Krammling stars as Gabo, a 15-year-old struggling with paedophilic urges. In online forums he meets Dave, an older man, who seems to understand him all too well.
Little Trouble Girls – The debut feature by Urška Djukić, from the Berlinale Perspektive Competition, winner of the Cinematography Award at the Tribeca Film Festival. Jara Sofija Ostan stars as Lucia, an introverted 16-year-old who joins the all-girl choir at her Catholic school. She befriends the popular Anna Maria, but on a weekend retreat at a convent, new feelings and doubts emerge.
Amrum – The new film by Fatih Akin (Head-On, Soul Kitchen), screened at Cannes. Co-written by Akin and Hark Bohm, the historical drama is based on Bohm’s childhood on the island of Amrum. Jasper Billerbeck stars as 15-year-old Nanning.
The Guest – A documentary directed by Zvika Gregory Portnoy and Zuzanna Solakiewicz, winner of the Best Cinematography Award at IDFA. A Polish family takes in a Syrian refugee who is trapped in the grim border area between Polish and Belarusian pushbacks. Time is running out and there are few options. Despite the language problems, they develop a bond.
Magellan – The new film by Filipino master Lav Diaz, starring Gael García Bernal as Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan, screened at Cannes.
Köln 75 – A sweeping German musical drama directed by Ido Fluk, screened at the Berlin Film Festival. Based on true events, the film follows 18-year-old Vera Brandes (Mala Emde) as she is determined to organize a concert by Keith Jarrett in Cologne, in 1975. The recording of that performance became an iconic album – Köln Concert.
The Baltimorons – A new comedy by Jay Duplass, winner of the Narrative Spotlight Award at SXSW. A newly sober man’s Christmas Eve dental emergency leads to an unexpected romance with his older dentist as they explore Baltimore together.
Diciannove – The debut film by Giovanni Tortorici, from the Venice Film Festival’s Orizzonti section, produced by Luca Guadagnino (Call Me by Your Name, Challengers). Manfredi Marini stars as Leonardo Gravina, a 19-year-old on a journey of self-discovery.
Deaf – A moving Spanish drama, written and directed by Eva Libertad, Audience Award winner at the Berlin Film Festival. Miriam Garlo stars as Angela, a deaf woman working in a pottery studio in rural Spain. Expecting a baby with her partner Hector, she has concerns about mothering in a society that lacks adequate accommodations for the hearing-impaired.
What Does That Nature Say to You + By the Stream – Two new films by South Korean master Hong Sang-soo, screened in the official programs of Locarno and Berlin. In the first, Donghwa, a poet in his thirties, spends a day at the home of his girlfriend’s parents. In By the Stream, art instructor Jeonim asks her uncle Sieon, a former actor, to write and direct a play for the theatre festival at the university where she teaches. Her boss, Jeong, is a fan of Sieon, and the pair develop feelings for each other to Jeonim’s dismay.
Plainclothes – An American drama, written and directed by Carmen Emmi, winner of the Ensemble Cast Award at the Sundance Film Festival. A promising undercover agent assigned to lure and arrest gay men defies professional orders when he falls in love with a target.
Middletown – The new documentary by Jesse Moss and Amanda McBaine (Boys State), from the Sundance Film Festival lineup. A teacher inspires a group of teenagers in the early 1990s to make a student film and they uncover a conspiracy that is poisoning their community. Thirty years later they revisit this transformative experience.
Mirrors no. 3 – The latest film by German director Christian Petzold (Transit, Phoenix), from Cannes Directors’ Fortnight. After a car crash kills her boyfriend, piano student Laura is taken in by Betty, who witnessed the accident. Living with Betty’s family brings comfort, but Laura starts questioning their intentions as time passes.
Videoheaven – A documentary from the Tribeca Festival, directed by Alex Ross Perry (Listen Up Philip, Pavements), narrated by Maya Hawke (Stranger Things), tracing the rise and fall of video rental stores through their depictions in film and television.
American Baby – World Premiere. The American debut feature by Ellen Rodnianski. Oli becomes an outcast in her small Texas town when she gets pregnant at 15. As she seeks out the suddenly absent teenage father-to-be, Oli confronts the growing isolation from her community.
The Little Sister – Written and directed by Hafsia Herzi, the screenplay is adapted from Fatima Daas’s debut novel The Last One (La Petite Dernière). Nadia Melliti stars as Fatima, 17, the youngest of three daughters in a French-Algerian family who is torn between her desire to forge her own path in life, and her sense of loyalty to her family. Melliti won the Best Actress Award in the Official Competition at the Cannes Film Festival for her role.
