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Chicago – As the last cells in our carbon based forms decide to perish, how can our consciousness bear the stigma of that demise? This question is the theme of “The Farewell Party,” a Israeli/German production that combines the mix of feelings that come with old age.

..and the sorrowful truth that there are more goodbyes than anything else, with a burden that is brought to bear when a person is dying around family, friends and spouses.

Rating: 5.0/5.0

This is a classy and important production, and it sneaks in some mordant and sharp humor, enough almost to categorize it as a dark comedy, if it wasn’t for the heavy decisions that the characters had to manage. The performances are superb, you realize that all the older actors are living their parts as they play them. The film makes a case for death with dignity – think of the work of...

Just a couple of weeks ago, the film, I’LL See You In My Dreams, explored and celebrated love and late in life happiness for the Aarp demographic. And now, here’s the flip side. It, like the 2011 Oscar for foreign film winner Armour, proves the saying usually attributed to Bette Davis, “Old age is not for sissies”. For the retirees in this film, there’s no pot parties or lunch time sea cruises with Sam Elliot to eagerly anticipate. Nope, there’s only pain, suffering, and death in their futures, along with some very tough decisions. Even though there’s little cause for the celebration, we’re invited, via your local cinema, to The Farewell Party.

The “party” really centers around one couple. Yehezkel (Ze’ev Revach) and Levana (Levana Finkelstein) are reveling in their golden years together as they share a cozy home in a Jerusalem retirement center.

Is the media suddenly realizing that there are people who were born before 1945 who are still very much alive? And that there's a whole bunch of them? According to the 2010 census, if I read Wikipedia correctly, the figure clocks in at 28,282,721.

No wonder Netflix is streaming Grace and Frankie, which stars Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin as two septuagenarians who discover their spouses are gay and in love. The first episode ends with the discarded gals drinking a peyote mixture and tripping the light fantastic around a campfire.

Vicious, being aired on ITV and PBS, features Ian McKellen and Derek Jacobi as a pair of elderly, lovingly bickering homosexuals in their seventies whose pet hound is semi-comatose. (Season 2 premieres this summer.)

And this past Sunday morning, Wnyc.FM rebroadcast a 2012 interview with Jane Gross, blogger of "The New Old Age" and author of A Bittersweet Season: Caring for Our Aging Parents --and Ourselves.

The Santa Barbara International Film Festival has unveiled its 2015 line-up which includes films representing 54 countries, 23 world premieres and 53 U.S. premieres. The U.S. premiere of Niki Caro’s McFarland USA will close out the 30th fest. Based on the 1987 true story and starring Kevin Costner and Maria Bello, the film follows novice runners from McFarland, an economically challenged town in California’s farm-rich Central Valley, as they give their all to build a cross-country team under the direction of Coach Jim White (Costner), a newcomer to their predominantly Latino high school. The unlikely band of runners overcomes the odds to forge not only a championship cross-country team but an enduring legacy as well.

The festival runs from January 27-February 7.

Below is the list of World and U.S. Premiere films followed by the list of titles by sidebar categories.

World Premieres

A Better You, USA

Directed by Matt Walsh

Cast: Brian Huskey,...

A self-acknowledged "showcase for Academy Award frontrunners," the Santa Barbara International Film Festival is often overlooked for the actual films that earn it festival status. An amalgamation of international discoveries and ’merica’s circuit highlights, the Sbiff curates a week of best-of-the-best to pair with their star-praising. The 2015 edition offers another expansive selection, bookended by two films that aren’t on any radars just yet. Sbiff will open with "Desert Dancer," producer Richard Raymond’s directorial debut. Starring Reece Ritchie and Frieda Pinto, the drama follows a group of friends who wave off the harsh political climate of Iran’s 2009 presidential election in favor of forming a dance team, picking up moves from Michael Jackson, Gene Kelly and Rudolf Nureyev thanks to the magic of YouTube. The festival will close with "McFarland, USA," starring Kevin Costner and Maria Bello. Telling the 1987 true story of a Latino high school’s underdog cross-country team,...

Other winners include Assaf Korman’s Next To Her.

The 30th Haifa Film Festival (Oct 9-18) in Israel has closed with the Best Picture Award handed to Next to Her (At li Layla), Assaf Korman’s debut feature

A jury including Hamburg Film Festival director albert Wiederspiel and Hungarian filmmaker Szabolcs Hajdu, added a Best Script distinction for Liron Ben Shlush, who plays one of the leads in the film, first unveiled earlier this year in Cannes’ Directors Fortnight.

Cannes screenplay winner Leviathan won the Fedeora Film Critics’ Award with director Andrey Zvyagintsev, who was the festival’s guest of honour, presenting a full retrospective of his films.

Sophie Arthuis’ The Valley collected the First Film Award as well as a Best Actor for Nave Tsur.

For Best Actress, the jury picked Levana Finkelstein for her performance in The Farewell Party (Mita Tova), a black comedy which scored high notes at its Venice and Toronto shows and is...

A Matter of Size

Directed by Erez Tadmor & Sharon Maymon

2009, Israel/France/Germany, 90 mins.

This is the sort of film that will fool you. At first glace, it presents itself as an unlikely fish-out-of-water comedy: an overweight Israeli dishwasher, fed up with dieting, convinces his Japanese boss to help him start a Sumo club. You might be forgiven if you expect this film to devolve into a trite message about ‘just being yourself,’ but you’d also thankfully be wrong. This film is cleverer than that, and to its credit, takes a far more honest approach to being overweight than most comedies dare.

Despite the fact that A Matter of Size is a comedy with a primarily overweight cast, it avoids (for the most part) the pratfalls and hijinks typical otherwise typical to large actors. There are no dinnertime fart scenes in this film. Rather, the comedy is character-driven. Aharon...