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More than 250 of Israel’s top filmmakers have signed an open letter, saying they will not seek funding from, nor cooperate with the recently–established Shomron (Samaria/West Bank) Film Fund, following the fund’s inaugural film festival in the occupied West Bank.

The filmmakers call on the Israeli Academy of Film and Television not to partake in “whitewashing the Occupation” ahead of the Ophir Awards — Israel’s Academy Awards — later this month. Read the full text of the letter below.

Among the signatories are multiple Academy Award winners and nominees. They have signed a public letter in which they state that they will not receive grants and will not participate in “lectura” (selection of films for development and production) or in professional events held by the Shomron (Samaria) Film Fund. The goal of the Shomron (Samaria) Film Fund, write the filmmakers, is “to invite Israeli filmmakers to actively participate...

Exclusive: The 34th Israel Film Festival Los Angeles has confirmed its line-up for this year’s edition, which will be held entirely online for the first time.

Running December 13 – 27, the fest will screen 23 features, including two U.S. premieres, Israel’s Oscar submission this year, Asia, as well as a number of past Ophir award winners. The event will also host Q&As after each film with talent.

Asia opens the festival having recently won Best Film at this year’s Ophir Awards, Israel’s top film awards, which automatically makes it the Oscar contender for 2021. The film also won Ophirs for Best Actress, Supporting Actress and Cinematography.

The festival will present its 2020 Iff Lifetime Achievement Award to Meir Feningstein, the event’s founder and executive director. It will also screen concert documentary Poogy / Kaveret 2013 Reunion Concert, centered on the band for which Feningstein is the drummer.

“As the world faces enormous disruption and loss,...

For three weeks in October 1973, a group led by Egyptian and Syrian military waged war against Israeli forces across a number of different territorial areas in region. Known by various names, it is often referred to as the Yom Kippur War, so named for the Jewish holy day on which the fighting began. Other names for the conflict include the Ramadan War or the October War — but regardless of its moniker, the conflict led to the deaths of thousands of combatants and an eventual redrawing of territorial maps within the region.

“Valley of Tears,” a 10-part series currently airing on Israeli TV station Kan 11 and now streaming on HBO Max, examines the experiences of a number of soldiers in the midst of that unexpected battle. Though the series in the early going focuses on the perspective of the Israeli side of the conflict, this is not a homogenous exercise in heroic mythmaking.

1973’s Yom Kippur War is the focal point for HBO Max’s upcoming original series, “Valley of Tears.” Instead of creating a large scale approach to warfare, the creators—Ron Leshem, Amit Cohen, Yaron Zilberman, and Daniel Amse—are highlighting individual character arcs. The selected roles each draw attention to a seemingly forgotten segment of the conflict. Prominent aspects of the series include: “a famous bohemian television star in search of his estranged son, a newly enlisted soldier; a commander and his newly befriended intelligence analyst; tank crewman who represent Israel’s Black Panthers social justice reform movement; and a female officer who refuses to leave the battlefields, disobeying direct orders to evacuate.”

Read More: ‘Two Weeks To Live’ Trailer: Maisie Williams Is On A Deadly Mission In HBO Max’s New Limited Series

Israeli filmmaker Yaron Zilberman directs this exploration of a painful period.

Continue reading ‘Valley Of Tears...

Exclusive: HBO Max has struck a deal for world rights to Valley Of Tears, Israel’s biggest-budget TV series ever made, in a major deal for London-based sales and production org WestEnd Films.

The show marks WestEnd’s first foray into TV, through its banner WeSeries. It is producing and co-financing the project, which debuted in official competition at Series Mania earlier this year.

Valley Of Tears was created and co-written by Israeli-American TV and film writer Ron Leshem (HBO’s Euphoria), Amit Cohen (False Flag), Daniel Amsel and Yaron Zilberman (A Late Quartet); the latter also directed the entire series.

The series will be branded a HBO Max original when it launches on an as-yet unspecified date. Inspired by true events, the ten-part show depicts the 1973 Yom Kippur War through the eyes of young combatants. It tells four emotional and highly personal stories of individuals swept away from their...

Yehuda Nahari Halevi as Yigal Amir, in the tense Israeli historical political thriller Incitement. Photo credit: Zachary Martin Courtesy of Greenwich

What makes a person move from extremist views to violence is the subject of Yaron Zilberman’s Incitement. Specifically, Zilberman’s unsettling drama/thriller traces the journey of the young far-right Jewish man who assassinated Israel’s Prime Minsiter Yitzak Rabin, an event that altered the direction of Israeli politics and put an end to the Oslo peace accord and its prospect for peace with the Palestinians.

This gripping, harrowing thriller earned an Ophir, the Israeli equivalent of the Oscar, for best film as well as one for best casting, and a nomination for the tour-de-force performance of its young lead actor. Despite the awards, the historical drama has sparked controversy in Israel.

When President Bill Clinton helped broker a peace deal between Rabin and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat with the Oslo accord,...

UK projects are Channel 4’s Adult Material and Sky’s Little Birds.

The line-up for the 2020 edition of Series Mania, which runs March 20-28 in Lille, has been unveiled.

The competition features the world premieres of two UK series’; Channel 4’s Adult Material, created by Lucy Kirkwood and starring Haley Squires; and Sophia Al-Maria’s Little Birds, which is based on the short story by Anais Nin, broadcast on Sky and starring Juno Temple.

Other highlights in the competition include Israel’s biggest budget drama series Valley Of Tears starring Lior Ashkenazi; German Netflix series Unorthodox from Anna Winger,...

Histories of Violence: Zilberman Revisits the Tempest of Infamous Assassination

Now over twenty years removed from the circumstances which led to the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in November of 1995, Yaron Zilberman’s effectual sophomore film Incitement presents a time capsule which charts how the struggle for peace and unity can be regressed dangerously in the blink of an eye. The political ripple effects of what transpired following Rabin’s assassination cemented an ongoing cultural conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, however, Zilberman’s retrospective examination eerily conveys how the metamorphoses and vitriol of right-wing media dangerously normalized hate speak and inspired terror in ways which weren’t acknowledged as harmful at the time—and it’s alarming to note certain parallels with contemporary political factions and their infinite platforms assisted by a twenty-hour-news cycle which has led its devotees, whether through real or fake news, to develop a taste for exaggeration,...

Here’s the latest episode of the The Filmmakers Podcast, part of the ever-growing podcast roster here on Nerdly. If you haven’t heard the show yet, you can check out previous episodes on the official podcast site, whilst we’ll be featuring each and every new episode as it premieres.

For those unfamiliar, with the series, The Filmmakers Podcast is a podcast about how to make films from micro budget indie films to bigger budget studio films and everything in-between. Our hosts Giles Alderson, Dan Richardson, Andrew Rodger and Cristian James talk how to get films made, how to actually make them and how to try not to f… it up in their very humble opinion. Guests will come on and chat about their film making experiences from directors, writers, producers, screenwriters, actors, cinematographers and distributors. They also shoot the breeze about their new films, The Dare, World of Darkness,...

Fresh off a screening at the Sundance Film Festival, Kitty Green’s The Assistant premiered this weekend in four theaters, setting a solid debut. Overall, the Time’s Up-era drama thrilled audiences, generating an estimated $84,702 at the box office.

It’s a strong start for the Bleecker Street film — which is opening in the midst of the Weinstein trial. The timing of the debut couldn’t be any more relevant. But there was a bit of a problem when it came to ticket sales at The Angelika in New York, as there was internet outage at the theater in its opening weekend. There were technical difficulties with online ticket sales for reserved seating, but tickets were available on a walk-up, cash-only basis. That said, this may have affected potential performance. Even so, the Angelika and the Lincoln in New York delivered estimated two-day grosses of $18.8K and $19.9K respectively, outperforming...

In the era of #MeToo, Time’s Up and a time when women are being treated unfairly in the workplace, The Assistant couldn’t be released at a more relevant time — and the fact that it takes place in Hollywood makes the story too on the nose.

Written and directed by Kitty Green and starring the indelible Julie Garner, the drama follows one day in the life of Jane (Garner), a recent college graduate who has hopes of becoming a film producer. She recently landed her dream job as a junior assistant to a powerful entertainment mogul (is this beginning to sound familiar?) Most of her day is spent doing what many expect from an assistant job: she makes coffee, orders lunch, takes phone messages, takes messages, loads paper in the copy machine — it’s your basic gofer work. But as we see her go through her day, she begins...

"Someone has to save our people." Greenwich Ent. has released a full official trailer for Yaron Zilberman's film Incitement, which was Israel's submission to the Oscars. This premiered at the Toronto Film Festival last year, and we posted the teaser trailer a few months ago. The film chronicles the events and experiences that turned a promising law student into a delusional ultra-nationalist. Convinced he must stop the signing of the peace treaty in order to fulfill his destiny and bring salvation to his people, a devoted Orthodox Jew named Yigal Amir sees only one way forward - assassinate the Prime Minister. Described as a "gripping and unnerving look through the eyes of a murderer who silenced a powerful voice for peace." Starring Yehuda Nahari Halevi as Yigal, Daniella Kertesz, Sivan Mast, Amitayyaish Ben Ousilio, Amat Ravnitzki. This is an excellent trailer, the grainy footage in 4:3 mixed with archival footage makes it extra compelling.

It’s the start of a new decade and while our most-anticipated films of the year will be unveiled in the coming weeks, we’ll start with a look at January. As always when it comes to the beginning of a new year, a number of 2019 favorites will also be expanding this month, including Terrence Malick’s A Hidden Life, Karim Anouz’s Invisible Life, and Sam Mendes’s 1917, so check your local theater listings. A major part of the month will also feature extensive coverage from the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, so be sure to bookmark this link for all of our reviews, interviews, and more. Now, on to what is coming to theaters this month.

10. Underwater (William Eubank; Jan. 10)

Yes, an early January release doesn’t bode well for any film but there are enough enticing factors to this aquatic thriller that have our curiosity piqued. There’s director William Eubank behind the camera,...

The annual Palm Springs International Film Festival in California is always an opportunity to catch up on many of the contenders for the Best International Feature — née Best Foreign-Language — Film Academy Award. Now in its 31st edition, the festival this year has 51 of them, from favorite-to-beat “Parasite” from South Korea and Senegal’s “Atlantics,” to other films quietly making strides in the race: Czech Republic’s “The Painted Bird,” Sweden’s “And Then We Danced,” Russia’s “Beanpole,” Romania’s “The Whistlers,” North Macedonia’s documentary contender “Honeyland,” Norway’s “Out Stealing Horses,” and many more.

The festival will screen 188 films from 81 countries, including 51 premieres, from January 2-13, 2020. The Awards Buzz section includes a special jury of international film critics, who will review these films to present the Fipresci Award for Best Foreign Language Film of the Year, as well as Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Screenplay in this category.

One hundred eighty-eight films films from 81 countries including 51 premieres highlight the lineup for the 31st annual Palm Springs International Film Festival, which kicks off January 2 with a star-studded gala that has become a must-stop during awards season for Oscar hopefuls. The festival, which runs through January 13, also is known for showcasing a large number of submissions in the Motion Picture Academy’s International Film (formerly Foreign Language) competition and will feature 51 of those entries.

The opening-night film on January 3 is the Italian farce An Almost Ordinary Summer, while the closer is director Peter Cattaneo’s heartwarming dramedy Military Wives in which Kristin Scott Thomas, Sharon Horgan and Jason Flemyng lead a superb ensemble cast. The film had its world premiere at September’s Toronto International Film Festival and became an instant crowd-pleaser. Bleecker Street releases it in 2020.

Among the previously announced honorees at the January 2 gala are Antonio Banderas, Renee Zellweger,...

The 2020 Palm Springs International Film Festival will open on Jan. 3 with Simone Godano’s Italian farce “An Almost Ordinary Summer” and close on Jan. 12 with Peter Cattaneo’s Kristin Scott Thomas/Sharon Horgan film “Military Wives,” Psiff organizers announced on Tuesday.

The festival will screen 188 films from 81 different countries, including 51 of the 91 Oscar entries in the Best International Feature Film category. Those films will include Bong Joon Ho’s “Parasite,” Pedro Almodovar’s “Pain and Glory,” Ladj Ly’s “Les Miserables,” Karim Ainouz’s “Invisible Life,” Halina Reijn’s “Instinct,” Yaron Zilberman’s “Incitement,” Vaclav Marhoul’s “The Painted Bird,” Kantemir Balagov’s “Beanpole,” Lila Aviles’ “The Chambermaid” and Antoneta Kastrati’s “Zana.”

Other programs will include the Talking Pictures series of conversations with filmmakers and authors from “Hustlers,” “Jojo Rabbit” and “Motherless Brooklyn”; Focus on Italy, featuring seven Italian films including “The Traitor”; Modern Masters, which will present new films from Roy Andersson,...

There are so many things that I remember about living in Israel between the years of 1993-1994: the smell of salt water mixed with fresh raw fish in the ancient port of Jaffa, weekend hikes in Ein Gedi, the crackle and hiss of falafel balls frying in vats of piping hot oil in the street food stands of Mahane Yehuda in Jerusalem.

But what I remember most is this: there was hope. It was tangible this hope, spread wide and spanning the length of the entire country, stretching itself like a gentle, soft yawn all the way across the Mediterranean, across the Atlantic, to our families back home in the United States.

Peace was on the horizon.

On September 13, 1993, Yitzhak Rabin, prime minister of Israel, and Yasser Arafat, chairman of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, stood on either side of President Bill Clinton and shook hands on the White House Lawn.

This year, with some mighty titles from the Maghreb evaluated alongside the rest of continental Africa, the competitive potential of the Middle East lineup handicapped here may seem a tad diminished. Nevertheless, the territory boasts a possible short-list contender in Palestinian helmer Elia Suleiman’s wry travelog “It Must Be Heaven,” which nabbed the international critics award at 2019 Cannes.

Back in 2003, Suleiman’s second feature, “Divine Intervention,” marked the first of 12 submissions made by Palestine over the years. During that time, the entries resulted in two nominations, both for films helmed by Hany Abu-Assad: “Paradise Now” (2005) and “Omar” (2013). Now, Suleiman, like Abu-Assad, is recognized as an elder statesman of Palestinian filmmaking as well as an accomplished auteur whose films continue to bear witness to the surreal and the absurd in Palestinian life at home and abroad. Although his work is better-known in Europe than in the U.S., “It Must Be Heaven...

The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (Idfa) has crowned its 2019 award winners. The respected doc event named Heidi Hassan and Patricia Pérez Fernández’s In A Whisper as best feature-length documentary. The pic, which centers on two emigrated Cuban filmmakers whose passion for film, friendship, and freedom reunites them after years apart, takes a $22,000 prize. This year, for the first time at Idfa, three new awards were presented in the competition for feature-length documentary: best directing went to Mehrdad Oskouei for his film Sunless Shadows; the best editing and cinematography prizes went to Sander Vos and Maasja Ooms respectively for their work on Punks. Elsewhere, Lucy Parker won the best first appearance award for her film Soldiarity, the Fipresci Award was given to Alyx Ayn Arumpac for Aswang, and the award for best mid-length doc went to Jalal Vafaei for Anticlockwise. Victoria Mapplebeck won the Idfa DocLab Award for Digital...

"He shall bring total redemption." Greenwich Ent. has debuted the first teaser trailer for Yaron Zilberman's film Incitement, which is Israel's submission to the Oscars this year. This premiered at the Toronto Film Festival this year, and it also played at the Warsaw and Zurich Film Festivals. The film chronicles the events and experiences that turned a promising law student into a delusional ultra-nationalist. Convinced he must stop the signing of the peace treaty in order to fulfill his destiny and bring salvation to his people, a devoted Orthodox Jew named Yigal Amir sees only one way forward - assassinate the Prime Minister. Incitement is a gripping and unnerving look through the eyes of a murderer who silenced a powerful voice for peace. The film stars Yehuda Nahari Halevi as Yigal, Daniella Kertesz, Sivan Mast, Amitayyaish Ben Ousilio, and Amat Ravnitzki. There's a superb poster (seen below) to go along with this quick teaser.

Exclusive: Here’s a first teaser trailer for Incitement, Israel’s international Oscar hopeful which last month scored a U.S. deal for WestEnd Films with Greenwich Entertainment.

Writer-director Yaron Zilberman’s (A Late Quartet) Toronto and London Film Festival drama-thriller chronicles the year leading up to the assassination of Israel’s prime minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995. Set against the backdrop of Rabin’s efforts to end the Israeli-Palestian conflict, the film is told through the journey of the assassin, Yigal Amir (played by Yehuda Nahari Halevi).

The film examines all the forces that acted on him, from his personal quest to become a hero in the eyes of his peers, and the rejection he faces from his love interest, to the intense incitement of politicians and religious leaders.

Pic was co-written by Ron Leshem (Euphoria) and Yaron Zilberman. Yehuda Nahari Halevi (Wedding Doll) stars as Yigal Amir, alongside Amitay Yaish Ben Ousilio...

Premiered at Tiff 2019, Israel Film Festival Los Angeles, this film both incites and indicts violent reactions.

The Opening Night film of the Israel Film Festival Los Angeles, Incitement, was the winner of the Ophir Award for Israel’s Best Feature Film in 2019 and thereby is Israel’s Official Selection to the 2019 Academy Awards for Best International Feature Film. Its world premiere was at the Toronto International Film Festival 2019.

Yaron Zilberman spoke at the Israel Film Festival’s Opening Night and acknowledged that the past 15 years were the greatest in Israeli film history.

Even if this film was not funded by the Israel Film Fund which operates independently of the government, the greatness of the industry today is attributable to the recently retired head of the Israel Film Fund, Katriet Schory who has fought his own government for creative freedom for its filmmakers and greenlit some of the strongest most compelling films of any country.

Directed by Yaron Zilberman and written by Yaron Zilberman and Ron Leshem, Incitement stars Yehuda Nahari Halevi, Amitay Yaish Ben Ousilio, Sivan Mast, Yoav Levi, Daniella Kertesz and Anat Ravnitzki.

Incitement is a film that was sure to incite the current Israeli government. In fact, Israel’s culture minister, Miri Regev claimed that the film — which received no state funding — maligned current prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu by suggesting he played a part in the incitement, through its footage of him speaking at a right-wing rally where protesters branded Rabin a “traitor”, a “murderer” and a “Nazi” for having signed a peace agreement with the Palestinians.

A psychological thriller, Incitement chronicles the year leading to the assassination of Israel’s prime minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995. On the backdrop of Rabin’s efforts to end once and for all the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the film is told through the journey of the assassin. It examines all the forces that acted on him, from his personal quest to become a hero in the eyes of his peers, and the rejection he faces from his love interest, to the intense incitement of politicians and religious leaders. The film is a cautionary tale to what happens when leaders use politics of violence and hate.

Continue reading on SydneysBuzz The Blog »...

When filmmaker Yaron Zilberman told Dalia Rabin that he wanted to make a film about her father’s death through the eyes of his assassin, she wasn’t sure how to respond.

“At the beginning, I was quite skeptical, and even a little shocked by the idea,” said Rabin, whose father, Yitzhak Rabin, was assassinated in 1995 by a Jewish extremist during his second term as Israel’s prime minister. Luckily, she knew of Zilberman’s work, and gave her blessing to the project that became “Incitement.”

Also Read: Beanie Feldstein Comedy 'How To Build A Girl' Acquired by IFC Films

The Israeli drama, which screened as part of TheWrap’s Awards Screening Series, follows the assassin, Yigal Amir, in the year leading up to the murder, as he becomes obsessed with the idea of killing the prime minister, egged on by the ultra-nationalist rhetoric of politicians and religious leaders.

Exclusive: Israeli drama-thriller Incitement, the country’s international Oscar hopeful, has scored a U.S. deal for WestEnd Films with Greenwich Entertainment.

Writer-director Yaron Zilberman’s (A Late Quartet) Toronto title chronicles the year leading up to the assassination of Israel’s prime minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995. Set against the backdrop of Rabin’s efforts to end the Israeli-Palestian conflict, the film is told through the journey of the assassin, Yigal Amir.

The film examines all the forces that acted on him, from his personal quest to become a hero in the eyes of his peers, and the rejection he faces from his love interest, to the intense incitement of politicians and religious leaders.

Pic was co-written by Ron Leshem (Euphoria) and Yaron Zilberman. Yehuda Nahari Halevi (Wedding Doll) stars as Yigal Amir, alongside Amitay Yaish Ben Ousilio (The Man in the Wall), Anat Ravnizky, Yoav Levi, Dolev Ohana, Raanan Paz,...

The makers of a controversial new film about the assassination of prime minister Yitzhak Rabin describe their conversations with the killer, Yigal Amir

“The murder of an Israeli prime minister by an Orthodox Jew was inconceivable,” says American-Israeli film-maker Yaron Zilberman. “For anyone who was pro-peace, it was beyond anything that we could fathom.” The assassination of Yitzhak Rabin by the religious ultra-nationalist law student Yigal Amir, at a peace rally on 4 November 1995, was one of the most traumatic events in Israel’s history. Rabin’s death buried the prospect of peace, further divided an already riven society and left an indelible mark on Israel’s politics.

Although the assassination has been the focus of many documentaries, Incitement is the first narrative feature to take on the subject. Directed by Zilberman and co-written with Ron Leshem, it chronicles the events in the year preceding the assassination from Amir’s point of view,...

Every year since its creation in 1956, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) invites the film industries of various countries to submit their best film for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. The award is presented annually by the Academy to a feature-length motion picture produced outside the United States that contains primarily non-English dialogue and that was released theatrically in their respective countries between 1 October 2018 and 30 September 2019.

Here are the Asian Submissions for Best Foreign Language Film. There are some excellent movies in this bunch and we have seen and reviewed already some of them.

Afghanistan

“Hava, Maryam, Ayesha” by Sahraa Karimi

Hava, Maryam, Ayesha

Armenia

“Lengthy Night” by Edgar Baghdasaryan

Lenghty Night

Bangladesh

“Alpha” by Nasiruddin Yousuff

Alpha

Cambodia

“In The Life of Music” by Caylee So and Sok Visal

In The Life of Music

China

“Ne Zha” by Jiaozi

Ne Zha

Georgia

“Shindisi...

A record 93 countries submitted entries in the International Feature Film race at the 2020 Oscars. That is up by six from last year,when the category was still called Best Foreign-Language Film, and eclipses the record 92 submissions in 2018. The nations represented ranged from A (Albania) to V (Vietnam). Predicting the eventual five Oscar nominees is made difficult by the two-step process.

First, the several hundred academy members of the Foreign-Language Film screening committee are required to watch a number of the submissions (upwards of a dozen) over a two-month period that ends in mid December. They will rate them from 6 to 10 and their top six vote-getters make it to the next round, as will three films added by the 20 members of the executive committee.

Those nine semi-finalists will be screened three per day beginning in early January by select committee members in Gotham, Hollywood, London and San Francisco. These 40 folks will...

Expanded shortlist of 10 films to be announced on December 16.

The Academy on Monday (7) confirmed that 93 countries have submitted films for consideration in the international feature film category for the 92nd Academy Awards.

Ghana, Nigeria and Uzbekistan are first-time entrants with Kwabena Gyansah’s Azali, Genevieve Nnaji’s Lionheart, and Umid Khamdamov’s Hot Bread, respectively.

Earlier this year, the Academy board voted to rename the category formerly known as foreign language film, and expand the shortlist from nine to 10 films.

The shortlist will be announced on December 16. Nominations for the 92nd Oscars will be unveiled on January 13, 2020, and the Oscars...

The 2020 foreign-language Oscar nominees will come from submissions from 93 countries, up from last year’s 87, and breaking the record 92 from 2017. A contender for the renamed Best International Feature must be a feature-length motion picture (more than 40 minutes) produced outside the United States with a predominantly non-English dialogue track.

Ghana, Nigeria, and Uzbekistan are first-time entrants, but Uganda did not qualify. China (Yu Yang’s “Ne Zha”) and Senegal (Mati Diop’s “Atlantics”) submitted their films under the wire on the deadline of October 1.

Earlier this year, the Academy’s Board of Governors voted not only to rename the Foreign Language Film category, but to expand the shortlist from nine films to 10.

The 2019 submissions, listed in alphabetical order by country, are:

Albania, “The Delegation,” Bujar Alimani, director;

Algeria, “Papicha,” Mounia Meddour, director;

Argentina, “Heroic Losers,” Sebastián Borensztein, director;

Armenia, “Lengthy Night,” Edgar Baghdasaryan, director;

Australia, “Buoyancy,” Rodd Rathjen, director;

Austria, “Joy,...

The 2020 foreign-language Oscar nominees will come from submissions from 93 countries, up from last year’s 87, and breaking the record 92 from 2017. A contender for the renamed Best International Feature must be a feature-length motion picture (more than 40 minutes) produced outside the United States with a predominantly non-English dialogue track.

Ghana, Nigeria, and Uzbekistan are first-time entrants, but Uganda did not qualify. China (Yu Yang’s “Ne Zha”) and Senegal (Mati Diop’s “Atlantics”) submitted their films under the wire on the deadline of October 1.

Earlier this year, the Academy’s Board of Governors voted not only to rename the Foreign Language Film category, but to expand the shortlist from nine films to 10.

The 2019 submissions, listed in alphabetical order by country, are:

Albania, “The Delegation,” Bujar Alimani, director;

Algeria, “Papicha,” Mounia Meddour, director;

Argentina, “Heroic Losers,” Sebastián Borensztein, director;

Armenia, “Lengthy Night,” Edgar Baghdasaryan, director;

Australia, “Buoyancy,” Rodd Rathjen, director;

Austria, “Joy,...

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has released the full list of countries that have submitted a pic for consideration for the new International Feature Film Oscar category.

Here are the 93 nations and their hopefuls, in alphabetical order:

Albania, The Delegation, Bujar Alimani, director;

Algeria, Papicha, Mounia Meddour, director;

Argentina, Heroic Losers, Sebastián Borensztein, director;

Armenia, Lengthy Night, Edgar Baghdasaryan, director;

Australia, Buoyancy, Rodd Rathjen, director;

Austria, Joy, Sudabeh Mortezai, director;

Bangladesh, Alpha, Nasiruddin Yousuff, director;

Belarus, Debut, Anastasiya Miroshnichenko, director;

Belgium, Our Mothers, César Díaz, director;

Bolivia, I Miss You, Rodrigo Bellott, director;

Bosnia and Herzegovina, The Son, Ines Tanovic, director;

Brazil, Invisible Life, Karim Aïnouz, director;

Bulgaria, Ága, Milko Lazarov, director;

Cambodia, In the Life of Music, Caylee So, Sok Visal, directors;

Canada, Antigone, Sophie Deraspe, director;

Chile, Spider, Andrés Wood, director;

China, Ne Zha, Yu Yang, director;

Colombia, Monos, Alejandro Landes, director;

Costa Rica, The Awakening of the Ants,...

Six years in the making, the title had been rejected by all Israeli film funds because of its subject matter.

In its annual ceremony last night, the Israeli Film Academy selected Yaron Zilberman’s Incitement as best picture; it will, therefore, be Israel’s candidate for best international feature at the 2020 Oscars.

The film, which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival, depicts the infamous 1995 assassination of Premier Itzhak Rabin, presented through the worldview of his assassin.

Six years in the making, the title had been rejected by all Israeli film funds because of its subject matter and was finally brought...

Assassination drama Incitement on Sunday picked up the best picture prize at Israel’s Ophir Awards, the country’s primary national film awards. The win means the film becomes Israel’s submission to this year’s Best International Feature Film Oscar (renamed for 2020 from Best Foreign Language Film).

Directed by Yaron Zilberman, the feature depicts the 1995 assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, told through the eyes of his assassin Yigal Amir. It premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in the Contemporary World Cinema program. Yehuda Nahari plays Amir, with the film following the two years leading up to the murder at a peace rally in Tel Aviv.

The Ophir win and Oscar submission was met with condemnation from the country’s outspoken culture minister Miri Regev. According to the Times of Israel, Regev slammed the film as having “no place” in the country due to its perceived criticism of prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Israel has picked Yaron Zilberman’s Incitement, a drama focusing on the life of the man who assassinated Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, as its official submission for the best international feature category at the 2020 Oscars.

Fresh off its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival just two weeks ago, the thriller is already making headlines for its politically charged premise. Incitement follows the life of religious law student Yigal Amir in the year leading up to his assassination of Prime Minister Rabin on Nov. 4 1995. The film has garnered acclaim for its far-too-relevant message on the dangers of ...

Israel has picked Yaron Zilberman’s Incitement, a drama focusing on the life of the man who assassinated Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, as its official submission for the best international feature category at the 2020 Oscars.

Fresh off its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival just two weeks ago, the thriller is already making headlines for its politically charged premise. Incitement follows the life of religious law student Yigal Amir in the year leading up to his assassination of Prime Minister Rabin on Nov. 4 1995. The film has garnered acclaim for its far-too-relevant message on the dangers of ...

“Incitement” was the best-picture winner at Israel’s Ophir Awards on Sunday night, automatically becoming the country’s choice to vie for the international feature film Oscar.

The winning film, a drama about the period leading up to the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin by a Jewish extremist in 1995, had its global premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival earlier this month. The movie was directed by Yaron Zilberman and co-written by Zilberman and Ron Leshem, creator of the original Israeli TV series “Euphoria” and the Oscar-nominated “Beaufort.”

Zilberman’s acceptance speech for the best-picture prize was one of the few overtly political moments of the night, coming days after an inconclusive national election in Israel.

“Rabin was a giant of a man who was murdered because of his struggle to bring peace,” said Zilberman. In a jab at Benjamin Netanyahu, who is fighting to remain prime minister,...

American-Israeli filmmaker Yaron Zilberman set off to shed light on the 1995 assassination of the Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in “Incitement,” which world-premiered at Toronto in the Contemporary World Cinema section.

Nominated for 10 Ophir awards in Israel, “Incitement” charts the events leading up to the assassination of Rabin at the end of a peace rally celebrating the Oslo Accords and is told through eyes of the murderer, Yigal Amir, a promising young law student who progressively turns into a delusional ultranationalist.

“It’s one of the most traumatic stories in the history of Israel, along with the Yom Kippur war,” said Zilberman, whose last film was 2012 relationship drama “A Late Quartet.” “I was 27 years old at the time and it had a very strong impact on me and it was a trauma in Israel. So many taboos were broken by this murder … it was an attack on democracy and it...

In a passionately divided democracy, the hate-filled words of politicians, cultural influencers and the right-wing media incite an extreme nationalist to commit murder. Although this plot summary sounds as if could be ripped from recent U.S. headlines, “Incitement” is actually a provocative drama from Israeli helmer Yaron Zilberman (“A Late Quartet”), which looks at what inspired the devoutly Orthodox law student Yigal Amir to kill Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. The assassination took place on Nov. 4, 1995, as Rabin was trying to orchestrate a comprehensive peace settlement between Israelis and Palestinians that involved giving up territory controled by Israel since the Six Day War, and his death effectively derailed the prospect of peace.

While “Incitement” is a compelling watch, with archival footage neatly woven in, and offers a salutary warning about how easily democracies are endangered, this psychological profile of a political assassin nevertheless falls into a kind of moral trap.

Yorgos Lanthimos short joins the line-up and Antonio Banderas is among conversation guests.

The Toronto International Film Festival (Tiff) has revealed an In Conversation With…. line-up that includes Antonio Banderas and the selection of Mati Diop as the inaugural recipient of the festival’s Mary Pickford Award.

The In Conversation programme at this year’s festival (September 5-15) will comprise sessions with Michael B Jordan and Jamie Foxx from Just Mercy, Banderas from Pain and Glory and The Laundromat, Allison Janney from Bad Education and Kerry Washington from American Son.

The inaugural Mary Pickford Award, which recognises an emerging female...

“Incitement,” about the promising Israeli law student who became an ultra-nationalist obsessed with assassinating Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, will have its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. WestEnd Films is producing and will also launch sales on the picture at Tiff.

Rabin was serving his second term as Israel’s prime minister when he was shot and killed by Yigal Amir in 1995. The first still released from the film shows Yehuda Nahari Halevi (“Wedding Doll”) as Amir, burning a picture of Rabin at a protest.

The film is from Yaron Zilberman (“A Late Quartet”) and has been generating buzz on home turf, scoring 10 nominations in the Ophir Awards, the Israeli Oscars, including For best film. It was written by Zilberman with Ron Leshem, the Israeli-American award-winning writer behind the original Israeli “Euphoria” series, which has been successfully remade for HBO in the U.S. Both are also producers.

Tiff Co-Heads Cameron Bailey and Joana Vicente added several more films in the Gala and Special Presentations sections of the 44th Toronto International Film Festival that runs September 5-15.

Here are the new ones:

Gala Premieres

The Tom Harper-directed Aeronauts will make its Canadian premiere, with Felicity Jones and Eddie Redmayne starring.

The Giuseppe Capotondi-directed Burnt Orange Heresy will make its North American premiere.

Special Presentations

The Kenny Leon-directed American Son makes its world premiere.

The Quentin Dupieux-directed Deerskin ( Le Daim ) makes its international premiere.

The Gregor Jordan-directed Dirt Music makes its world premiere.

The Geetu Mohandas-directed The Elder One makes its world premiere

Guns Akimbo, directed by Jason Lei Howden, makes its world premiere

Human Capital, directed by Marc Meyers, makes its world premiere;

Jungleland, directed by Max Winkler makes its world premiere;

Lucy in the Sky, directed by Noah Hawley, makes its world premiere;

Lyrebird, directed by Dan Friedkin,...

Exclusive: Production is under way on Israel’s biggest-budget TV drama series, Valley Of Tears, we can reveal.

The ambitious, under-the-radar project set against the 1973 Yom Kippur War, stars Israeli mega-star Lior Ashkenazi (Foxtrot) and comes from in-demand Israeli writers Ron Leshem (Euphoria) and Amit Cohen (False Flag).

Directed and co-created by Yaron Zilberman (A Late Quartet), and based on true events, the Hebrew-language, eight-part miniseries shepherded by WestEnd Films depicts the 1973 Yom Kippur War through the eyes of young combatants. It will follow the stories of three individuals swept away by the ravages of war, and culminates in a climactic battle. We understand each episode will cost in the region of $1M.

Valley of Tears stars Footnote and Big Bad Wolves actor Ashkenazi, Aviv Alush (The Shack), Lee Biran, Shahar Tavoch, Joy Rieger and Ofer Hayoun (Euphoria). A handful of Israel’s most prominent novelists reportedly took part in...

The Isa of the Day segment of SydneysBuzz resumes for the Cannes Film Festival 2015. ISAs, or International Sales Agents, help to bring films into global distribution by selling distribution rights to distributors worldwide. Topics include new trends in distribution and sales, inspirational success stories, film slates and more. A worthy read for any serious filmmaker looking to have a better understanding of the chain of business between producing a film and sharing it with the world.

Philippa Kowarsky is the Managing Director of Cinephil, an international sales company that is renowned for securing financing and distribution for documentaries from all around the world. Kowarsky started Cinephil 18 years ago on the first of January in 1997.

Cinephil has a solid history of working with award winning films including Academy Award nominee, “The Gatekeepers“ (for which Kowarsky was a nominee, with Cinephil as the producer); the 2014 Academy Award nominee, “The Act of Killing, and Dror Shaul’s “Sweet Mud”, which won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance.

Kowarsky, the first ever film sales agent of Israel, shares more about her background and the success of Cinephil:

I’ve was doing sales, marketing and production before I started Cinephil. I worked for some studios in Israel, and got into sales because there were no companies dedicated to sales only. I was representing films at the previous company I worked at — when I left, people just kept coming to me, saying “Will you take my film?” I started Cinephil and we got a film into Rotterdam’s mocumentary section. It was the first Cinephil festival. I didn’t even have a proper concept or mission for my company, but I did meet sales agents from around the world, and thought, “Perhaps we could have some sales agents in Israel!” Then it became a bit more formal.

We started doing everything - features, children’s programming, and documentaries -working with Israeli and Palestinian films. Over the years, we decided to drop children’s programming, and then let go of feature films (which I still love). Now Cinephil focuses on documentaries.

About 8 years ago, we decided to go International to represent films to the world, from the world – everywhere. It doesn’t matter where you’re based: Tel Aviv, Paris, Montreal or New York. Everyone is traveling to all the festivals, and everything is done by emails and phone. Thanks to technology, we have a very international career and life, and to make matters better, we also have Heather Wyer working for us out of Montreal. Having a North American base is great!

How did you enter the film industry?

A lot of this happened to me by chance. I received an Ma in London for communication policy studies. At the end of the day, it’s been helpful, because it has given me a deeper understanding of the media world. That’s been a strong part of Cinephil – being able to strategize with all this know-how.

When I started 20 years ago, there was very little international film and television activity in Israel. In the meantime, the Israeli industry has developed, but getting Israeli films into festivals was a big deal back then. Now our cinema is well received everywhere. There are fabulous agencies based in Israel, including our TV channels which selling product around the world.

How is Cinephil expanding?

We do sales and distribution and act as Ep’s on films. We’ve always been into development and raising finance for films, but recently the films we’ve been working with are of a higher profile. One of the highlights is when we came in as producers for “The Gatekeepers”, for which we were nominated for an Academy Award in 2012. In 2013, we were back in Los Angeles with “The Act of Killing”, which was nominated as well. We are proud to work with Joshua Oppenheimer and Signe Byrge Sorensen again on “The Look of Silence”, which premiered in competition in Venice last year and won the Grand Jury Award on top of four other awards. Since then, it has won countless awards worldwide. We’re now working with Martin Scorsese and David Tedeschi on “The 50 Year Argument”.

Please discuss your slate for Cannes.

We‘re thrilled to be working on a Cannes Classics premiere “By Sidney Lumet” by Nancy Buirski. Cinephil will present several films in the market. One is “Invasion”, by Abner Benaim, about the USA’s invasion of Panama.

Another is a film that we just picked up in Tribeca where it made headlines, titled “Among the Believers”, which follows the growth of the Red Mosques in Pakistan. It portrays a system that offers young children free food and accommodation, and, in return, the young adepts are force fed the principles of radical Islam from the moment they can read.

Other films in the Cannes Market include “Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead: The Story of the National Lampoon”, which premiered in Sundance, and “The Yes Men are Revolting”, which will open in the Us this summer.

“Thank You for Playing”, follows a family struggling with a terminally ill boy. Ryan, his Dad, an indie video game developer, is building a poetic, autobiographical video game to document his pain and to tell the story of his baby. It’s sophisticated, touching and timely.

Learn more about Cinephil’s new releases here.

See Cinephil’s full catalogue here.

More About Cinephil:

Cinephil is an international sales and advisory firm, which has a strong reputation for securing international distribution, broadcasting and financing deals for documentaries from all over the world on behalf of film producers and directors.

With a history of selling unique and award-winning films,Cinephil also acts as a strategic advisor and co-producer.

Cinephil has facilitated the sale and financing of well over a hundred films. Cinephil represented (and produced) the 2013 Academy Award nominee, “The Gatekeepers“; the 2014 Academy Award nominee, “The Act of Killing“, executive produced by Werner Herzog and Errol Morris; “Cathedrals of Culture“, a 3D project executive produced by Wim Wenders and including films by Wim Wenders and Robert Redford, and Martin Scorsese’s new documentary, “The 50 Year Argument“, about The New York Review of Books. Managing director, Philippa Kowarsky, has co-produced many films, including 2014 Academy Award nominee, Dror Moreh’s, “The Gatekeepers“, Dror Shaul’s “Sweet Mud”, which won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance and the Crystal Bear at the Berlin Film Festival, “Defamation” by Yoav Shamir, “Watermarks” by Yaron Zilberman and the award-winning “Trembling Before G-d” by Sandi DuBowski.

Yaron Zilberman, who marked his feature directorial debut with 2012′s A Late Quartet, is taking on literary hot-shot Orson Scott Card. Zilberman will write and direct a feature based on Card’s sci-fi short story Unaccompanied Sonata, EW has confirmed. The film will be called Sonata.

The property has been optioned by Nick Wechsler, Chockstone Pictures’ Steve and Paula Mae Schwartz, and Opening Night Productions. Tamar Sela will serve as executive producer with Roger Schwartz as co-producer.

The short story, which was originally published in 1979 in Omni magazine, tells the story of a child brought up to be a musical prodigy.

Yaron Zilberman (A Late Quartet) has signed on to write and direct a feature adaptation of Orson Scott Card's sci-fi short story "Unaccompanied Sonata." The story centers on a musical prodigy who is raised in an isolated cabin away from music of any kind to protect his compositions from outside influence. He eventually discovers Bach at age 30, but when caught by a "Watcher," the former prodigy is forbidden by law from making music ever again. Nominated for the Nebula Best Short Story in 1979 and Hugo Best Short Story in 1980, "Unaccompanied Sonata" was published two years after Card published the precursor short story "Ender's Game." The feature title will be shortened to Sonata. Hit the jump for quotes from Card and Zilberman to mark the occasion. Card was reluctant to option "Unaccompanied Sonata," but according to Deadline, A Late Quartet convinced him Zilberman was the perfect director for the material:...

Yaron Zilberman ("A Late Quartet") is set to write and direct "Sonata," a film based on "Ender's Game" author Orson Scott Card‘s 1979 science-fiction short story "Unaccompanied Sonata".

The story follows a child who has been brought up to be a musical prodigy, and who is kept away from listening to other people's music to keep his creative expressions pure. Raised alone in a cabin by servants, he spends his days toiling on a complicated musical instrument.

Finally, he gains exposure to the works of Bach, and when discovered by a 'watcher,' the man is torn away from his lifelong composition and barred from making music ever again.

Card reportedly didn't plan to sell the rights to the film until he saw Zilberman's work with "A Late Quartet" and realised it could be translated to the screen after all. Zilberman, Nick Wechsler, Steve Schwartz and Paula Mae Schwartz will produce.

Yaron Zilberman is set to write and direct a feature based on Orson Scott Card‘s classic science-fiction short story, Unaccompanied Sonata. The property has been optioned by Nick Wechsler, Chockstone Pictures’ Steve and Paula Mae Schwartz and Opening Night Productions. The film will be titled Sonata, with Wechsler, Schwartz, Schwartz and Zilberman producing. The latter made his feature directorial debut on the 2012 film A Late Quartet. Tamar Sela will be executive producer and Roger Schwartz a co-producer. First published in Omni magazine in 1979, Unaccompanied Sonata is about a child who has been brought up to be a musical […]...

In a way I am not sure I have ever felt before, for a figure I do not know personally, I am still trying to comprehend Philip Seymour Hoffman’s passing.

When we grow with artists, we do not just identify with them, or become “fans.” We love these artists, anticipate our experiences with them, and similarly better understand the potential of their means of an expression. Loving an artist indeed becomes a personal venture, especially if one is to believe that art, something that keeps us human, belongs to all of us just as much as it does the artist (to paraphrase a line actually said by Hugh Bonneville in this upcoming Friday’s The Monuments Men). My love for Philip Seymour Hoffman, an icon lost, is directly interwoven with how I began to truly watch films, and learn from them.

To quote A.O. Scott in a bold remark of perfect clarity,...

Cross Creek Pictures along with Smuggler Films announced today that Imogen Poots is attached to star as the young ing&#233nue, "Dee Moray," in Todd Field's Beautiful Ruins, based on the sensational #1New York Times best-selling novel by Jess Walter, which has sold more than a million copies and been translated into 25 languages. Beautiful Ruins was adapted by Field and Walter, and Field will produce the film through Standard Film Company with Cross Creek's Brian Oliver and Tyler Thompson, as well as Smuggler Films' Patrick Milling Smith and Brian Carmody. In addition, Adam Kassan will oversee production for Cross Creek Pictures. Filming starts May 2014 in Italy.

The epic story begins off the Ligurian coast in the spring of 1962 and centers on four characters whose orbit around one another is set in motion by an incident involving the international jet-set center, Rome, in the throes of La Dolce Vita...

Whether Christopher Walken is lighting up The Deer Hunter, dancing for Fatboy Slim or just prepping a chicken, you can pretty much count us in. His musical gifts are well-known and well-loved too, and lately they have parlayed more and more into big screen roles. He was terrific in Yaron Zilberman's A Late Quartet, has a part lined up in Clint Eastwood's take on the Jersey Boys musical and, reports Deadline, will be appearing next in Dan Algrant's jazz flick Little Rootie Tootie. Walken will take the role of jazz pianist Sonny in a film named after piano great Thelonius Monk's track. Mourning the death of his wife, his increasingly volatile behaviour prompts his son, another successful jazz man played by Lenny Kravitz, to fly back from Europe with his wife and head him off before he self-destructs altogether.According to Deadline: "The trio tries to present...