Roee Elsberg gets ready for INTIMATE GRAMMAR to open the Israel Film Festival this week
AMC Loews 84th St.
2310 Broadway at 84th St.
May 5-19, $11-$13
877-966-5566
www.israelfilmfestival.com
The twenty-fifth annual Israel Film Festival kicks off May 5 with an opening-night gala at the Paris Theatre honoring Stanley Donen with the Liftetime Achievement Award, Liev Schreiber with the Achievement in Film Award, and Micha Shagrir with the Cinematic Achievement Award, along with a screening of Nir Bergman’s Intimate Grammar.The festival then moves uptown to the AMC Loews on Broadway and 84th St., presenting nearly two dozen feature-length narratives, documentaries, and television productions highlighting the best of the new Israeli cinema.The lineup includes Avi Nesher’s The Matchmaker, which won four Israeli Academy Awards; Dover Kosashvili’s adaptation of Yehoshua Kenaz’s novel Infiltration; Adam Sanderson and Muli Segev’s crazy comedy This Is Sodom; Navot Papushado and Aharon Keshales’s thriller Rabies; Yonathan and Masha Zur’s Amos Oz: The Nature of Dreams, a portrait of the acclaimed writer; and a double feature of Alon Levi’s Chametz and Evgeny Ruman’s Lenin in October. There will also be a special screening of Yair Elazar’s Missing Father on Israel’s Memorial Day. Many of the films will be followed by Q&As with the directors and/or producers, including special honoree Shagrir, who will host the program “Jerusalem Moments” and also participate in discussions after screenings of Rafi Bukai’s Avanti Popolo, Meni Elias’s When Israel Went Out, and his own Just Like the Queen of England.