Israel Film Fest in LA to honor Arthur Cohn
The 33rd Israel Film Festival in Los Angeles, which will run from November 12-26, will present the US premiere of Yaron Zilberman’s Incitement at its opening night gala.
Incitement, the story of how Yigal Amir felt driven to murder prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, won the Ophir Award for Israel’s Best Feature Film of 2019, and is Israel’s official selection to the 2019 Academy Awards for Best International Feature Film.
The gala on November 12 at the Steve Tisch Cinema Center at the Saban Theater in Beverly Hills will also honor six-time Academy Award-winning producer Arthur Cohn with the 2019 IFF Lifetime Achievement Award. Chair of West End Films and Incitement producer Sharon Harel– Cohen will be presented with the 2019 IFF Achievement in Film Award.
The Israel-born, Britain-based Harel-Cohen produced the classic Israeli film
The Troupe, directed by Avi Nesher. Now the chair of WestEnd Films, she has produced dozens of acclaimed movies including the Oscar-winning
Gosford Park. Her father, Yossi Harel, was the commander of the SS Exodus in 1947.
Cohn’s latest film, The Etruscan Smile, which was directed by Oded Binnun and Mihal Brezis, tells the story of a dying Scottish man who reconciles with his family in New York. The film will be shown in the festival. Cohn’s other films include Central Station, The Garden of the Finzi-Continis, The Chorus and many other classics, as well as One Day in September, the
Oscar-winning film about the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Summer Olympics.
The festival features the best of recent Israeli cinema, including such popular comedies as Mossad!, Tel Aviv on Fire and Forgiveness, and dramas such as God of the Piano, Love Trilogy: Chained, Synonyms and The Day After I’m Gone. In addition, there will be documentaries including Golda, featuring recently discovered video footage of the late prime minister, King Bibi and The Picture of His Life,
which will be the festival centerpiece. Television series will also be shown, among them
Dayan: The First Family.
Israel Film Festival founder and executive director Meir Fenigstein said, “The Israel Film Festival is privileged to present the US premiere of renowned director Yaron Zilberman’s Incitement, winner of the Ophir Award for Israel’s Best Feature Film in 2019, at the Opening Night Gala.”
For more information and to buy tickets, go to the festival website at israelfilmfestival. com.