The Jerusalem International Film Festival will open today with a celebratory screening of this year's big winner at the Cannes Film Festival, "Triangle of Sadness", in the presence of the hottest filmmaker in the world right now, Swedish director Ruben Ostlund (one of the few to win the Palme d'Or twice).
After two years in which the veteran festival operated in a hybrid format due to the Corona, this is actually the first time since 2019 that the annual film celebration in Jerusalem will be held in a regular and full format with more than 150 films from 50 countries, impressive guest battery, master classes, outdoor events and many Israeli cinema competitions. And international.
Meanwhile, it will also be the first festival of incoming Jerusalem Cinematheque CEO Roni Mahdov Levin, who replaced Dr. Noa Regev in an earlier position this year.
Prior to that, Mahdov Levin, 50, managed the Cinematheque department within the Jerusalem Cinematheque Association, and previously served as director of the Holon Cinematheque and vice president of a distribution company. But his affair with the Jerusalem Film Festival began when he was a student.
"In the late 1990s, I studied at the Hebrew University," he says, "and at the same time I worked at the Jerusalem Cinematheque as part of the production team of the Israeli Film Competition. To return here 20 years later as the festival director is really exciting."
From Dov-Levin.
Closing a circle, Photo: Michael Franco
Not only is this your first festival, but it is also your first full festival since pre-Corona.
"Yes, that's what it looks like. A year ago we thought we were going back to full edition, and in the end we had to cancel the arrival of all the international guests. So this year, for the first time in three years, everything is back to normal. We have a long list of international guests - Ruben Ostlund, "Charlotte Ginzburg, both directors, actors, industry people. It seems like it is going to be a rich and diverse festival with a lot of audiences."
Do you think that even the traditional and older audience of the festival is ready to return to the halls?
"Right now it looks good, and it looks like the audience is coming back. In recent months we're seeing a consistent line of increase at the Cinematheque. It seems like people are willing to leave the corona behind, go into theaters and watch movies."
What are you most looking forward to?
"First of all for the opening event. Although I have already seen 'Triangle of Sadness', I imagine 5,000 people watching it together in the Sultan's Pool, and it will be a very beautiful and special collective experience. Besides, there are lots and lots of good movies that I am waiting to watch properly on screen The big one: 'Broker', by the Japanese director Hirokazu Kora-eda, for example, who won the Actor Award at Cannes, also 'Holy Spider', by the Iranian-Swedish director Ali Abbasi, who won the Actress Award at Cannes. I really liked his previous film, 'Border' ", Which was screened with us in 2019. This is a very powerful and very interesting film."
Every year you can find in the festival program many films from the Cannes Film Festival, but this year there seems to be a particularly large number. You brought in almost all the winners in all the frames.
"I think this year Cannes has officially marked the return to routine. I know a lot of directors have been waiting for the Corona to run out to send their films there, and that may be why the bigger-than-usual crop of good films is. It's a return to routine after two and a half years."
From what you see in the various Israeli competitions, do you feel that Israeli cinema is returning to normal?
"Yes, I think that here too the situation returns to what it was before the Corona. It was very difficult to sift through films this year, both in the plot and in the documentary framework. I think that also symbolizes a kind of return of Israeli cinema.
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