Work on the documentary ISRAELISM started in late 2015 and was completed at the end of 2022. The film was released in February 2023 and offers a challenging interpretation of the contemporary meaning of Jewish identity in the United States against the background of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.

Axelman and Eilertsen, first-time Jewish filmmakers, provide a cogent and objective analysis of the forces shaping the modern Jewish-American identity and the growing discrepancy between the definition offered by the politics of Israel and her American followers and the more traditional understanding of what it means to be Jewish without linking it to the existence of Israel. In this discussion the directors and the principal protagonists Zimmerman and Eitan explore some obvious current issues such as the links between Judaism and Israel, Zionism, settlements in the areas occupied by Israel, and the rise of antisemitism. What also transpires through the comments by Zimmerman and Eitan are their insights about being raised in US Jewish families and school settings ; the bonding with their faith and the strong link with Israel as well as their experience in  Israel and eventual conversion to a critical perspective.

As revealed in the documentary, these insights include the settler movement on the West Bank now exceeding more than half a million, compared to the more than 2.7 million Palestinians living there, perspectives which are also new for most Israelis who rarely have direct contact with the Palestinians living on the West Bank. In that context it should be noted that even before Irael-Hamas Gaza war prompted by the Hamas invasion and killings, a survey revealed that 25% of the US Jewish population considered Israel an “apartheid state” and 22% held the view of Israel was committing Genocide (The New Republic, April 2024, p. 37). As Abraham Foxman points out in Israelism, we failed to educate them “When we talk about ‘We are loosing the kids’...we lost them”.

ISRAELISM clarifies the growing generation specific gap in Jewish communities and congregations in the perspectives about Israel. Younger Jews in the US are more likely to be sympathetic of Palestinians and critical of Israel. Given the ready access to information they tend to be better informed about the Gaza war and West Bank developments than young people living in Israel whose access to current and past information about the history of their country is censored. Ironically, similar attempts to control information about Israel can be observed in Germany* where any criticism of Israel is identified as anti-Semitic, also common in the United States. Both countries are probably the only firm remaining friends of Israel and face a strange situation. They try to ameliorate the food and famine crisis in the Gaza strip while its residents, including Hamas and affiliated groups, continue to be killed by weapons both countries provide. The latest estimates for the Gaza strip death toll as of mid-April 2024 are 35,000 dead of which at least two thirds are civilians and overall one third are children and the elderly. Since the Hamas attacks, more than 400 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank area by Israeli forces and settlers. For historic reasons, current German funding amounts to $352 million, 10 times higher than in 2022. Germany is the second biggest exporter of arms to Israel with a 30% of all sales. The US share amounted to an estimated $3.8 billion 2023, not including the value of US arms stockpiled in Israel. Arms export from other countries is minimal.

ISRAELISM pres

Our regular monthly update featuring the latest news and opportunities for your cinema, festival or film society.

• We’re hiring! We’re looking for a Senior Manager to join our Film Hub South East team. They will have overall responsibility for all Film Hub South East activity including BFI NETWORK, Film Academy Plus, and our Young Film Network. Full details and apply.
• Thanks to everyone who joined us for this year’s Spring Screening Days – whether online or in person at BFI Southbank. We’ll be announcing details of the next Screening Days events very soon, so make sure that you’re subscribed to our mailing list if you want to stay up to date!
• We were proud to announce the second round of beneficiaries of our Miles Ketley Memorial Fund this month. Set up in 2022 in memory of the producer and trustee of the ICO, the fund provides bursaries to emerging filmmakers to help further their careers. See the list of this year’s recipients.
• 27 April 2024 marks the 30th anniversary of Freedom Day, when the first non-racialised democratic elections took place in South Africa. In celebration of this milestone, we’ve partnered with Cinema Africa! and Maona Art to bring a 4K restoration of Mapantsula to UK cinemas. Last week, Mosa Mpetha of Cinema Africa! wrote on our blog about their aims for the release, the journey to get to this point, and their vision of making Black and African stories more regularly seen on the big screen.
• This month, we partnered with Conic and 104films to present a roundtable conversation on The Cinema of Ideas with filmmakers Ella Glendining, Jessi Gutch, Justin Edgar and Ted Evans. Hosted by film and culture writer Lillian Crawford, the discussion touched on the participants’ experiences as disabled and deaf people forging a career in the film industry, the barriers that still persist, and what needs to happen next. You can catch up with the recording on our YouTube channel.
• Several members of the ICO team were in Berlin last month for this year’s Berlinale. On our blog they highlighted a few of the films that they’re most excited to see reach UK audiences over the coming year, including new work by Mati Diop, Levan Akin and Jane Schoenbrun.

• Save the date! The BFI Film Audience Network conference, BFI FAN CON, will take place at Queen’s Film Theatre, Belfast, from 11–13 September 2024. This conference is for FAN members across the UK to meet, celebrate the work they do, share their experiences, and consider new approaches to wider industry issues. Ahead of the event, BFI FAN would like to find out what an ideal conference would look like for attendees. Please share your thoughts here.
• B

Canneseries season 7 - great actors, series and a pink carpet - all in Cannes and still with MipTV

Indeed this series festival takes place in Cannes, where else, nomen est omen. And it gets into competition with an the other majour festival dedicated to series. I'm talking about Series Mania from Lille. Both festivals are taking place in spring, one just finished and the other one, Canneseries to take place 05-10.04.

But while Series Mania is dedicated uniquely to television series in Europe Canneseries brings also worldwide premieres in collaboration with majour studios from the United States. International series are premiered in Cannes and on the big screen of the Palais giving its audience 6 days of pink carpet, discoveries and masterclasses with some of the most renowned personalities in the series world.

Should I stay or should I go now?

The success story of Canneseries has been made possible due to the collaboration with a global event which also takes place in Cannes and most important at the same time. MipTV and Canneseries has always been connected, from the very beginning in 2018. So far so good. Now its all changing, as MipTV says goodby to Cannes as a venue and moves on to London. It has been the talk since Berlinale Series in February, and it continued at the London TV Screenings and later in March at Séries Mania.

MIPTV gathers, in the entertainment industry's global deal-making hub of Cannes, together producers, distributors, and buyers to connect, commission and discover new series and projects for all genres and screens. And these synergies have been profitable for Canneseries. We will see what the future brings, some rumours are even saying that Canneseries might be moved to October in order to connect with MipCom, an even bigger market than MipTV.

Other rumours are saying it might even take place during the Festival de Cannes, but this would be quite absurd, not even the colours are matching, Canneseries is all about pink even the red carpet is not red but pink.

But coming back to the current edition „This year, we went big“ the organizers are announcing on their website, and indeed : great stars on the pink carpet such as Daniel Brühl, Kyle MacLachlan, Birgitte Hjort Sørensen, Michael Douglas, Pierre Niney, Ludivine Sagnier, Ella Purnell or Jamel Debbouze have been announced.

CANAL+ is once again CANNESERIES’ official partner and it will exclusively broadcast the Opening Ceremony of its Season 7 on Friday, April 5 th at 8:30 p.m. It will be presented in the Grand Auditorium Louis Lumière of the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès by French author and comedian Bertrand Usclat.

And now let's have a closer look at the series presented at Canneseries. Some run in competion others out of competitions. This last category is the most anticipated one with Becoming Karl Lagerfeld, Fallout, Franklin and Maxima.

Terminal

There are big expectations at Canneseries for this premiere with 3 episodes 4, 7 & 11 in French screened, and subtitled in English. The French 12 episodes Terminal is opening Canneseries on 04.04 with a „sitcom made in Jamel“. Everybody in France knows who is meant by Jamel. Jamel Debbouze is the most popular French comedian, and he is very known abroad too. I once attended the „Marrakesch du Rire“ international comedy festival in Marrakesch, and Jamel was of course the moderator and the show was great

And here some quotes:

„Welcome aboard Flywings, the lowest of all low-cost airlines! 
Greeting you today is your pilot, Jack, who handles his personal life as inadequately as he does his airplanes. Alongside is co-pilot

The eye of the storm: a resolutely current selection for 2024, in tune with the present
 
Visions du Réel unveils the programme for its 55th edition (12 – 21 April 2024). A bold and well-rounded official selection of 165 films from 50 different countries, with gender parity for the second year running. With 88 world premieres and 14 international premieres amongst the 128 new films being shown, Visions du Réel reaffirms its position as Switzerland’s second most important festival in terms of launching new films, and as an unmissable international event for non-fiction cinema. In addition to the three previously announced guests – Chinese filmmaker Jia Zhangke, American author-director John Wilson, and French director Alice Diop – the Festival will, over the course of ten days, have the honour of welcoming key figures from the world of contemporary cinema such as Carlo Chatrian, Martín Rejtman, Carmen Jaquier, Eduardo Williams, and the author Christine Angot. The 55th edition will open with the Danish film As the Tide Comes In by Juan Palacios (co-directed by Sofie Husum Johannesen). 
 
"The 128 new films selected this year once again offer our audience the opportunity to immerse themselves in the most contemporary of cinema, through a rich and varied range of forms, approaches, devices and subjective viewpoints, and an array of excerpts from real stories and narratives. The program, which is largely composed of films discovered from the 3300 films that were submitted – representing an increase in submissions of more than10% this year – reaffirms the ambition of Visions du Réel to help support the emergence of new talents. For instance, the International Feature Film Competition alone includes ten debuts in its selection of fifteen films. Lastly, we are continuing to relentlessly strive towards gender parity, which, as was the case in 2023, we have once again achieved this year" – Emilie Bujès, Artistic Director of the Festival.

In terms of national output, the programme attests to the strength of Swiss production. The 55th edition includes a total of 25 Swiss (co)productions, with a very strong representation of German-speaking talent. For the second year running, the International Feature Film Competition sees three Swiss (co)productions in contention, two of which were made by German-speaking filmmakers, and the Burning Lights Competition features two Swiss productions, both also made by filmmakers from the eastern part of the country. Visions du Réel asserts its crucial role as a national and international springboard. 
 
International Feature Film Competition
The Jury for the International Feature Film Competition, comprising the outgoing artistic director of the Berlinale Carlo Chatrian, Swiss filmmaker Carmen Jaquier (director of Thunder, which premiered at TIFF and San Sebastian International Film Festival 2022 before becoming Switzerland’s pick for the 2023 Oscars) and producer Dora Bouchoucha (whose films include Hedi and Dear Son by Mohamed Ben Attia, and Foreign Body by Raja Amari), will award the competition prizes from a shortlist of fifteen films, which include fourteen world premieres and one international premiere.
 
Including seven films directed by women, the International Feature Film Competition welcomes ten first feature films, several of which by directors who will be returning to Nyon following selections of their previous shorts or participation in the VdR-Industry activities in past editions. Amongst these are Fragments of Ice by Maria Stoianova (VdR–Rough Cut Lab 2022) which intersperses archive footage from both the filmmaker

T

The six new faces of La Résidence of the Festival : Molly Manning Walker ©️ Billy Boyd Cape, Ernst De Geer ©️ Per Larsson, Daria Kashcheeva ©️ Gabriel Kuchta, Deník N, Danech San ©️ Prum Ero, Anastasiia Solonevych ©️ DR, Aditya Amhad ©️ DR

Welcome to Molly, Aditya, Daria, Danech, Ernst and Anastasiia ! From March 15 to July 31, 2024, these young filmmakers will work in the heart of Paris on their first or second feature film project. For 4 and a half months, they will benefit from a personalized script development program and a collective program of meetings with directors, professionals and representatives of film institutions.

In the historically rich neighborhood of Paris's 9th arrondissement, the six new residents took up residence following the last session, comprising Meltse Van Coillie, Diana Cam Van Nguyen, Hao Zhao, Gessica Généus, Andrea Slaviček, Asmae El Moudir. These two sessions will be reunited for the 77th edition of the Festival de Cannes to be held from May 14 to 25.

Since the reorganization of La Résidence in 2022, filmmakers are now selected both by call for applications and by invitation, with Stéphanie Lamome in charge of the project. Created in 2000, La Résidence has played host to over 250 directors from around 60 countries. A number of these directors, invited to the biggest festivals around the world, have had international success: Lucrecia Martel, Kornél Mundruczó, Sebastián Lelio, Antonio Campos, Karim Aïnouz, Jonas Carpignano, etc.

After passing through La Résidence, the Romanian Corneliu Porumboiu received the Caméra d’or in 2006 for 12:08 East of Bucharest, the Mexican director Amat Escalante won the Award for Best Director at Cannes in 2013 with Heli, while his compatriot Michel Franco was awarded the Best Screenplay Award in 2015 for Chronic, screened In Competition. The Hungarian László Nemes won the Grand Prix at Cannes in 2015, as well as the Oscar and Golden Globe for best foreign language film in 2016 for Son of Saul, the Belgian Lukas Dhont got the Caméra d’or in 2018 with Girl, and the Lebanese director Nadine Labaki won the César and the Oscar for best foreign film in 2019 with Capernaum. After having received the G

41st IFFF Dortmund+Köln, 16 to 21 April 2024

International Debut Feature Film Competition

Eight directors compete for the 10,000 euro award

Jury: Thelma Buabeng, Cristina Andreu Cuevas, Jennifer Reeder

German feature ELLBOGEN opens the festival on 16 April

The Cologne edition of the Festival pays particular attention to showcasing the work of young film-makers. The International Debut Feature Film Competition is considered a useful barometer not just of directorial talent – which we would like to much more of in future – but also of current themes, narrative styles and tonalities. Worth 10,000 euros, the biennial prize recognises the directorial accomplishments of women and provides award-winners with financial support for future film projects. Introduced in 1995 and presented for the 10th time in this form, the award has celebrated such directors as Neus Ballús, Susanna Nicchiarelli, Claudia Llosa (Golden Bear Berlinale 2009) and Carla Simón (Golden Bear 2022).

In 2024, eight films from Belgium, Germany, Finland, Great Britain, Cameroon, Morocco, Mongolia and the Netherlands were nominated from a record 170 submitted feature film debuts. These films take risks, break with stylistic conventions and make bold use of genres and different narrative traditions. They explore perspectives often overlooked in mainstream cinema. We are interested in films that offer a clear view of the world, but treat their characters with empathy and respect and they tackle difficult subjects like grief and separation with great sensitivity.

The festival opens its 41st edition with the German competition entry ELBOW, the film adaptation of Fatma Aydemir's novel of the same name. Director Aslı Özarslan will be a guest at the festival opening in Cologne.

The international jury

The award winners are decided by our jury made up of German actor and activist Thelma Buabeng, Spanish director and CIMA president Cristina Andreu Cueavas and US film director Jennifer Reeder. The award ceremony will be held on 21 April at Filmforum NRW.

Nominated films

ANIMALIA

Directed by Sofia Alaoui, FR / MA / QA, 2023, 90’

Itto, heavily pregnant, lives with her husband and his super-rich family whose rules she objects to. The country is suddenly struck by a mysterious disaster and there is an invasion of aliens. Itto’s odyssey through shaken Morocco becomes a more-than-human spiritual journey to her liberation in this visually stunning sci-fi drama. The film won the Special Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. In cooperation with the Afrika Film Festival Cologne.

19 April, 8.30 pm, Odeon

Camping du lac

Directed by Éléonore Saintagnan, BE / FR, 2023, 69’

After her car breaks down, Éléonore finds herself stranded on a campsite – overlooking a lake in which a giant fish is said to live. As she observes the long-term campers, the present and fictional past intertwine and her imagination takes over. Documentary film-maker and artist Éléonore Saintagnan appears herself in this unusual feature film debut about the relationship between people and nature and about how this story can be told.