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Israel Film Festival in Los Angeles Reveals Full Lineup, Will Honor Mattel CEO Ynon Kreiz
Photo: Screenshot
The 36th Israel Film Festival (IFF) will return to Los Angeles in November after a two-and-a-half year hiatus and will screen 40 feature films, documentaries, and short films produced by Israeli filmmakers.
The IFF announced on Monday its full lineup of films, and “Come Closer,” which last month became Israel’s submission for best international feature film for the 2025 Academy Awards, will make its west coast premiere when it screens at the festival’s opening night gala. The film written and directed by Tom Nesher is her feature film directorial debut and will premiere at the Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills.
This is the first year that the IFF will have a panel of Israeli-American producers that will be available to discuss potential co-productions between film industries in the US and Israel. The event, which will be private and is sponsored by the Israel Cinema Project-Rabinovich Foundation, will take place on Nov. 15 at the Crescent Theater in Beverly Hills.
“The Israel Film Festival has always maintained an environment of mutually respectful discussion and viewpoints as well as nonpartisanship,” said Meir Fenigstein, founder and executive director of the Israel Film Festival. “Our thoughts and prayers are with all those affected by the war. Festivalgoers represent the diverse communities of Los Angeles who want to be both educated and entertained by a selection of powerful and exciting Israeli films that offer a great window into Israeli culture.”
At this year’s opening ceremony, Ynon Kreiz, the chairman and chief executive officer of Mattel who helped spearhead the company’s first and highly successful film “Barbie,” will be presented with the 2024 IFF Industry Leadership Award. Israeli actor and comedian Shaike Levi will receive the 2024 IFF Lifetime Achievement Award at the festival’s closing night ceremony.
“This year’s two festival honorees are extraordinary and renowned leaders in business and the arts,” said Fenigstein. “Ynon Kreiz, who has revolutionized Mattel into an esteemed juggernaut, volunteered at the Festival over 30 years ago when he was a university student at UCLA. The legendary comedian/actor Shaike Levi has been bringing joy and laughter to generations of audiences in Israel.”
The film “Soda,” directed by Erez Tadmor, will have a special sneak preview as the festival’s Sponsor Centerpiece Film event on Nov. 18 at the Writers Guild Theater in Beverly Hills. The film is about a beautiful seamstress who moves into a neighborhood of Holocaust survivors in 1956. When rumors start in the community about her past as a kapo — a term for a prisoner at a Nazi concentration camp who was forced by the Nazis to supervise forced labor in the camps — a leader of the neighborhood, who was also a former resistance fighter during World War II, is pulled between his passion for the woman and his longing to tell his community about her past.
Other festival screenings will take place at the Laemmle Royal Theatre in West Los Angeles and the Laemmle Town Center 5 in Encino. Some screenings will include a Q&A with Israeli filmmakers and cast members that will be moderated by Israeli and American journalists.
The Israel Film Festival in Los Angeles will run Nov. 13–26 and tickets are available on the festival website starting on Nov. 5.
The post Israel Film Festival in Los Angeles Reveals Full Lineup, Will Honor Mattel CEO Ynon Kreiz first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.