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It’s a Wrap For 32nd Israel Film Festival in Los Angeles

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Category: Entertainment News
Published on Wednesday, 21 November 2018 06:31
Written by A&E Contributing Editor

The 32nd ISRAEL FILM FESTIVAL in Los Angeles, the largest showcase of Israeli films in the United States, ended on a huge high note with its biggest audience in over three decades and sold-out screenings throughout.

The programming consisted of 40 narrative films, documentaries, television series and shorts, including many U.S. and West Coast Premieres along with 25 leading Israeli filmmakers and actors in attendance. For the first time, the Festival awarded to the Audience Choice Award winners $100,000, granted by Festival sponsors BCL Finance Group, TUNNEL Post and Opus Post Production.  The funds will be divided among the winning filmmakers to produce their next films.

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The 32nd ISRAEL FILM FESTIVAL's Audience Choice Award winners, as voted on by audience members, includes a TIE for Best Feature Film. Cash prizes totaling $100,000 were awarded to the filmmakers of audience voted favorite feature and documentary. 

The winners are:

Audience Choice Award for Best Feature Film (TIE)

The Other Story

Directed by Avi Nesher

Total Award:  $40,000.

Audience Choice Award for Best Feature Film (TIE)

Shoelaces

Directed by Jacob Goldwasser

Total Award:  $40,000.

Audience Choice Award for Best Documentary Film

Black Honey, the Life and Poetry of Avraham Sutskever

Directed by Uri Barbash

Total Award:  $20,000.

"At this year's Festival, Los Angeles crowds embraced and celebrated Israeli filmmaking to thunderous applause and standing ovations for the films.  I'm especially thrilled that the Festival and its sponsors BCL Finance Group, TUNNEL Post and Opus Post Production is awarding funding to filmmakers for their next movies," proclaimed Meir Fenigstein, the founder and executive director of the ISRAEL FILM FESTIVAL.  "These sponsors, along with such partners as the Millennium Media, Adelson Family Foundation, Annenberg Foundation and The Hollywood Reporter, are the very foundation that support the Festival's legacy of presenting the very best of Israeli cinema to U.S. audiences." 

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BCL Finance Group, a financing fund headed by Adi Cohen, Michael Bassick and Michael Laundon, which has a film services/financing agreement with TUNNEL Post of Los Angeles, contributed $85,000 worth of post-production services.  Opus Production, the largest and most advanced post-production house in Israel, provided $15,000 towards filmmakers' future films.

Highlights of the Festival included multi-Academy Award nominated and Emmy Award winning producer Jason Blum, founder of Blumhouse Productions, receiving the 2018 IFF Achievement in Film and TV Award; award-winning Israeli director/screenwriter Avi Nesher, director of the opening night film The Other Story, being honored with the 2018 IFF Cinematic Achievement Award; and the inaugural launch of the ISRAEL FILM FESTIVAL at the Skirball Cultural Center, a select presentation of Jewish identity through Israeli film.

Connect with the 32nd ISRAEL FILM FESTIVAL on Facebook (The Israel Film Festival), Instagram @IsraelFilmFestival, and Twitter @IsraelFilmFest for festival news and highlights, and join the conversation with #IsraelFilmFestival.  www.IsraelFilmFestival.com 

For 32 years, the Festival has presented more than 1,000 feature films, documentaries, television dramas and short films to close to one million filmgoers and brought hundreds of Israeli filmmakers to the U.S. to share their art.  The ISRAEL FILM FESTIVAL is produced by IsraFest Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization created in 1982.

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Among the Sponsors of the 32nd ISRAEL FILM FESTIVAL are Adelson Family Foundation, Millennium Media, Annenberg Foundation, The Hollywood Reporter, The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, Variety, Bank Leumi USA, Campbell Grobman Films, Creative Artists Agency (CAA), Crescent Hotel, David Wiener, Diane & Guilford Glazer Foundation, Disney, Eclipse Advertising, Four Seasons Hotel, Hanna & Bernie Rubinstein, Insync Plus, Israel Consulate in Los Angeles, Israel Film Fund, Israeli Ministry of Tourism, Izek & Aline Shomof, Maurice Marciano Family Foundation, Molly & Israel Weinberg, Netflix, Rabinovich Foundation, Screen International, Stanley & Joyce Black Family Foundation,  The Jewish Community Foundation, The Orlando Hotel, and others.

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