Israel Film Festival in Los Angeles Reveals Full Lineup, Will Honor Mattel CEO Ynon Kreiz

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.

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