Israel’s first international film festival hits 33
The Haifa Film Festival, known for its fine selection of documentaries, launched new categories this year, such as foodie and environmental cinema.
The Jewish harvest festival of Sukkot, a celebration of autumn bounty, cooling temperatures and a rare weeklong vacation for many Israeli families, is also one of the most packed periods of Israel’s cultural calendar. But even on a crowded playing field, the annual Haifa Film Festival — a small but scrappy global cinematic showcase that concluded on Oct. 14, after 10 fevered days of film — is the season’s undisputed gem.
This was the 33rd festival and it kicked off with a sudsy global treat: the Israeli premiere of Denis Villeneuve’s “Blade Runner 2049,” starring Ryan Gosling and Harrison Ford in a long-awaited follow-up to the 1982 Ridley Scott classic “Blade Runner.”
Israel has no shortage of film festivals, and Haifa, a quiet third city with stunning seafront hills and a peaceful population that mixes Arabs and Jews, lacks the resources and talent that saturate Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.
But despite its humble setting, the Haifa Film Festival has an impressive pedigree: Founded in 1983, it was the first ever international festival established in Israel and today is its grandest, drawing some 300,000 cinephiles from across the country to sample not just the films but concerts, art exhibitions and food stalls that emerge in tandem each year. In a nation best known by its polarity, the Haifa Film Festival is, like its home city, a celebration of diversity, screening both Israeli and international projects, as well as a mixture of drama, documentaries, comedies and films of all budgets.
