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The 21st edition of Oscar Qualifying short film festival HollyShorts—a golden ticket for filmmakers offering exposure, awards and career momentum—opens its doors on 7th August for 10 spectacular days of cinema. Under the iconic, hallowed eaves of the Hollywood Tcl Chinese Theatres, the festival will screen a staggering 427 short films from across the globe. Renowned for spotlighting emerging talent—such as the Oscar-winning I Am Not a Robot, which screened last year—and delivering a programme packed with practical insights, HollyShorts truly has it all. After highlighting our ten must-see shorts for 2023’s edition, Directors Notes has been granted an exclusive preview of this year’s lineup and today we’re sharing our 10 favourites. With a truly commendable smorgasbord of talent playing, including several titles you’ll have already seen featured in Dn interviews such as Stomach Bug, Rock Paper Scissors, Everyone Does It and Rocket Fuel, to name a few,...

A gala presentation at the 2023 UK Jewish Film Festival, sees a widowed Jewish man travel to Paris to support an old friend who has suffered a heart attack. Staying with his daughter, her partner and baby, he realises that she’s deeply unhappy. At first he thinks her partner must be to blame, but the truth is more complicated and will test the depth of his love for her as well as giving him insights into his own life back in Israel.

Love is entangled with powerlessness and drama with comedy in this slight but beautifully played tale. Alma (Sivan Levy) has grown up a lot since she last saw her father, Shimon (Sasson Gabay), and although the bond between them never feels fragile, they need to renegotiate their relationship as they begin to understand each other in new ways. Her knowingly obnoxious, self-destructive behaviour seems to stem in part.

The Israeli Film Critics Association has announced the winners of their very first year-end film awards. And the winners are:

Best Foreign Film: Gravity, Alfonso Cuaron

(Leos Carax's Holy Motors and Pablo Larrain's No were runner-ups)

Best Israeli Film: Big Bad Wolves, directed by Nevot Papushado and Aharon Keshales

Best direction: (Tie) Big Bad Wolves and Bethlehem (directed by Yuval Adler)

Best Screenplay: "S#x Acts" by Rona Segal

Best Actor: Hitam Omary, "Bethlehem"

Best Actress: Sivan Levy, "S#x Acts"

Newcomer Award: Tom Shoval, the first-time director of "Youth"

Best technical achievement: Ari Folman, Yoni Goodman, David Polonsky and the animation team of "The Congress"...

Sextette: Gurfinkel’s Debut an Uncomfortable Sashay into Female Victimhood

Exuding enough uncomfortable finesse to be ranked as one of several cinematic explorations that appear to offer homage or exist as acolytes to the cinema of Catherine Breillat, Johnathan Gurfinkel’s feature debut, S#x Acts manages to be memorably unsettling even as it treads familiar territory. The sexual awakening of the adolescent female offers an endless amount of discomfort, degradation, and humiliation for young women in any language or land, it seems, and Gurfinkel’s film certainly doesn’t aim for empowerment or agency. But what his film does depict is that faint line between consensual sex and rape, where there exists a classic grey zone that blurs issues of mere pleasure with sex as a tool to gain power, control, and often that thing that sex by itself never yields: love.

Gili (Sivan Levy) has recently moved to a wealthy suburb in Israel,...

Nominated for 10 Ophirs (Israel's version of the Oscars), Jonathan Gurfinkel's "S#x Acts" took home only one statue, but in the category where it likely mattered most: Best Actress. Sivan Levy leads the provocative film with the kind of performance that requires both confidence and vulnerability, and both those qualities are on display in this exclusive clip from the film. Co-starring Eviatar Mor, Roy Nik and Niv Zilberberg, the story follows naïve teen Gili who, eager to fit in at a new school and run with the right crowd, starts hooking up with the most popular guys, even allowing herself to be photographed and filmed. But it's the start down a slippery slope that finds her boundaries and limits pushed. The film clearly touches upon a number of contemporary issues, and in this scene, we witness how social dynamics already start to shift once sex surfaces between classmates and friends.

There aren't a whole lot of words to describe that feeling of intimacy where everyone knows each other in the, ah, Biblical sense, but the feelings are not necessarily all-around mutual. Such sentiment pollutes the lives of characters at the heart of "S#x Acts," a powerful Israeli film that follows that conflict as it weighs down one girl with a deadly combination of Mediterranean beauty and middling self-esteem. That girl is Gili (Sivan Levy), a modest high schooler who longs for the touch of laid-back classmate Tomer (Roy Nik), a lanky, disaffected type who appears attractive simply because he doesn't seem to care. While he cannot deny the appeal of being chased by a pretty young crush, his indifference shines through, and his gregarious pal Omri (Eviatar Mor) is more than happy to pick up the pieces. Gili's attraction to Tomer doesn't simply stem from his handsomeness, but also...

The Israeli drama S#x Acts often feels like an empathy test. Its protagonist, a teenager named Gili (Sivan Levy), is so uninterested in preserving her dignity that it's hard to care about her as a character, even though her real-life counterparts — of whom a great many exist — evoke instant compassion.

As the new girl in school, Gili makes "friends" with boys by offering handies and blowjobs. Wearing short shorts, and black bras under sheer, light-colored shirts, she performs whatever older boy Omri (Eviatar Mor) needles her into, collecting as her reward the three words that make her beam: "You're so hot."

Gili's a loser, and not the lovable kind. But she has to be one to put up with the six trials that screenwriter Rona Segal and director Jonathan ...

By the time Jonathan Gurfinkel's "S#x Acts" hit the Tribeca Film Festival earlier this year, it was already on a roll. The provocative Israeli drama had already taken awards at the Haifa International Festival and San Sebastian International Film Festival, and while it didn't pick up any hardware at Tribeca, it certainly left an impression. Our own Gabe Toro noted the "heartbreaking power" of the film and it's a picture we cited as among the best and brightest Tribeca served up this year. So yes, this is one to put on your radar to watch before the end of 2013. Starring Sivan Levy, Eviatar Mor, Roy Nik and Niv Zilberberg, the story follows naïve teen Gili, who finds herself at a new school, eager to to fit in with the right crowd. She starts hooking up with the most popular guys, even allowing herself to be photographed and filmed, but...

We follow a woman wearing a backpack through a crowded street. Kids play around her, diners laugh and eat at a cafe, and a caged pigeon stares blankly at a little boy’s smiling face. And then the world explodes. Chloé (Evelyne Brochu) is a Canadian doctor straddling the Israeli/Palestinian border both in her daily activities and in her sympathies. She lives in Israel but works in a clinic on the other side of the concrete wall in the Palestinian city of Ramallah. In addition to the day job she’s taken on private nurse duties for a young, pregnant woman named Rand (Sabrina Ouazani) whose husband awaits sentencing from an Israeli judge. Chloé is equally friendly with Ava (Sivan Levy), a female soldier who lives one floor below her. They share the ride to work every day with Ava stopping at the border while Chloé continues past it. The...

The striking story of a Western doctor in Palestine and her long, hard path to the realization that all of her good intentions can barely begin to counter the tidal wave of history she has chosen to surf. I’m “biast” (pro): nothing

I’m “biast” (con): nothing

(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)

Nice white Canadian doctor goes to Palestine, wants to help poor disenfranchised people who aren’t getting quite the attention they should. Well, nice white Canadian doctor goes to Israel to live and has to cross the border every day into the camps to the jury-rigged medical clinic that has to shut down on days when it’s just too dangerous to be there, because terrorism and politics and entrenched anger. But still: there’s the do-gooding and the beneficence. If Inch’Allah — which translates from Arabic to French (and then...

Chloe (Evelyne Brochu) is a Canadian doctor who commutes from Tel Aviv to work in a pregnancy clinic in Ramallah, a impoverished West Bank settlement. She approaches this complex and dangerous part of the world with alarming naïveté, often walking the chaotic streets alone, with no worries at all. Her nonchalance is intended to illustrate that Chloe views everyone as equals, making no judgments according to ethnicity or religion. Unfortunately, it is practically impossible to not develop an allegiance here; those who do not, seem to be weak and/or uninformed. Chloe often travels to and from the border checkpoint with her upstairs neighbor and friend, Ava (Sivan Levy). Ava works as an armed guard at the checkpoint, so she has obviously formed a very biased opinion of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from her firsthand experiences. Though she seems to respect Chloe's opinions, Ava refuses to trust -- let alone, like...

Watch fresh clips from eOne's Inch'Allah, starring Evelyne Brochu, Sabrina Ouazani, Sivan Levy, and Yousef Sweid. The drama opens in New York on August 16th followed by Los Angeles on August 23rd. naïs Barbeau-Lavalette directs and writes. Chloe (Evelyne Brochu) is a young Canadian obstetrician working in a makeshift clinic in a Palestinian refugee camp in the West Bank, where she treats pregnant women under the supervision of Michael (Carlo Brandt), a French doctor. Facing daily checkpoints and the separation barrier, Chloe is confronted with the conflict and the people it affects: Rand (Sabrina Ouazani), a patient for whom Chloe develops a deep affection; Faysal (Yousef Sweid), Rand’s older brother, a fervent resister; Safi (Hammoudeh Alkarmi), their younger brother, a child shattered by war who dreams of flying across borders; and Ava (Sivan Levy), a young soldier who lives next door to Chloe in her apartment in Israel.

Ultimately having direct access to the film festival findings helps facilitate future deals and here we find one more instance of Tribeca Film picking from its own gene pool with a 2013 showcased Tribeca Film Festival offering. The distrib’s head buyer Nick Savva has picked up distribution rights to Jonathan Gurfinkel’s teen drama and re-baptized as the more playfully codified S#x Acts. The film gets a theatrical release on October 25th.

Gist: Written by Rona Segel, Gili is a teenager who decides to change schools. She is determined to improve her lame social status. Over the course of a few weeks she hooks up with several different boys, all from her new school. Their encounters get more and more sexual, each time exploring their limits a little further. The boys are eager to take what is so generously offered, and Gili is thrilled with the attention.

Worth Noting:...

Watch the trailer and see the poster for Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette's Inch'Allah, starring Evelyne Brochu, Sabrina Ouazani, Sivan Levy, Yousef Sweid, Hammoudeh Alkarmi and Carlo Brandt. The eOne Films release opens in theaters on : August 16th in New York City at The Quad Cinema, followed by an August 23rd, 2013 expansion in Los Angeles at the Laemmle Music Hall and West Park Theater in Orange County. Chloe (Brochu) is a young Canadian obstetrician working in a makeshift clinic in a Palestinian refugee camp in the West Bank, where she treats pregnant women under the supervision of Michael (Brandt), a French doctor. Facing daily checkpoints and the separation barrier, Chloe is confronted with the conflict and the people it affects: Rand (Ouazani), a patient for whom Chloe develops a deep affection; Faysal (Sweid), Rand’s older brother, a fervent resister; Safi (Alkarmi), their younger brother, a child shattered by war who...

I stumble into this year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival like a startled deer, this being the first year in living memory in which I’ve missed a substantial part of the Festival. Having only returned to bonnie Scotland on Sunday, I have missed the first week and many of the headlining films. These include this year’s opening film, Breathe In, as well as Sofia Coppola’s much-talked-about The Bling Ring and Monsters University, the new Pixar (last year’s Festival closed with Brave, a movie at least as Scottish as Brigadoon).

So my blogs and reviews this year will necessarily give only a hint of what has been on offer, but so it always goes with a Film Festival; even the most astute attendee is likely to miss many gems, and endure both high-profile twaddle and films that will vanish, post-festival time, into the abyss of arthouse hooey.

Israeli cinema has finally come up with its own Larry Clark. Similarly bearded and mustachioed, director Jonathan Gurfinkel, with an unrestrained vigor, showcases how secular teens residing in the affluent beachfront suburbs of Tel Aviv are every bit as horny, lonely, self-centered, and destructive as their fresh-faced American cousins grinding up against one other in the likes of Kids and Bully.

Six Acts is divided into six episodes. We first meet 16-year-old Gili (Sivan Levy) after she's transferred to a new high school and is uploading photos of herself onto a local social web site in hopes of making friends. The self-taken shots do gain attention, but not of the right sort. Poor, unstylish, and not attractive enough, Gili seems like an easy plaything to exploit by the "in" boys in town -- and that's exactly what they plan to do.

Tomer (Roy Nik) desires a hand-job, his pal "Why-don’t you-shave-it?...

There aren't a whole lot of words to describe that feeling of intimacy where everyone knows each other in the, ah, Biblical sense, but the feelings are not necessarily all-around mutual. Such sentiment pollutes the lives of characters at the heart of "Six Acts," a powerful Israeli film that follows that conflict as it weighs down one girl with a deadly combination of Mediterranean beauty and middling self-esteem. That girl is Gili (Sivan Levy), a modest high schooler who longs for the touch of laid-back classmate Tomer (Roy Nik), a lanky, disaffected type who appears attractive simply because he doesn't seem to care. While he cannot deny the appeal of being chased by a pretty young crush, his indifference shines through, and his gregarious pal Omri (Eviatar Mor) is more than happy to pick up the pieces. Gili's attraction to Tomer doesn't simply stem from his handsomeness, but also a...