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Los Angeles’ Israel Film Festival has announced its full program, kicking off with Tom Nesher’s directorial debut, “Come Closer” as the fest’s opening night gala. The centerpiece screening is a sneak preview of Erez Tadmor’s “Soda.”

The 36th edition of the festival, which runs Nov. 13-26, will honor Mattel chairman and CEO Ynon Kreiz with the Industry Leadership Award. Actor Shaike Levi will receive the 2024 Iff Lifetime Achievement Award at the Closing Night ceremony.

The festival’s founder and executive director, Meir Fenigstein, leads the event with support from Variety’s CEO and Group Publisher, Michelle Sobrino-Stearns, who serves as chairwoman, and Arnon Milchan, founder of New Regency, as honorary chairman.

Fenigstein said, “The Israel Film Festival has always maintained an environment of mutually respectful discussion and viewpoints as well as nonpartisanship. Our thoughts and prayers are with all those affected by the war. Festivalgoers represent the...

Variety Awards Circuit section is the home for all awards news and related content throughout the year, featuring the following: the official predictions for the upcoming Oscars, Emmys, Grammys and Tony Awards ceremonies, curated by Variety senior awards editor Clayton Davis. The prediction pages reflect the current standings in the race and do not reflect personal preferences for any individual contender. As other formal (and informal) polls suggest, competitions are fluid and subject to change based on buzz and events. Predictions are updated every Thursday.

Visit the prediction pages for the respective ceremonies via the links below:

Oscars | Emmys | Grammys | Tonys

2024 Oscars Predictions:

Best International Feature Wim Wenders’ ‘Perfect Days’

Weekly Commentary: The United Kingdom is poised to win its first Academy Award with Jonathan Glazer’s “The Zone of Interest” and what a deserved win it will be.

But while I have the floor: it’s time for the...

For all its many, many faults, 2023 was a banner year for international films. The awards season buzz for global gems like Justine Triet’s French courtroom thriller Anatomy of a Fall (released by Neon stateside), Jonathan Glazer’s German-language Holocaust drama Zone of Interest (A24), Hayao Miyazaki’s Japanese anime The Boy and the Heron (GKids), and J.A. Bayona’s Spanish-language real-life survival tale Society of the Snow (Netflix) only scratches the surface.

Among the many many other foreign highlights from last year are Mubi’s Fallen Leaves and How to Have Sex — the first a laconic triumph by Finnish film master Aki Kaurismäki, the latter a stunning debut by Brit first-timer Molly Manning Walker — Sony Pictures Classics’ The Teachers’ Lounge, a German school drama from director Ilker Çatak and Iranian drama Shayda from director Noora Niasari; Agnieszka Holland’s harrowing The Green Border, about Poland’s treatment of would-be...

Every year since its creation in 1956, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) invites the film industries of various countries to submit their best film for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film. The category was previously called the Best Foreign Language Film, but this was changed in April 2019 to Best International Feature Film, after the Academy deemed the word “Foreign” to be outdated.

The award is presented annually by the Academy to a feature-length motion picture produced outside the United States that contains primarily non-English dialogue. For the 96th Academy Awards, the submitted motion pictures must be first released theatrically in their respective countries between December 1, 2022, and October 31, 2023. The deadline for submissions to the Academy was October 2, 2023, and 92 countries submitted a film. The 15-film shortlist will be announced on December 21, 2023, followed by the official nominations on January 23, 2024.

Here are this edition's Asian Submissions for Best International Feature Film.

Exclusive: The filmmakers behind Israel’s 2024 International Feature Oscar submission are now working on a movie about an all-female Israeli Defence Force (Idf) tank unit which defended against the Hamas terror attacks on October 7.

Ayelet Menahemi, whose feature Seven Blessings won this year’s Ophir Prize in Israel, is slated to direct the film and will be teaming up again with writer-actress Eleanor Sela who is writing the script and also wrote and starred Seven Blessings.

The film is inspired by the true events regarding the first-of-its-kind all-female tank unit who engaged in fierce battles against Hamas attackers on the day of the October 7 massacres. The battle was the first instance in history of an all-female armored unit taking part in combat.

In addition to the battle, the filmmakers tell us the film will also explore the founding of the unit and the struggles the young women combatants faced in...

Shortlist of 15 films to be announced December 21, nominations out on January 23, 2024.

The Academy has announced eligible features in the categories of international feature film, animation, and documentary for the 96th Academy Awards on March 10, 2024.

The shortlist of 15 films will be announced on December 21, and the nominations announcement is January 23, 2024.

International

Eighty-eight countries or regions have submitted films eligible for consideration in the international feature film category. An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture (more than 40 minutes long) produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50%) non-English dialogue track. Namibia is a first-time entrant.

Academy members...

Oscar voters in the Best International Feature Film category have received their group assignments for this year’s initial round of voting, with 89 films included on the seven lists that the Academy has sent to members.

The lists, which were obtained by TheWrap, include presumed favorites “The Zone of Interest” (United Kingdom), “The Taste of Things” (France), “The Promised Land” (Denmark) and “Perfect Days” (Japan), along with a number of documentaries, among them Estonia’s “Smoke Sauna Sisterhood,” Brazil’s “Pictures of Ghosts” and Ukraine’s “20 Days in Mariupol.”

The 89 films are four short of the record of 93 qualifying films in the category. The list of group assignments does not make up the Academy’s official list of eligible films; it’s possible that assigned films might still fail to qualify before first-round voting begins on Dec. 18. For the most part, though, films that are included in the group...

United King Films has started shooting Yohanan Weller’s comedy My Private Telenovela as cinemas tentatively reopen.

Film production has tentatively resumed in Israel starting with Yohanan Weller’s feature comedy My Private Telenovela (working title) as select cinemas begin to open their doors following the deadly Hamas attack on October 7 and escalating war in the region.

The film is the first feature to begin production again in the country, delayed from an initial start date of October 8.

My Private Telenovela is produced by Moshe and Leon Edery’s United King Films and will be released by the company’s distribution arm in Israel.

Predicting the eventual five Oscar nominees for Best International Feature is made difficult by the three-step process that begins after the October 2, 2023 deadline for countries to submit entries. To be part of the selection process for this category, which was called Best Foreign Language Film before 2020, requires a great deal of dedication. (Scroll down for the most up-to-date 2024 Oscars Best International Feature predictions.)

In the days following the deadline for submissions, the academy determines each film’s eligibility. Then the several hundred academy members who serve on the International Feature screening committee are divided into groups and required to watch all their submissions over a six-week period that ends in early December. Their top 15 vote-getters will make it to the next round. That list of semi-finalists will be revealed on December 21, 2023.

These 15 films will be made available to the entire academy membership who can cast ballots for the final five...

Ayelet Menahemi’s family comedy Seven Blessings swept the board at Israel’s Ophir Awards on Sunday evening, triumphing in nine categories including in best film.

As the winner of the best film prize, the movie will automatically be put forward as Israel’s submission to the Best International Film category of the 2024 Academy Awards.

Set in Jerusalem in the early 1990s, the film revolves around an eventful Jewish Moroccan family wedding and the traditional blessings that are pronounced during the ceremony, again at the reception, and then on the next seven nights, with loved ones hosting special dinners in the couple’s honor.

Behind the facade of joie de vivre and togetherness, there are secrets, lies, and a painful old wound from the past that threatens to burst the bubble of their lives.

Added to the mix is a comedy of errors and misinterpretation from numerous members of the family speaking multiple languages,...