FIFTH LOS ANGELES JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL"We don't select -- we Choose!" by Alex DeleonThe fifth edition of the Los Angeles Jewish Film Festival opened a six day run on Saturday, May 8, at the classy Writers Guild Theater in Beverly Hills with a very off-beat film from Israel, "A Matter of Size", about Hebrew speaking Sumo wrestlers (!) and an hour long Gala stars-of-yesteryear studded reception in the lobby preceding the screening. The film was exceptional and the array of celebrities at the recep...

The saga of early Israeli cinema is the saga of selfless heroes building a nation, both onscreen and off. Glimpse these mythical creatures in A History of Israeli Cinema, a look back at the country’s 70 plus years of moviemaking. Raphaël Nadjari’s two-part documentary will have its American premiere at the Israel Film Festival (December 5-13 in New York), which has overlapped with 24 of those years.As if to underscore how far the national film culture has come from since its birth, 2009 IFF...