filmmaking

August 6, 2018, 11:27 pm

Israel’s only Oscar-winning director Moshe Mizrahi buried in Tel Aviv

86-year-old director of 1977 film ‘Madame Rosa,’ which won representing France, died on Friday

By AFP

Producer Howard Rosenman arrives at the The Hollywood Reporter's 2018 Academy Awards Nominees Night at the Cut Beverly Hills on Monday, February 5, 2018, in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Willy Sanjuan/Invision/AP)

July 16, 2018, 3:37 am

Howard Rosenman went to Israel to die. Now he’s making Oscar-winning cinema

A scare with AIDS over 30 years ago led the producer to a lifetime of LGBT activism and accolades for his work on ‘Call Me By Your Name’

By Eric Cortellessa

Actors John Hurt (left), Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Olivia Thirlby in 'Damascus Cover,' Howard Kaplan's 39-year-old novel (Damascus Cover)

June 19, 2018, 1:33 am

Israel-Syria spy thriller screens in Tel Aviv before US debut

‘Damascus Cover,’ based on the 40-year-old novel by Howard Kaplan, has seen a long road to release

By Michael Harel

Leni Riefenstahl directs 'Olympia,' based on the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, Germany (public domain)

June 14, 2018, 9:03 pm

The quiet absolution of pro-Nazi filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl

As the Berlin Museum of Photography prepares an installation about the life of the ‘Triumph of the Will’ propagandist, scholars worry it validates her distorted take on history

By Matt Lebovic

In this May 21, 2018 photo, director Ari Aster poses for a portrait to promote his film 'Hereditary' at the Four Seasons Los Angeles at Beverly Hills in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Willy Sanjuan/Invision/AP)

June 12, 2018, 11:22 pm

Director Ari Aster’s debut film is scarily good. And that might be a problem

As the terrifying flick ‘Hereditary’ opens worldwide, Aster shows his skills behind the camera portend something more than ‘just’ a career in horror. Will he get another chance?

By Jordan Hoffman

April 23, 2018, 1:10 pm

Michael Berenbaum

‘Schindler’s List’ at 25

How this deeply Jewish story turned Steven Spielberg into a major moral voice of our generation

Diarist Renia Spiegel, who was murdered by the Nazis at the age of 18 in Przemysl, Poland (Courtesy: Renia Spiegel Foundation)

April 12, 2018, 7:33 pm

The lost diary of Poland’s ‘Anne Frank’: An untold testament of a truncated life

For decades, few people knew of Renia Spiegel or her journal. The Holocaust victim’s sister and a determined filmmaker are working to change that

By Matt Lebovic

Izzy Ezagui, center, and fellow reserve soldiers in 2014 (Courtesy of Izzy Ezagui)

March 20, 2018, 3:03 pm

One-armed IDF sharpshooter still fights on the front lines — from the US

Published March 20, Izzy Ezagui’s memoir ‘Disarmed’ charts the American-born IDF vet’s battle for Israel — and himself

By Renee Ghert-Zand

Mira Sorvino arrives at the Oscars on Sunday, March 4, 2018, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)

March 5, 2018, 2:59 am

Oscars to bring an unpredictable awards season to a close

Academy Awards look to balance celebration with a Hollywood still reeling with shame over ‘open secret’ sexual misbehavior that for years went unpunished in male-dominated industry

By Jake Coyle

Professors David M. Kennedy and Condoleeza Rice at Stanford University in 'American Creed.' (Courtesy PBS)

February 27, 2018, 4:31 am

PBS documentary reminds Americans of their ties that bind — not gag

In ‘American Creed,’ San Francisco filmmaker Sam Ball examines different ways people keep the country’s founding ideals alive in a time of extreme political polarization

By Renee Ghert-Zand

Director Samuel Maoz receives the Silver Lion - Grand Jury Prize for his movie "Foxtrot" during the award ceremony of the 74th Venice Film Festival on September 9, 2017 at Venice Lido.
(AFP Photo/Tiziana Fabi)

January 30, 2018, 8:37 am

‘Foxtrot’ director says next film won’t be Israeli

‘There are limits to Hebrew,’ Samuel Maoz says after Oscar snub and a public tiff with Israel’s right-wing culture minister

By TOI staff

A quintet of 'Casablanca' winners: a sleepy Michael Curtiz, Jack Warner (talking, as usual), Hal Wallis (with his Thalberg Award), one of the event’s hosts, Jack Benny, and the screenwriter Howard Koch. (Courtesy/author’s collection)

January 14, 2018, 2:57 am

The unknown director behind one of the most famous movies of all time

Critics never took to Michael Curtiz, the Hungarian Jew who directed ‘Casablanca. Film scholar Alan K. Rode’s new book tells us why

By JP O’ Malley

Paul Sorvino, Martin Landau and Maria Dizzia in 'Abe & Phil's Last Poker Game' (Courtesy Gravitas Ventures)

January 12, 2018, 7:23 pm

Senior sex and quirky bromance in MD’s debut film — Martin Landau’s last hurrah

The Jewish actor’s stunning final performance in ‘Abe & Phil’s Last Poker Game’ is only outdone by the movie’s writer: a 73-year-old Harvard neurologist

By Renee Ghert-Zand

This file photo taken on October 20, 2017 shows Saudis attending the "Short Film Competition 2" festival at King Fahad Culture Center in Riyadh. (AFP PHOTO / FAYEZ NURELDINE)

December 13, 2017, 7:00 am

Saudi filmmakers, businessmen eye return of cinemas

After Riyadh announced decades-old ban on movie theaters will be lifted, first venues expected to open early next year

By Alison Tahmizian Meuse

Jack Warner, of the Warner Bros. and the famous Warner Bros. water tower. (Jack Warner/public domain; image of tower/ traveljunction.com)

November 9, 2017, 10:45 pm

Hollywood’s success, and sex scandals, go back to some of its founding fathers

Today’s disturbing allegations are not unprecedented. A spotlight on Jack Warner, co-founder of one of the biggest movie studios, who was accused of ‘womanizing’ decades ago

By Rich Tenorio