Opening Night: The Sea
2025 | 96 min minutes | Narrative
North American Premiere
Director: Shai Carmeli-Pollack

Khaled, a 12-year-old boy from a Palestinian village, travels to the sea for the first time during a school trip. But at the military checkpoint, he is denied entry and sent home. Determined, Khaled sneaks into Israel and embarks on a journey to the sea. When his father, an undocumented laborer working in Israel, learns that his son is missing, he risks everything to search for Khaled.

I Cried in Gaza
2025 | 55 minutes | Documentary
International Premiere
Director: Nurit Kedar

After October 7, Israeli women were recruited for active combat for the first time since 1948. According to Israel’s Rehabilitation Department of the Ministry of Defense, 5,000 women combat soldiers have undergone mental health treatment. The film shares the experiences, memories, and post-traumatic stress of women warriors who fought in Gaza and Lebanon.

Rabbi Capoeira
2024 | 69 minutes | Documentary
New York Premiere
Director: Barak Heymann

How does a shy ultra-Orthodox guy become a world master in capoeira? And how does the ultra-Orthodox community of his city, Bnei Brak, react to the revolution he’s determined to bring about? Rabbi Capoeira follows Miki Hayat’s five-year Sisyphean journey to connect spirit and body, bridging fears and dreams.

There Is Another Way
2025 | 67 minutes | Documentary
Director: Stephen Apkon

Amid the escalating conflict, two-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee “Combatants for Peace,” a group of former enemy combatants, Israeli and Palestinian, works together to find common ground and shape a more hopeful future. This film asserts an alternative to war and that another path is possible for humanity.

The Smugglers
2025 | 86 minutes | Documentary
World Premiere
Director: Tony Copti, Yaniv Berman

In the heart of Jaffa’s old city, a rare Arabic bookshop café is dedicated to preserving its language and literature. As the bookstore faces closure, owner Michel George El-Raheb and his nephew journey across the Middle East, with a mission: to launch a public Arabic book festival in Jaffa, designed to spark a cultural revival.

Holding Liat
2025 | 97 minutes | Documentary
Director: Brandon Kramer

On October 7, 2023, Israeli-American Liat Atzili and her husband, Aviv, were kidnapped during Hamas’ attack and taken hostage in Gaza along with 250 other people—12 of whom, like Liat, are American citizens. Caught between international diplomacy and a rapidly escalating war, their family must face their own uncertainty and conflicting perspectives in the pursuit of Liat and Aviv’s release. 

Eid
2024 | 90 minutes | Narrative
New York Premiere
Director: Yousef Abo Madegem

Eid, a young man from Rahat, dreams of becoming a playwright. When his parents arrange a marriage for him against his will, his life takes an unexpected turn. Trapped between tradition and his own desires, he fights for his freedom and dreams within Bedouin society while grappling with his childhood trauma.

Starring Shadi Mar’i (“Fauda”, “Our Boys”), who won an Israeli Academy Award for his role, this is the first feature film directed by a Bedouin filmmaker.

The Village Leagues
2024 | 60 minutes | Documentary
International Premiere
Director: Tal Michael, David Ofek

It was Israel’s great political experiment in the West Bank and Gaza before the intifada. Tahsin Mansour, once mayor of the Palestinian village of Azzoun, now lives isolated by war and a roadblock that turned his home into an enclave. Reflecting on his role in the Village Leagues—an Israeli-backed attempt at Palestinian-Israeli peace—he recalls both the promise of diplomacy and the devastating backlash, as members were denounced as traitors and persecuted.

Open Wound
2024 | 51 minutes | Documentary
North American Premiere
Director: Yousef Abo Madegem, Ofir Trainin

The identity crisis of the Bedouins in the Negev has only intensified since October 7, as they are torn between Palestinian roots, family in Gaza, and their Israeli citizenship. The stories of five people, each dealing with the crisis in their own way, reveal the complexities and internal conflicts as they cope with a changing reality.

Closing Night: Bella [Director's Presentation]
2025 | 75 minutes | Narrative
Director: Jamal Khalaily, Zohar Shachar

When Yaki’s sole inheritance, an extremely valuable dove, is taken by his childhood friend, he embarks on a wild road trip across Israel and Palestine. What follows is a series of comical misadventures—navigating checkpoints, ruining a wedding, and even car theft—all in a desperate race to get the dove to a beauty pageant in Jerusalem.