Jerusalem Post/Israel News/Israel Culture The international lineup, which includes feature films, documentaries, animated films, and experimental works, will be screened in the Jerusalem Cinematheque and at Lev Smadar.Follow us on GoogleThe Samurai and the Prisoner, the latest film by Japanese master Kiyoshi Kurosawa, will be shown in the festival. (photo credit: Courtesy of the Jerusalem Film Festival)ByHANNAH BROWNJUNE 24, 2026 15:36The Jerusalem Film Festival has announced the international program for its 43rd edition, which will run from July 9-19 and will feature some of the most talked-about films of the past year. These will include the winners of the Palme d’Or at Cannes and the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival, as well as top prize winners from other major festivals, including San Sebastián, Toronto, Tallinn, SXSW, Tribeca, and Rotterdam.The international lineup, which includes feature films, documentaries, animated films, and experimental works, will be screened in the four auditoriums of the Jerusalem Cinematheque and at Lev Smadar. The full program will be available on the festival website, and ticket sales will open on June 26.More than three-quarters of the international films on the program will be shown exclusively at the Jerusalem Film Festival, meaning that they do not yet have Israeli distributors and may not be shown again at theaters in Israel.The festival will also host more than 20 international guests, including directors, producers, and actors from around the world.Among the highlights of the international program is Fjord, directed by Cristian Mungiu, the Romanian filmmaker who made 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days. The film, which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes, stars Oscar nominees Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve, who also appear in the movie Sentimental Value, which is currently playing around Israel.Macedonian director Dina Duma's Skateboarding is Not for Girls won the Nora Ephron award at the Tribeca Festival. (credit: Courtesy of the Jerusalem Film Festival)Other Cannes prizewinners include Paweł Pawlikowski’s Fatherland, which was one of the winners of the Best Director Award; La Bola Negra, an epic drama produced by Pedro Almodóvar, which was the co-winner of the directing award for Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo; The Dreamed Adventure, which won the jury prize; and A Man of His Time, a drama about the Vichy Regime during World War II, which won the screenplay award.The lineup will also feature Paper Tiger, the new film by Jewish-American director James Gray, starring Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson, which was in the official competition at Cannes, and The Samurai and the Prisoner, the latest film by Japanese master Kiyoshi Kurosawa, which was also an official selection at Cannes.The Golden Bear winner from Berlin, Yellow Letters, directed by Ilker Çatak, whose film, The Teachers’ Lounge, was nominated for an Oscar, will be screened, as will A New Dawn, an anime film from the Berlin competition.Other titles will include Falling Hercules, which won both the debut film award and the international critics’ prize (FIPRESCI) at the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival and which stars Dar Salim of Game of Thrones; Barrio Triste, the debut feature by Stillz, best known as the music video director for Bad Bunny, from the Orizzonti program at Venice; and Skateboarding Is Not for Girls, which won the Nora Ephron Award at the Tribeca Festival. Israeli musician Noga Erez will be the subject of Noga, a documentary that was also shown at the Tribeca Festival.Documentary highlights include Robert Richardson: The White Devil, about the legendary cinematographer of Kill Bill, Platoon, and Shutter Island; Silent Flood, winner of the cinematography award at IDFA; and No Mercy, a documentary examining films made by women directors over the years, featuring Céline Sciamma, Catherine Breillat, Ana Lily Amirpour, Alice Diop, and others.Classics to be screened at the Jerusalem Film FestivalThe Classics section will include a tribute to Roberto Rossellini, the legendary neorealist director who made Open City, with the new documentary Roberto Rossellini: Living Without a Script, winner of the Donatello Award, alongside four of his films: India: Matri Bhumi, Germany Year Zero, Fear, and Journey to Italy, which starred Ingrid Bergman.The section will also feature new restorations of the classic 1957 Western 3:10 to Yuma, based on a novel by Elmore Leonard and starring Glenn Ford and Van Heflin; Andrzej Wajda’s Oscar-nominated The Promised Land, and the lost Soviet cult film Dead Mountaineer’s Hotel.The festival will open on July 9 at the Sultan’s Pool amphitheater, in front of an audience of about 6,000 spectators, with a screening of Moshe Rosenthal’s new film, Tell Me Everything, which had its world premiere at Sundance.As always, the Jerusalem Film Festival will offer audiences a first look at many of the most important Israeli movies of the year, alongside its extensive international lineup.The Jerusalem Film Festival was founded by Israel Prize laureate Lia van Leer, who also founded the Jerusalem Cinematheque, and it is considered Israel’s leading film festival. It is expected to attract about 70,000 moviegoers and guests from Israel and abroad. The festival director is Roni Mahadav-Levin, who is also the CEO of the Jerusalem Cinematheque, and the artistic director is Orr Sigoli.For more details, go to the festival website at https://jff.org.il/enFollow us on Google