The 35th ISRAEL FILM FESTIVAL in Los Angeles, the largest showcase of Israeli film and television in North America, will honor an acclaimed actor/director/producer/author Henry Winkler with the IFF Career Achievement Award 2022 and real estate/philanthropist David Wiener with the 2022 IFF Humanitarian Award on April 29 at the annual Festival Sponsors Luncheon at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills. The event serves as a launch for this year’s Festival which will take place May 5-26 in person and online, announced Meir Fenigstein, founder and executive director of the Israel Film Festival.
The opening night gala for the Los Angeles premiere of Avi Nesher’s Image of Victory, nominated for 15 Ophir Israeli Academy Awards, will take place at the Saban Theater on May 5 in Beverly Hills to coincide with the day of Israel’s independence. That evening, the film’s producer Ehud Bleiberg will receive the 2022 IFF Cinematic Achievement Award.
Image of Victory is considered Israel’s highest budget film to date. Inspired by true events in 1948. Hassanin, an Egyptian filmmaker, is tasked with documenting a raid on the isolated Kibbutz Nitzanim. When the kibbutz learns of an impending military raid, Mira, a young but valiant mother, is forced to consider the true cost of war and make an impossible choice.
“Henry Winkler is an exceptional entertainer who has used his talents in front of and behind the camera to entertain audiences around the world. His life and work are a benchmark for others to aspire to for a career,” noted Fenigstein.David WienerThe international philanthropic efforts of and support for the State of Israel are unparalleled while Ehud Bleiberg has created an indelible mark as one of Israel’s finest and most prolific producers. The sponsors of the Israel Film Festival, who are at the very heart of supporting the Festival, are delighted to recognize these outstanding gentlemen.”
For more than four decades, viewers and moviegoers have enjoyed Winkler’s work since his iconic role as Arthur Fonzarelli, aka “The Fonz,” on the television series. Happy Days for drama teacher Gene Cousineau on current hit black comedy TV show barry. During his 10 years on the popular 1970s sitcom, he won two Golden Globe Awards, was nominated for an Emmy Award three times, and was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2018, he won his first Primetime Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy and the Television Critics Choice Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series, as well as Golden Globe and SAG Award nominations for the series. HBO. He was again nominated for an Emmy in 2019.
Other acclaimed performances include roles in beloved and critically acclaimed shows such as Arrested Development, Childrens Hospital and Parks & Recreation to film roles in Nightshift and The Waterboy to The French Dispatch of the Year last.
His first book, Niagara Falls or Does It? Hank Zipzer, the world’s biggest underachiever, became a New York Times bestseller. and became a series of 28 novels that have been published worldwide in nine languages, with over 5 million copies sold. To date, he and his co-author, Lin Oliver, have written 37 children’s novels. Their new trilogy, Alien Superstar, instantly became a New York Times bestseller.
He recently wrapped filming for the lead role in the Israeli-American crossover comedy Chanshi for the Israeli network HOT. A father of three and grandfather of six, Winkler and his wife reside in Los Angeles.
Real estate investor and philanthropist David Wiener was born in Lodz, Poland, the second youngest of nine children of Moshe Chaim and Chana Wiener. In 1939 Nazi Germany invaded Poland. In November, the German army burned down the main synagogue, which dealt a devastating blow to the Wiener family and David never saw his parents again. He miraculously survived several Nazi concentration camps, including Auschwitz-Birkenau. After the liberation, he discovered that only one brother had survived. Wiener rebuilt his life in the United States and became a real estate investor and philanthropist, developing over 1,000,000 square feet of shopping malls and multi-family projects. He has been a mainstay of the Israel Film Festival for more than two decades.
Ehud Bleiberg has produced over 50 films over the past three decades, including Image of Victory. He has worked alongside a long list of Hollywood stars such as winona ryder, Jeff Goldblum, Willem Dafoe, Liam Neeson and Whoopi Goldberg, to name a few. In 2007, he produced The Band’s Visit, an award-winning international hit that won more than 40 awards, including the Coup de Coeur at the Cannes Film Festival, and which was recently adapted into a hit Broadway musical. In 2018, the documentary Foreign Land, produced by Bleiberg, received the Israeli Academy’s Ophir Award for Best Documentary. He lives between Hollywood and Israel.
This year, the 35th ISRAEL FILM FESTIVAL www.israelfilmfestival.com will be both in person and online May 5-26. All cinema tickets will be available for sale on the Festival website from April 20. Festival screenings will take place at the Music Hall Theater at Lumiere Cinema (Beverly Hills) and Laemmle Town Center 5 (Encino). Connect with the 35th Israeli Film Festival on Facebook (The Israel Film Festival), Instagram @IsraelFilmFestival and Twitter @IsraelFilmFest for festival news and highlights, and join the conversation with #IsraelFilmFestival.
The Israel Film Festival’s mission is to showcase Israel as a vibrant and innovative nation, as well as highlight its thriving film and television industry and enrich the American experience of Israel’s social and cultural diversity. . As an international entertainment industry event, the festival brought acclaim to both the films and the participants and opened up new possibilities for cooperation and co-production between the American and Israeli film and television industries.
Each year, the festival explores Israeli society by premiering Israeli feature films, documentaries and TV series, and through conversations with visiting Israeli filmmakers. Since its inception thirty-five years ago, the festival has created an exciting and artistic platform to engage diverse audiences in the richness of Israeli life and culture. The Festival Co-Chairs are Michelle Sobrino-Stearns, CEO, Variety and Stacey Farish, President, Deadline. The honorary president of the Festival is Arnon Milchan, New Regency Productions.
For nearly four decades, the Festival has presented more than 1,100 feature films, documentaries, TV series and shorts to nearly one million viewers, and brought hundreds of Israeli filmmakers to the United States to share their art.
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