Haifa International Film Festival brings celebrated cinema and classics to the Carmel

The 42nd Haifa International Film Festival runs from September 25 to October 3, 2026, on Mount Carmel, opening with Avi Nesher's 'Our Loves.' The lineup includes Danny Boyle's 'Ink,' Olivier Assayas's 'The Wizard of the Kremlin,' and Andrey Zvyagintsev's 'Minotaur.' Israeli cinema features Marco Carmel's 'Double Panther' and Tomer Heymann's documentary. A retrospective of Japanese classics is also planned. Nesher receives a Lifetime Achievement Award at the opening ceremony hosted by Lior Ashkenazi. The festival adds an extra day due to high demand.

The 42nd Haifa International Film Festival will take place from September 25 to October 3, 2026, on Mount Carmel, with an extra day added due to demand. The festival opens with the Israeli premiere of Avi Nesher's 'Our Loves,' which received a warm reception at the Toronto International Film Festival. Nesher will also receive a Lifetime Achievement Award at the opening-night ceremony hosted by Lior Ashkenazi. The international program is notably strong, featuring Danny Boyle's 'Ink,' a drama about Rupert Murdoch's transformation of the Sun newspaper in 1969, starring Guy Pearce; Olivier Assayas's 'The Wizard of the Kremlin,' with Paul Dano as a political strategist for Vladimir Putin, played by Jude Law; and Andrey Zvyagintsev's 'Minotaur,' which won the Grand Prix at Cannes and follows a Russian businessman whose life collapses in 2022. The Israeli Cinema section includes Marco Carmel's 'Double Panther,' based on the true story of a criminal recruited to infiltrate the Israeli Black Panthers, and Tomer Heymann's documentary 'I Want to Tell My Story,' in which a Holocaust survivor reconstructs his life on a studio set. Other highlights include Pierre Salvadori's romantic comedy 'The Electric Kiss,' a biopic about Milton Hershey, and documentaries such as 'Peace 2030' and 'To Kill a Nazi.'