Haifa 42nd International Film Festival

When three fathers chaperone their teenage daughters on a rowdy school trip to a remote island, tensions quickly escalate and their grip on the situation begins to slip. As buried memories resurface, games turn into power struggles – and power into violence. Soon no one can tell who is in charge and who is in danger.The feature debut of Alex Schulman, one of Sweden's best-known authors, is darkly entertaining and emotionally honest, with slow-building tension. The film brings together three prominent Scandinavian actors against the stunning backdrop of the Swedish archipelago.Feature Debut*Dear customers, when buying a multiple number of tickets you are advised to check our "Tickets and Sales" page for the most cost-effective options.Take notice: The multiple-entry ticket must be purchased before the individual movie tickets. 

Belgium, 1999. Tech visionaries Luc and Geert realize they only have 24 hours of freedom left, as their structure of fake companies, unchecked innovation and political corruptions is about to be exposed in the international press. This exposure forces a reckoning far beyond their personal story and the close-knit community that invested heavily in their promises, shedding light on the systems that enabled their rise and now will let them take the fall.Dust comes to Haifa from the competition in Berlinale. The biting screenplay makes a timely argument against the voracious corporate culture, that may be the real villain of the story.Filmography: The Best of Dorien B. (2019).*Dear customers, when buying a multiple number of tickets you are advised to check our "Tickets and Sales" page for the most cost-effective options.Take notice: The multiple-entry ticket must be purchased before the individual movie tickets. 

Armony, a 55-year-old solitary truck driver, finds himself taking care of his six-year-old niece, Carlotta, after the disappearance of his sister. By his side are Pamela, an elderly transgender woman, and Jenny, a neighbor who is expecting a baby. When social services threaten to take the child away, Armony is forced to fight with all his strength to obtain legal guardianship.Armony, coming to the festival following its world premiere in Locarno, follows a solitary man on an unexpected journey to parenthood, exploring the essence of family – even an unconventional one built on love.Filmography: Anima bella (2021), Manuel (2017), La repubblica dei ragazzi (2015).*Dear customers, when buying a multiple number of tickets you are advised to check our "Tickets and Sales" page for the most cost-effective options.Take notice: The multiple-entry ticket must be purchased before the individual movie tickets. 

For 14 years, Erika has been the anchor of a household that rarely stands still, doing her best to raise her teenage daughter, Abigail, her whirlwind younger son, Yoni, and a dog with an extreme devotion to cheese. When Abi's desire to meet her absent father grows into a full-blown obsession and word spreads that he's been seen nearby, Erika fears the fragile balance will collapse for good. Instead, the unpredictable journey that follows leads mother and daughter to see each other anew, steering their lively, lovable family toward a happy new chapter.Hafzia Herzi stars in an energetic, lighthearted French family drama that comes to the festival following its premiere at Cannes.Filmography: The New Kid (2015).*Dear customers, when buying a multiple number of tickets you are advised to check our "Tickets and Sales" page for the most cost-effective options.Take notice: The multiple-entry ticket must be purchased before the individual movie tickets. 

Steeped in the words of Victor Hugo, the actor Robert Zucchini searches for his place between the stage and real life. Every evening, he fills theaters by sharing his love of language. Until the day his daughter, whom he never saw grow up, reappears... What if, for once, loving were better than admiring?Veteran French filmmaker Pascal Bonitzer pays tribute to two French cultural legends: Victor Hugo and the director's late wife, Sophie Fillières, who wrote the screenplay. Fillières died in 2023, and Bonitzer lovingly brings her characteristically sly, emotionally complex final script to the screen, with a towering performance by Fabrice Luchini in the lead.Filmography: Auction (2024), The Great Alibi (2008), Nothing About Robert (1999). *Dear customers, when buying a multiple number of tickets you are advised to check our "Tickets and Sales" page for the most cost-effective options.Take notice: The multiple-entry ticket must be purchased before the individual movie...

Ainara, an idealistic and brilliant 17-year-old, has to decide what university degree to pursue - or at least that's what her family hopes she will do. However, the young woman says feels increasingly drawn to God and is considering becoming a cloistered nun. The news takes her entire family by surprise, creating a rift and putting everyone to the test.Winner of the Best Film Award at the 2025 San Sebastián Festival and five major Goya Awards, Sundays is a spellbinding tale about the fragile balance between faith and skepticism from rising Spanish writer-director Alaúda Ruiz de Azúa.Filmography: Love at First Kiss (2023), Lullaby (2022)*Dear customers, when buying a multiple number of tickets you are advised to check our "Tickets and Sales" page for the most cost-effective options.Take notice: The multiple-entry ticket must be purchased before the individual movie tickets. 

In search of inspiration for her new novel, Sylvie spies on her neighbors across the street. When she hires young Adam to help her with her daily routine, she has no idea that he will turn her life and her work upside down, until the fiction she had imagined surpasses the reality of them all.Asghar Farhadi delivers a layered, complex drama about a writer who uses surveillance for inspiration, with an extraordinary ensemble cast led by Isabelle Huppert, Vincent Cassel, and Catherine Deneuve. Loosely inspired by Krzysztof Kieślowski's A Short Film About Love, the film evokes the suspense of Alfred Hitchcock and the psychological layering of Francis Ford Coppola.Filmography: A Hero (2021), Everybody Knows (2018), The Salesman (2016), A Separation (2011).*Dear customers, when buying a multiple number of tickets you are advised to check our "Tickets and Sales" page for the most cost-effective options.Take notice: The multiple-entry ticket must be purchased before the individual movie...

Nore, a free-spirited femme fatale, moves in with her former classmate Jonna, a serious medical student. As they drift through carefree one-night stands with disposable men, they are forced to confront Nore's deeply troubled past, which becomes an obstacle to happiness.Hille Norden: "I wanted to make a movie about the long-term consequences of sexual violence that helps us understand and heal. Because even though many of us have experienced sexual violence and the topic is present, I felt that we barely understand it in depth."In her debut film, director Hille Norden dares to ask what it means to refuse to be afraid, to reject the victim LABEL, and to search for freedom while inhabiting a body that is both powerful and vulnerable, desired and endangered.  Feature DebutScreening on September 29, attended by the director.*Dear customers, when buying a multiple number of tickets you are advised to check our "Tickets and Sales" page for the most cost-effective options.Take...

1840, Seville, a pulsating town of sailors and small-time crooks. Young Salvador, assistant to the gifted knife grinder Antonio, encounters the captivating gypsy girl Carmen. Her rapturous beauty and independent spirit set the town abuzz, but Antonio's mystical ability to glimpse the future in sharpened blades foretells a tragic fate for Carmen at the hands of the soldier José. With unwavering resolve, Salvador musters an eclectic band of misfit street kids, led by the spirited Belén, to challenge the unyielding threads of destiny and protect Carmen from inevitable doom.French director Sébastien Laudenbach's animated feature Viva Carmen is based on Georges Bizet's frequently adapted 1875 opera Carmen, with a particular focus on the children of the story.Filmography: Chicken for Linda! (2023), The Girl Without Hands (2016).*Dear customers, when buying a multiple number of tickets you are advised to check our "Tickets and Sales" page for the most cost-effective...

Set in 1956, Hallo Betty follows Emmi Creola, a talented copywriter who defies a male-dominated workplace by inventing “Betty Bossi”, a fictional housewife who becomes Switzerland's culinary icon. As Betty's popularity skyrockets, Emmi is thrust into the spotlight and struggles to balance the expectations of her public persona with her role as a wife, mother, and professional. A warm and humorous portrait of the 1950s, Hallo Betty explores female ambition, identity, and the timeless tension between public image and private life.Filmography: Bisons (2024), Needle Park Baby (2020), Recycling Lily (2013). Screening and Culinary Event on September 27Following the screening, a discussion moderated by Hila Alpert, followed by a tasting meal.“Lemon Peel”For many years, women carried the DNA of their families in their cooking pots. Home kitchens were bubbling explorations of family roots, rich with taste and aroma—a source of family strength that wome...

The second part of Antonin Baudry's two-part series devoted to the figure of the General follows De Gaulle in his quest for freedom and sovereignty for France.Liberté follows a series of parallel struggles, all aimed at establishing Free France – against the German enemy, of course, but also against the American Allies. It is January 1943, and preparations are underway for the Casablanca Conference, which could well seal the fate of a France placed under Anglo-Saxon control. But de Gaulle (Simon Abkarian) believes in a free and sovereign France, and he is prepared to pursue this seemingly fanciful hope by confronting, on Moroccan soil, both General Giraud (Thierry Lhermitte), a leader backed by the United States who has no qualms about working with the Vichy regime, and President Roosevelt (Campbell Scott), who has a firm vision of a Europe with redrawn borders.Filmography: The Wolf's Call (2019).The film is included in a double-feature ticket with the film “De...

Corinne Maclou is a background actor. She dreams of one day becoming more than an extra and remains confident that her breakthrough is just around the corner. When she meets the famous actress Sandrine Kiberlain and the two become friends, Corinne hopes to achieve her goal. But will she be welcomed into the respectable family of French cinema?The new film from writer-director Marc Fitoussi (Paris Follies, 2014 Haifa IFF) is a delectable comedy. "To tell the story of an invisible actress through Isabelle, who is among the most familiar of faces – that is this film's challenge and its amusing paradox," says Fitoussi.Filmography: Paris Follies (2014), Copacabana (2010), La vie d'artiste (2007). *Dear customers, when buying a multiple number of tickets you are advised to check our "Tickets and Sales" page for the most cost-effective options.Take notice: The multiple-entry ticket must be purchased before the individual movie tickets. 

The film follows 12-year-old Toma, expelled from school after being bullied. When he returns home, he finds his father Nemo, absent since Toma was two, waiting to take him to their ancestral village in the Caucasus mountains. Recently released from prison, Nemo is not welcome by the locals. But he is determined to pass down the ancient tradition of deer hunting to the boy. Over the course of this fateful weekend, Toma confronts the wilderness, a pack of wolves, his father’s shadowy past and his own fears.Filmmaker George Ovashvili blends memory and myth with stories from his childhood to explore the father-son bond. The title comes from an old Georgian poem that refers to the moon as a father, a metaphor that shapes the film’s tone.Filmography: Khibula (2017), Corn Island (2014), The Other Bank (2009).Screening on September 26th, attended by the director, followed by a toast.A taste of Georgia before the film: A toast featuring fine Georgian wine will take place in the...