ENCINO, Calif. -- For three weeks, Israeli filmmakers have showcased their works in and around Los Angeles. The 29th annual Israel Film Festival wraps up this week.
Organizers of the annual event are happy with this year's turnout. Meir Fenigstein, founder and executive director of IsraFest Foundation, Inc., says the films on display in Hollywood's backyard featured young filmmakers.
"Almost, I can say, 29 years, we never had so many first-time filmmakers making their first feature film," he said. "And that's very interesting because you feel that it is a new upcoming industry, a new wave of younger filmmakers."
Fenigstein says the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was the dominant theme in past years, but today's films deal with Israeli culture and tell stories.
And while the films about faith are growing in the U.S., they're not so popular in Israel, the cradle of both Judaism and Christianity. In the future, organizers hope to include more films about faith.
"You don't see many films about faith -- very few. I don't know why. Maybe the Israelis are not very religious -- at least the filmmakers. So this is not such a topic they are interested in," he said.
But that may change. Fenigstein is already planning for next year's festival, the 30th anniversary, and he hopes to include Christians.
"We want to be more connected to the Christian community," he said. "We're already there. And we want to do a really special event with the Christian community and to bring them in to see at least one right Israeli film -- that would be right for them to watch -- and to bring them to be close to Israel."
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