The 31st Haifa International Film Festival will take place from September 26 to October 5 at the Haifa Cinematheque and other theaters around the city. This year, the event will host more than 80 distinguished filmmakers and film-industry professionals from around the world, and is expected to attract some 300,000 visitors, who will be able to choose from 280 screenings of new films from all over the world, including over 70 Israeli films.

Legendary documentary director Claude Lanzmann, best known for his Holocaust documentary Shoah, will be the festival's guest of honor and will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award. The award for Lanzmann, who is celebrating his 90th birthday this year, will also commemorate 70 years since the end of World War II and the liberation of the concentration camps.

A new digitally restored version of Shoah will be screened, along with several of Lanzmann's other films, among them Sobibor, Le Rapport Karski and The Last of the Unjust. Lanzmann will give a master class that will be open to the public, and will meet with documentary film students at the pitching event.

Iranian director Mohsen Makhmalbaf will be head of the jury for the Israeli Feature Film Competition. His latest film, the political satire The President, will be screened. In 2012, Makhmalbaf made the documentary The Gardener, about the Bahai Gardens in Haifa, and it will be shown as part of a retrospective of his films, among them A Moment of Innocence (1996) and The Cyclist (1987).

Among the guest directors: Peter Greenaway, the British director known for the films Nightwatching, 8 1/2 Women and The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover, will screen his latest film, Eisenstein at Guanajuato, at the festival. Italian actor/director/screenwriter Sergio Castelitto will present the latest film that he directed, No One Is Saved Alone. Also from Italy, director Luca Guadagnino will attend screenings of his latest movie, A Bigger Splash, which stars Tilda Swinton and Dakota Fanning. Sharunas Bartas, one of the most acclaimed Lithuanian directors, will present his latest film, Peace to Us in Our Dreams.

About the Festival

The Haifa International Film Festival was established in 1983 and was the first of its kind in Israel. In the spirit of the city of Haifa, home to one of Israel's most diverse populations, the festival promotes the values of pluralism, co-existence and peace. Over the last three decades, the Haifa Film Festival has gained global reknown, showcasing the latest award-winning films.