Israel is at home in New York. Or, at least, for the next two weeks, October 23 -- November 8, the duration of the 22nd Annual Israel Film Festival. Manhattan will enjoy Jewish culture and art on the big screen. And what a festival it is! The largest ever, this year’s Festival boasts thirty internationally acclaimed feature films, documentaries, and television dramas screening throughout the city: first at Clearview Cinemas, (62nd and Broadway) and then at Florence Gould Hall, in the French Institute (55th E 59th St).

The festival has already received overwhelming attendance at both its L.A. and Miami premiers, selling out even some of its New York screenings in anticipation. Although there are still tickets to be had; purchase them through the Clearview Cinema box office. New Yorkers are clearly excited about Israeli film.

Celebrated Israeli producer Katri Schory, honored with the 2007 IFF Cinematic Achievement Award for his work in renewing Israeli cinema, commented on the difference between Israeli and American films, saying that Israeli films are “mainly art house films -- heavily focused on dialogue, the relationship between individuals, and great acting.” Ironically, Schory clarified, due to the limited budgets, Israeli films are able to coalesce and the films are more sincere in their efforts and their stories than are many of the high-budget high-production American films.

Although, for the next two weeks, the Israel Film Festival is bringing many of Israel’s divergent and most exciting cinematic work to the United States, the market for Israeli films outside of Israel is almost non-existent. The New York festival itself will be screening nine US premiers and seventeen East Coast premiers, but after the festival concludes Netflix and our living room television sets will be the only US venues remaining for these films.

To many, this may appear a great loss, however, the modified scale of its audience does not bother much of the Israeli cinematic community. Jorge Gurvich, the Argentinean-Israeli director of Pesya’s Necklace, also screening at the Festival, is content to make his “small Israeli films,” commenting that his concern is Israeli-Jewish identity, so it is fitting that his audience is an Israeli-Jewish audience.

Israeli films do not have the budget of major US studios -- all of the films being independently produced and relying heavily on additional state funding to assist the efforts of private investors -- so there are few explosions, minimal car chases, and a premium placed on good work. Rather than the expensive special effects, which have seemingly come to dominate much of the current work produced in and released by US studios, the audience is reminded of the integrity and spirit of Israeli film production through the dramatic work of the film.

Although there were many Israelis in attendance at the inaugural screening of Ayelet Menahemi’s Noodles, there were plenty of good ole New Yorkers as well. And the non-Hebrew speaking audience received the film just as well as its Israeli counterparts.

In fact the audience was rapt: many of the New Yorkers finding the simple and honest delicacy of the film to be a welcome cinematic revision. And so, however foreign Israeli films might be, for the New Yorkers in attendance last night, the drift of guttural sound and desert scenery kept the audience entertained and the experience unique.