Footnote

In his second Academy Award® nomination for Best Foreign Language Film (Beaufort, 2007, Footnote, 2011) and the 2011 Cannes Film Festival Best Screenplay award winner, director screenwriter Joseph Cedar focuses on the tense father-son relationship of two Talmudic scholars whose academic achievements are disparately recognized by the professional community. Their relationship is tested when one of them is informed to be the winner of the coveted Israel Prize, the most prestigious national award for Science and Research.

Suspended between an intellectual thriller and tragicomedy, this original theme centers around the ambivalent portrayal of the professors' perspectives and the question of what is more important than the truth. This compelling feature is riddled with intertwined plots and ironies arising from the father-son academic and personal rivalry, artfully portrayed by veteran comic Shlomo Bar-Aba as the father Eliezer Shkolnik, and Lior Ashkenazi, as the son Uriel Shkolnik.

While skillfully interjecting dark humor, Footnote excels in its stylistic details. Starting with a short bullet-point narration, the feature gradually draws-in the viewer and, with Amit Poznansky soundtrack, increases the palpable suspense.

Big Miracle

Based on on real events and journalist Thomas Rose's book Freeing the Whales, director Ken Kwapis brings to the big screen this heartwarming rescue adventure. The events, involving three California gray whales trapped in the Arctic Circle ice off, near the coast of Barrow, Alaska, captured international interest in 1988, during the Cold War era.

United in their common mission to rescue the whales, an oil tycoon, environmentalists, Inuit Alaskan hunters, politicians and the media, set aside their differences to cover diverse aspects of the rescue.

Strong cast and convincing performances mark the feature including Drew Barrymore as the outspoken environmentalist Rachel Kramer, John Krasinski as journalist Adam Carlson, Ahmaogak Sweeney as Nathan the 11-year old native Alaskan boy Adam, Kristen Bell as Jill Jerard, an ambitious young journalist looking for her big break in network news, and Ted Danson, as oil tycoon J.W. McGraw.

With Cara Silverman's editing, Kwapis brings strength to the story by smoothly pacing the drama with humor and humanity while realistically blending in archival news footage of Tom Brokaw, Dan Rather, and Peter Jennings.

Emotionally engaging, this feel good movie, is enjoyable by the entire family.