Cinemascope’s Yair Raveh wrote today “that two Israeli films — both feature-length debuts for their directors — will be shown at The Telluride Film Festival before heading on to Toronto. The two are Eran Kolirin‘s The Band’s Visit (which I heard excellent things about at Cannes last May) and Etgar Keret and Shira Gefen‘s Jellyfish.

A still from Eran Kolirin’s The Band’s Visit, an early ’08 Sony Classics release

“The latter won the Camera D’or at Cannes and will be released in the States by Zeitgeist in March 2008. The Band’s Visit won the Fipresci prize in Cannes and Best Feature in Munich, and was picked up by Sony Pictures Classics for an early 2008 U.S. release.
“Both films, alongside Josef Cedar’s oustanding Beaufort (Silver Bear winner in Berlin for Best Director) are battling it out right now here in Israel for the chance to be Israel’s entry to the Foreign Language Oscar, in what is clearly the best year ever — artistically and commercially — for Israeli movies.”