Long Island's 2012 Gold Coast International Film Festival Presents Jewish and Israeli Themed Program, 10/22-28

The Second AnnuAl Gold Coast International Film Festival presented by the Great Neck Arts Center, with the Town of North Hempstead as Founding Sponsor, will present three new films telling captivating stories with Jewish themes come to Long Island audiences before their national release to American audiences.

The hit of Sundance and the New York Jewish Film Festival, and nominated for 11 Israeli Academy Awards, RESTORATION by Israeli director Yossi Madmoni, is about a 70-year old man who hangs on with all his might to the antique restoration workshop who finds an 1882 Steinway that might be restored to help save thestore.

A full-length animation feature film for grown-ups (it has some violence and graphic images), THE RABBI'S CAT, a delightful and quirky tale set in Algeria in the 1920s about a cat who learns how to speak after swallowing the family parrot, is directed by Joann Sfar and Antoine Delesvaux. Based on Sfar's renowned comics series with the same title, it won the best animation Cesar in France, and was a critical and popular triumph at its screening at the Museum of Modern Art in 2012.

Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Josh Aronson's ORCHESTRA OF EXILES starts in the early 1930s when Hitler began forcing Jewish musicians out of orchestras across central Europe, unwittingly presenting aunique opportunity for Bronislaw Huberman to fulfill his dream to create the Palestine Symphony. The film is an exciting and touching story that features a high Nazi official, Goebbels; renowned conductors, Furtwangler and Toscanini; a future head of state, Chaim Weizmann; and the families of victimized Jewishmusicians who made up the ranks of orchestras across central Europe - and even the most famous Jew in the world, an amateur violinist called Albert Einstein.

The Second AnnuAl Gold Coast International Film Festival presented by the Great Neck Arts Center, with the Town of North Hempstead as Founding Sponsor, runs Monday, October 22 through Sunday, October 28, 2012 in Long Island’s North Shore communities of Manhasset, Roslyn, Great Neck and Port Washington.

No film festival can do it by themselves, and we are delighted that among the wonderful sponsors of the 2012 Gold Coast International Film Festival are Town of North Hempstead, Jon Kaiman, Supervisor; Nassau County, Edward Mangano, County Executive; Great Neck Arts Center; Prudential Douglas Elliman; AMC Networks; Cablevision; Clearview Cinemas; NYIT; News 12 Long Island; Newsday; Deluxe; Panavision; Katten Muchin; and J.M. Kaplan Fund.

The Gold Coast International Film Festival celebrates the rich culture, history and talent of this fabled region. The “Gold Coast” was once a haven for New York’s elite such as the Pratts, Whitneys, Roosevelts, Fricks, Guests, DuPonts, J.P. Morgan, and Otto Kahn, and today their mansions exist as museums, historic spots and party spaces (which Gold Coast makes good use of). Great Neck (the hub of the Festival) was home to many celebrities including Groucho Marx, Joan Crawford, Paulette Goddard, Charlie Chaplin, W.C. Fields, George M. Cohan and other titans of the silver screen. Most apropos, F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote his most famous work The Great Gatsby here. Today’s Gold Coast remains a confluence of culture and class. Those influences from our past combined with the artistry, storytelling and technology of today’s world, enable the Gold Coast International Film Festival to thrive and soar and present our audiences with a fantastic and accessible festival experience. Everyone’s Invited!

For Tickets and Box-Office information for the Films, Programs, and Events of the 2012 Gold Coast International Film Festival, visit www.goldcoastfilmfestival.com or the Great Neck Arts Center, 113 Middle Neck Road, Great Neck, NY - 516-829-2570.

For more information, including enhanced film synopsis, times, dates, schedule, specific screening and events venues, and more, visit www.goldcoastfilmfestival.com.

Pictured: Still from RESTORATION.

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