West Bloomfield, MI -- (ReleaseWire) -- 04/04/2016 --The Jewish Community Center of Metropolitan Detroit will host the 18th Annual Lenore Marwil Jewish Film Festival May 8-19, 2016. The Lenore Marwil Jewish Film Festival is one of the largest Jewish Film Festivals in the Midwest, offering a diverse cinema experience in its annual festival and throughout the year. It also provides a forum for discussion about films from around the world that illuminate Jewish issues and principles. The goal is to enhance a sense of community and inclusion for a broad range of audience members.

Eric Lumberg, film festival Chairperson, said that a committee viewed more than 250 films throughout the year and narrowed them down to fill 32 slots. Whether the film has an Israeli director or discusses Jewish history, movies are selected based on their connection to the Jewish community.

"With everything happening in the world and in our own community, this film festival will make you think, laugh and reflect on current and past events," said Lumberg. "We are happy to bring a platform for dialogue to the community knowing we can educate while making you smile and often forget reality while enjoying a movie."

Highlights of this year's festival:

In Search of Israeli Cuisine (Monday, May 9 at 8pm) Followed by a talk-back with Academy Award nominated filmmaker, Roger Sherman, featuring the cuisine of Chef Michael Solomonov and Zahav. In Search of Israeli Cuisine" tells the spicy, sweet and bold story of the Israeli people - through food! Profiling chefs, home cooks, farmers, vintners and cheese makers drawn from Israel's more than 100 cultures - Jewish, Arab, Muslim, Christian, Druze - a rich, complex and human story emerges. The guide for "In Search of Israeli Cuisine" is Michael Solomonov, the James Beard award-winning chef/ owner of Philadelphia's renowned Zahav restaurant and author of The New York Times bestseller Zahav: A World of Israeli Cuisine.

"My Italian Secret" tells the largely unknown story of Gino Bartali and other righteous men and women who carried out ingenious schemes to rescue Jewish citizens (more than 80% of whom survived), partisans and refugees from Nazi-occupied Italy. Bartali was a sports hero and two-time winner of the Tour de France. His most daring triumph came when he risked his life time and again to save Jews threatened by Nazi extermination. A religious Catholic and humble man from modest beginnings, Bartali never spoke about his wartime activities. It was only after his death that the truth of his actions was revealed. Following "My Italian Secret", a talkback with Academy Award nominated filmmaker Oren Jacoby an independent filmmaker and playwright whose work has been nominated for an Academy Award and recognized by the American Film Institute, the Sundance Institute, the Tribeca Institute and the Alfred I. DuPont/Columbia Awards.

Based on a true story, "Once in a Lifetime" is the story of Anne, a dedicated history teacher at a French high school who is determined to give the best education possible to her underprivileged inner-city pupils. Overcoming the teens' apathy proves to be more difficult than Anne expected. Frustrated but undaunted, she tests her multicultural classroom with a surprising assignment: a national competition on the theme of child victims of the Nazi concentration camps. Initially, the students meet the project with resistance. Then a guest – a Holocaust survivor – comes to speak to the class. Despite their long-shot odds of winning the contest, these once-rebellious teens soon begin to see one another – and themselves – in a new light.

"Chagall-Malevich" is a magical period drama focusing on two great creative and artistic geniuses: Marc Chagall and Kazimir Malevich, a pioneer of geometric abstract art. Inspired by the memoirs of Marc Chagall and his contemporaries, the film combines fact and fantasy as it imagines Chagall's return to his childhood home in Vitebsk and to his love, Bella. At the same time, the artist faces a professional rivalry with abstract painter Kazimir Malevich. And around all of them the world begins to spin as the October Revolution sweeps across Russia. Links to all of this year's Festival Films.

The festival is celebrating its 18th year, which is a special number in the Jewish culture because it means life. In the 18 years of this festival the films brings out all people not just a Jewish audience. So this year our cover of the brochure shows the Spirit of Detroit and we are excited to celebrate 18 years or chai, in Hebrew. It only fits that so many of our films celebrate Jewish life from different times, cultures and locations.

Below are the trailers to all the movies in the film festival for 2016.

Apples from the Desert | Belle and Sebastian | A Borrowed Identity | Bulgarian Rhapsody | Café Nagler | Chagall-Malevich | Deli Man | Dough | The Farewell Party | Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem | Imber's Left Hand | In Search of Israeli Cuisine (Patron Night) | The Kind Words | The Last Mentsch | Manpower | The Midnight Orchestra | Morgenthau | Mr. Kaplan | My Italian Secret: The Forgotten Heroes | Once in a Lifetime | Phoenix | The Polgár Variant | The Prime Ministers: Soldiers and Peacemakers | Rabin in His Own Words | Raise the Roof | Rock in the Red Zone |Sabena Hijacking - My Version | 10% My Child | To Life! | Tuviansky

Tickets can be purchase through The Berman Ticket Office: 248-661-1900 (Monday-Friday: 10 a.m.-4 p.m.) or online at http://www.jccdet.org. Individual Tickets $12, Matinee Pass: good for five screenings of 2 p.m. shows (JCC Member: $40 | Non-Member: $45) Patron Pass: includes two tickets to every film plus the patron night reception on Monday, May 9.

18TH ANNUAL LENORE MARWIL JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL takes place at The Berman Center for the Performing Arts on the campus of The D. Dan & Betty Kahn Building, Eugene & Marcia Applebaum, Jewish Community Campus, 6600 W. Maple Rd., West Bloomfield, MI 48322