Yeshiva University will present “A Lens on Israel: A Society through its Cinema,” the Ring Family Film Festival, from Feb. 14 to 23. The four-part event will be supplemented by lectures, workshops, and open forums with leading Israeli actors, writers, producers, and directors. Capping the event is the Feb. 16 screening of “Footnote” — the Oscar-nominated Joseph Cedar film that won “Best Screenplay” at Cannes, and “Best Picture” at the Israeli Ophir Awards. It is among the five contenders for “Best Foreign Language Film” at this year’s Academy Awards. Following the screening, Cedar and actor Lior Ashkenazi will take questions from the audience.

The free festival opens on Feb. 14 with the screening of the internationally acclaimed drama, “Restoration.” The 2008 film “For My Father” will be shown on Feb. 15, and the festival concludes with “Three Mothers” on Feb. 23. Visit www.yu.edu/film-festival.

Nobody knew that when Ma’aleh School of Television, Film and the Arts student Pazit Lichtman was working on her 2007 film “Willingly” about a religious couple getting divorced, she herself was struggling to keep her marriage, just a year old, from breaking apart.

The film’s Hebrew title, “Harei aht,” “behold, you are,” begin the sentences a Jewish man says to his wife under the chuppah at the time of their marriage and before the Rabbinical Court when presenting her with a divorce. Both acts must be done out of each party’s own free will; hence, the English title “Willingly.”

LOS ANGELES – Joseph Cedar is on a pretty good run: The Israeli director has made four movies in his 11-year career, and the first three have represented his country at the Academy Awards for best foreign-language film.

Before this week began, one made the cut of five finalists, but a Cedar film has yet to capture a golden statuette. In fact, no Israeli film has ever won an Oscar.

Cedar and many of his countrymen are hoping that will change with his fourth entry, “Footnote,” which was among the five Best Foreign Language Film nominees announced on Tuesday in advance of the 84th Annual Academy Awards.

To mark U.N. Holocaust Remembrance Day, the Kaplen JCC on the Palisades in Tenafly hosts the New Jersey screening premiere of “Carrying the Light,” a new film directed by Guy Natanel, on Thursday, Jan. 26 at 8 p.m. In 2010, Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg of the London Masorti community left his home in Finchley to embark on a symbolic and spiritual journey, traveling from Germany to England on foot with his dog. The unconventional rabbi reflects on Jewish and humanistic values in the 21st century. Sponsored by the Martin Perlman & Jo-Ann Hassan Holocaust Education Institute Endowment Fund. (201) 408-1458 or www.jccotp.org.

It is time again to bundle up and go out to explore the world of Jewish cinema. The New York Jewish Film Festival is now under way at Lincoln Center. This year, it offers 35 films from 11 countries, many never again
to be seen in our area. The festival continues through Jan. 26.

Over the years, most audiences have been more interested in the narrative films that have been the hallmark of this festival, as have I. Of late, however, we are seeing more — and better — Jewish film documentaries. This year, I am more impressed by them than the fiction films. Most are significant and worthy of consideration.

Of course, a documentary film may not draw a viewer in the way a “regular” theatrical work will do. There are no known actors, no magnificent sunsets, no plot twists, no dramatic climaxes, no surprise endings. Nevertheless, these films are worth seeing.