When the Jerusalem Film Festival opens on July 9, it will welcome more than 25 international guests and some 6,000 moviegoers to the second-largest film festival opening night in the world (surpassed only by Locarno, Switzerland), at the Sultan’s Pool, an outdoor venue in the heart of the capital.

But Roni Mahadav-Levin, manager of the Jerusalem Cinematheque and executive director of the festival, has more on his mind than attendance, ahead of this year’s event — which will feature roughly 200 films before it wraps up on July 19.

“Three months ago, we were in the middle of a war,” said Mahadav-Levin, referring to the latest conflict with Iran, in which hostilities raged from late February to early April.

Still, said Mahadav-Levin, this was better than last year, when a 12-day war with Iran broke out on June 13, just weeks before the festival was set to begin, forcing last-minute changes and cancellations.

“At least this year it happened three months before the festival and not the month before,” he said.

Festival planners were in the midst of inviting guests when the country’s airspace temporarily closed and most foreign carriers halted service due to ongoing missile strikes from Iran.

“It’s not simple,” said Mahadav-Levin, who has been managing the festival for the last five years. “You have to take extra steps and speak to each guest or the filmmaker to calm and convince them, and it’s another part of the process.”

Perhaps surprisingly, there were fewer rejections by potential guests this year than in previous years, said Mahadav-Levin.

“It could be because of the total mayhem in the world, or that people look at what’s happening in the US and ICE [US Immigration and Customs Enforcement] and say, ‘If we boycott the Jerusalem Film Festival, what are we going to be left with?'” he said. “We’ve been around for 43 years; we have long connections, and people may not support Israel, but still want to show their film here.”

Despite the dismal geopolitical situation,........

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