The annual AICE Israeli Film Festival celebrates its sixth edition. It has firmly established itself in Australia as a key cultural event.

Israeli films' success at the home box-office as well as the international film festival circuit continues. We open this year's festival with Lost Islands, the most successful local film in 2008 with 200,000 tickets sold. Written and directed by Reshef Levy, it is based loosely on his own family life story and is full of drama, comedy and pathos. Seven Days opened Critics Week in Cannes, with a cast that reads like a whose who of Israeli film. Eitan Green's It All Begins At Sea collected awards in Montreal and Houston.

Many films included in the program are by first or second time directors – Omri Givon's 7 Minutes In Heaven gained best film at Haifa. Ori Ravid secured Lior Ashkenazi and Tzachi Grad for his film Eli and Ben, Zrubavel is the first feature-length drama created by Ethiopian-Israeli filmmakers and Bruria is veteran documentary film-maker Avraham Kushnir's debut feature. Following this theme, we have included a program of three award-winning short films by graduates of the acclaimed Ma'ale Film School – representing the voices of the future.

From the Russian of Yiddishe Mama to the Moroccan of Nine Years Later, from the international campaigning of Chronicle of a Kidnap to the iconic images in Eye Witness, the selection of documentaries is diverse in subject matter, location and language and complements the feature film program.

Opportunities to see Israeli film in Australia are increasing. This festival is key, but the last 12 months have seen a significant increase in commercially released films. It bodes well for the future.