Yom Kippur services on TV

Cable station PAX TV will air Yom Kippur services that will feature celebrities including Jason Alexander, Larry King, Mary Hart and Leonard Maltin.

The services will be broadcast Saturday, Sept. 25, at 11 a.m. The prayers will be in English and Hebrew and will include footage from Jerusalem’s Western Wall for Yizkor. Also featured will be inspirational readings and poems, including one read by actor Theodore Bikel to commemorate the anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001.

‘Annie Hall’? ‘The Pianist’?

new york (jta) | The National Foundation for Jewish Culture launched a contest to select the top-10 American Jewish films.

Ballots for the competition, in which participants can select from over 125 films from “The Jazz Singer” to “The Frisco Kid” to “The Pianist,” can be found at www.jewishculture.org.

The winners will be announced at the fourth annual Jewish Image Awards in Film and Television on Oct. 11. Voting is open until Oct. 5.

Israeli films win awards at Venice

venice (jta) | A docudrama about sex slavery in Israel won a prize at the Venice Film Festival. Amos Gitai’s “Promised Land” won a prize Saturday, Sept.11, for promoting peace through cinema at the festival.

The film follows a group of European prostitutes who are smuggled into Israel from Egypt and endure abuse at the hands of their pimps and clients.

Another Israeli film, “Prendre Femme,” about a family gathering in which relatives try to calm a quarreling couple, won an audience award.