Screenings & Events

Talk Amongst Yourselves: A Conversation with Aaron Davidman and Michael Krasny

JFI will host a screening of WRESTLING JERUSALEM followed by an onstage, live-streamed conversation with creator Aaron Davidman and KQED’s Michael Krasny. Tickets are available for the in-theater screening or tune in for free online at ovee.itvs.org

Talk Amongst Yourselves: A Conversation on Refugee Storytelling

You have minutes to flee your home. What do you take with you? Refugee storytellers explore their prized possessions in short films about narrow escapes and expansive dreams. The Jewish Film Institute convenes Jewish, Muslim and LGBT refugees for a live-streamed multimedia presentation.

Best of the Fest: Levinsky Park

Over the past five years, tens of thousands of refugees from sub-Saharan Africa have sought relief and safety in Israel only to find a society bitterly divided on how to treat them. Filmmaker Beth Toni Kruvant examines Israel’s moral obligation to extend aid and comfort to the refugees and the role that race and religion play in the willingness of a community to accept them in their midst.

Best of the Fest: House of Z

This chronicle of the fascinating career of fashion designer Zac Posen, known to many as a celebrity judge on Project Runway, shows how Posen began designing as a teen. With his family’s support, he enjoyed a meteoric rise. Friendships with famous women (Claire Danes and Natalie Portman) helped catapult him to fame. But when his career stalls, Posen struggles with depression. His plans for a comeback will have audiences cheering for the likeable and talented artist.

Best of the Fest: Little Stones

This inspiring documentary profiles four women, each putting tremendous effort into helping women around the world in unique ways. A Brazilian graffiti artist speaks out against domestic violence; a Senegalese hip-hop musician educates young women about the perils of genital mutilation; a classically trained dancer in India helps heal victims of sex trafficking through movement therapy; and a young American finds high-end U.S. markets for poor Kenyan women’s hand-sewn clothing.

Open to Apply: 2018 Jerusalem Film Workshop

Are you a young media maker and still looking for your summer plans? Apply to be sponsored by the Jewish Film Institute to attend the 2018 Jerusalem Film Workshop (June 24 – August 3, 2018).

Open to Apply: 2018 Jerusalem Film Workshop

Are you a young media maker and still looking for your summer plans? Apply to be sponsored by the Jewish Film Institute to attend the 2018 Jerusalem Film Workshop (June 24 – August 3, 2018).

Best of the Fest: Heather Booth: Changing the World

“The most influential person you never heard of” Heather Booth is an organizer who has been at the center of almost every social movement of the past 50 years. From registering Mississippi voters during the 1964 Freedom Summer to joining Elizabeth Warren in the fight against Wall Street banks, Booth has been a formidable force for change. Filmmaker Lilly Rivlin (Grace Paley: Collected Shorts, SFJFF 2010) creates a compelling portrait of an inspiring activist.

Best of the Fest: Bending the Arc

Thirty years ago, a group of young, enthusiastic, and caring friends came together with a goal that was both simple and complex: to provide health care for all, particularly the poor in the developing world. This inspiring documentary charts the success of Partners in Health, an NGO which builds hospitals and delivers health care throughout the world as they work to bend the arc toward justice.

Best of the Fest: Bobbi Jene

“I want to get to that place where I have no strength to hide anything.” After a decade of stardom in Israel as part of the illustrious Batsheva Dance Company, dancer/choreographer Bobbi Jene Smith at age 30 pursues a solo career in the U.S. Winner of the Best Documentary prize at the Tribeca Film Festival, Bobbi Jene is a portrait of a dancer which is as unflinching, wondrous and embarrassing as life itself.

San Francisco Jewish Film Festival 38

The 38th San Francisco Jewish Film Festival (SFJFF) returns to the Bay Area July 19 – August 5, 2018 for its annual showcase of compelling fiction and nonfiction film and media examining the diversity of global Jewish experience. The full program will be announced on Tuesday, June 19.

San Francisco Jewish Film Festival 38

The 38th San Francisco Jewish Film Festival (SFJFF) returns to the Bay Area July 19 – August 5, 2018 for its annual showcase of compelling fiction and nonfiction film and media examining the diversity of global Jewish experience. The full program will be announced on Tuesday, June 19.

Call For Entries: 2019 San Francisco Jewish Film Festival

Submissions are now being accepted for the 39th San Francisco Jewish Film Festival (July 18 – August 4, 2018). Works in all genres, lengths and formats are considered.

Call For Entries: 2019 San Francisco Jewish Film Festival

Submissions are now being accepted for the 39th San Francisco Jewish Film Festival (July 18 – August 4, 2018). Works in all genres, lengths and formats are considered.

Application Deadline: 2019 JFI Filmmaker Residency

Applications are now being accepted for the Jewish Film Institute's 2019 Filmmaker Residency, a year-long program which provides creative, marketing and production support for filmmakers who are in various stages of completion on their projects.

Call For Entries: 2019 San Francisco Jewish Film Festival

Submissions are now being accepted for the 39th San Francisco Jewish Film Festival (July 18 – August 4, 2018). Works in all genres, lengths and formats are considered.

Call For Entries: 2019 San Francisco Jewish Film Festival

Submissions are now being accepted for the 39th San Francisco Jewish Film Festival (July 18 – August 4, 2018). Works in all genres, lengths and formats are considered.

Best of the Fest: Blue Note Records: Beyond the Notes

The preeminent jazz label of all time, which once boasted the great innovators of the great African American form—Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, for starters—was founded by a couple of Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany who became aficionados and respected authenticity over profits. Sincere devotion to the art form resulted in a legacy that is still an influence on young musicians. A complete delight from beginning to end.

Best of the Fest: The Sign for Love

In his heartfelt documentary, co-director and subject Elad Cohen explores the meaning and experience of family. Growing up deaf and gay in a family of hearing people, Cohen always felt alone. He creates a sense of family with friends, including Yaeli, a deaf woman with whom he decides to have a child. Their journey reveals the challenges of parenting, the bias against deaf individuals and the intricacies of human relationships.

Call For Entries: 2019 San Francisco Jewish Film Festival

Submissions are now being accepted for the 39th San Francisco Jewish Film Festival (July 18 – August 4, 2018). Works in all genres, lengths and formats are considered.

Best of the Fest: Satan & Adam

On a street in Harlem in 1986, a young blond-haired Jewish kid who plays a first-rate blues harmonic struck up a musical friendship with a street musician named Sterling Magee, who calls himself Mr. Satan. The duo puts together an act that leads to music festivals and a successful record. Just as quickly, the act crashes when Satan mysteriously disappears. This documentary captures a fascinating journey of friendship, heartbreak and the transformative power of the blues.

WINTERFEST 2019 | Joseph Pulitzer: Voice of the People

Pulitzer is an American icon who spoke of "fake news" over one hundred years ago. He fought the dangers that the suppression of news had for a democracy long before our present threats to press freedom

WINTERFEST 2019 | Working Woman

Orna, is the mother of three young children with a husband struggling to start his own restaurant. To help support her family Orna returns to the workplace, landing a job with a former army superior, Benny who is now a successful real estate developer. While Orna embraces her new position and tries to balance its demands with her home life, she begins to experience escalating sexual harassment from her boss.

WINTERFEST 2019 | Untogether

Andrea is a recently sober writer whose career has stalled since she published her debut novel several years ago. She strikes up an affair with Nick (Jamie Dornan), a doctor-turned-writer who is hailed for his wartime memoir. At the same time, her sister Tara, a massage therapist dating an aging rock star (Ben Mendelsohn), finds herself inexorably drawn to a newfound religious zeal and, particularly, to a politically engaged rabbi (Billy Crystal).

WINTERFEST 2019 | A Fortunate Man

In the late 19th century, Peter Sidenius is an ambitious young man from a devout Christian family in Western Denmark, who travels to the Danish capital of Copenhagen to study engineering, rebelling against his clergyman father. He comes into contact with the intellectual circles of a wealthy, Jewish family and seduces the elder daughter, Jakobe. Per, as he now calls himself, conceives a large-scale engineering project including the construction of a series of canals in his native Jutland, and lobbies for its construction. But just as Per seems to be about to make his dreams come true, his pride stands in the way.

WINTERFEST 2019 | Carl Laemmle

Carl Laemmle is the extraordinary life story of the German-American immigrant who founded Universal Pictures and saved over 300 Jewish refugee families from Nazi Germany.

WINTERFEST 2019 | Family in Transition

The story of a family in Nahariya, a small traditional town in Israel, whose lives change completely after their father finally decides to tell his family that he's a transgender woman.

WINTERFEST 2019 | The Ghost of Peter Sellers

In 1973, director-on-the-rise Peter Medak nabbed notoriously difficult comic genius and box-office star Peter Sellers for his new pirate comedy, Ghost in the Noonday Sun.

WINTERFEST 2019 | Redemption (Geula)

Menachem, a former frontman for a rock band, is now religious, and a father to a six-year-old. When his daughter is diagnosed with cancer, he must find a creative solution to fund the expensive treatments.

WINTERFEST 2019 | Home Page

The story of pioneering personal blogger Justin Hall, set during a pivotal, transformational year in the early life of the internet.

Best of the Fest: Blue Note Records: Beyond the Notes

The preeminent jazz label of all time, which once boasted the great innovators of the great African American form—Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, for starters—was founded by a couple of Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany who became aficionados and respected authenticity over profits. Sincere devotion to the art form resulted in a legacy that is still an influence on young musicians. A complete delight from beginning to end.

JFI Next Wave Presents: Jojo Rabbit Sneak Preview

A Hidden Life

Based on real events, A HIDDEN LIFE is the story of an unsung hero, Franz Jägerstätter, who refused to fight for the Nazis in World War II. When the Austrian peasant farmer is faced with the threat of execution for treason, it is his unwavering faith and his love for his wife Fani and children that keeps his spirit alive. From filmmaker Terrence Malick and coming to wide release December 20th.

The Song of Names

Martin Simmonds (Tim Roth) has been haunted throughout his life by the mysterious disappearance of his “brother” and extraordinary best friend, a Polish Jewish virtuoso violinist, Dovidl Rapaport, who vanished shortly before the 1951 London debut concert that would have launched his brilliant career. Thirty-five years later, Martin discovers that Dovidl (Clive Owen) may still be alive, and sets out on an obsessive intercontinental search to find him and learn why he left.

Best of the Fest: Standing Up, Falling Down

An unlikely, multigenerational friendship between a failed comedian and a charming, alcoholic dermatologist helps both confront long-simmering regrets in this warm-hearted buddy comedy.

Best of the Fest: Picture of His Life

WINNER SFJFF39 Audience Award Best Documentary | "Amos Nachoum is one of the greatest underwater photographers of all times.Fascinated by the most fearsome creatures on Earth, he has developed a unique approach, that puts him face to face with his subjects, without any protection. He has swam with and photographed Anacondas, Giant Leopard Seals, Great White Sharks, Orcas and Crocodiles, but Now, at the age of 65, he is about to face his ultimate challenge: to swim, face face, unprotected with A Polar Bear.While he is on this journey to the Canadian high Arctic, he will also have to deal with an old and painful memory…."

Best of the Fest: The Keeper

WINNER SFJFF39 Audience Award Best Narrative Feature | The film details the journey of Bert Trautmann in his rise from German World War II soldier to English footballing legend.

The Vigil

Steeped in ancient Jewish lore and demonology, THE VIGIL is supernatural horror film set over the course of a single evening in Brooklyn's Hasidic Borough Park neighborhood. Low on funds and having recently left his insular religious community, Yakov reluctantly accepts an offer from his former rabbi and confidante to take on the responsibility of an overnight "shomer," fulfilling the Jewish practice of watching over the body of a deceased community member. Shortly after arriving at the recently departed's dilapidated house to sit the vigil, Yakov begins to realize that something is very, very wrong.