Film Festival Submissions

Submissions for the 46th San Francisco Jewish Film Festival are open!

Submission Deadlines:
Regular Deadline: January 31, 2026
Extended Deadline: February 28, 2026

Founded in 1980, the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival (SFJFF), presented by the Jewish Film Institute, is the largest and longest-running festival of its kind and a leader in the curation and presentation of new film and media exploring the complexities of Jewish life around the world. Showcasing more than 70 films, performances and events, SFJFF's highly anticipated program attracts thousands of filmgoers and industry professionals to venues in San Francisco and throughout the Bay Area. 

SFJFF presents dramatic and documentary features, episodics, experimental, and animated features and shorts about Jewish history, culture, and identity as well as films that reflect life through a Jewish lens. Over the course of more than four decades, SFJFF has discovered and launched new artistic voices on a national and international scale.

Submission Deadlines
Regular Deadline: January 31, 2026
Extended Deadline: February 28, 2026

Entry Information
All submissions must be made through FilmFreeway. We do not accept submissions by email. 

We strongly encourage preview screeners to be submitted with English subtitles or closed captions available. Screeners of foreign-language works are required to be subtitled in English. 

We accept all genres of films, including experimental films and music videos, of any length from around the world. 

SFJFF prioritizes recently completed works, and all submissions must have been completed within 15 months of the Festival dates. 

Feature-length films are not eligible if they have been screened or broadcast in the San Francisco Bay Area before or during the Festival. This includes theatrical screenings, streaming, and television broadcasts. Please note that the San Francisco Bay Area includes San Francisco, the East Bay, Marin, San Jose, Contra Costa, and Napa/Sonoma Valleys. There is no premiere requirement for short films.

SFJFF accepts rough cuts with an expected completion date of May 1, 2026 or earlier. However, we cannot guarantee review of updated links once a project is submitted.

Additional entry requirements and guidelines can be found on FilmFreeway. 

Have questions? Please contact our Programming Team at programming@jfi.org.

The Jewish Film Institute champions bold films and filmmakers that expand and evolve the Jewish story for audiences everywhere. As the presenter of the annual San Francisco Jewish Film Festival (SFJFF), the world’s first and most revered event for independent Jewish storytelling, JFI celebrates the spirit of film, inquiry, independence, collaboration, community, and inclusion to turn conversation into action, reframe understanding of Jewish cultures and identities, and nurture networks of filmmakers and artists. The Institute’s filmmaker services include the competitive, year-long Filmmaker Residency and the JFI Completion Grants, which provide finishing funds to jury-selected projects. Free, online programming includes a popular series of Monthly Online Shorts, the JFI On Demand streaming service, and the JFI Film Archive, a curatorial history of SFJFF.