The 42nd San Francisco Jewish Film Festival returns July 21 – August 7, 2022 in San Francisco, the East Bay, and online. SFJFF42 Early Bird Passes are now on sale through Monday, June 27. Purchase early bird passes and learn more about the Festival on this page.
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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
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Film lovers ages 35 and under enjoy special programs and events PLUS all the privileges of a JFI membership for just $35 a year. The Next Wave Pass lets you fest with flexibility and gives you access to all shows at all theatres.
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Film lovers ages 35 and under enjoy special programs and events PLUS all the privileges of a JFI membership for just $35 a year. The Next Wave Pass lets you fest with flexibility and gives you access to all shows at all theatres.
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The 37th San Francisco Jewish Film Festival (SFJFF) will run from July 20 – August 6, 2017 in the Bay Area. Read on for more information and announcement dates.
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The 37th San Francisco Jewish Film Festival (SFJFF) will run from July 20 – August 6, 2017 in the Bay Area. Read on for more information and announcement dates.
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Applications are now being accepted for the 2017-2018 JFI Filmmaker Residency. JFI supports emerging filmmakers working with Jewish themes in all media formats.
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Applications are now being accepted for the 2017-2018 JFI Filmmaker Residency. JFI supports emerging filmmakers working with Jewish themes in all media formats.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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).
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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).
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“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.
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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.
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“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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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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).
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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The story of pioneering personal blogger Justin Hall, set during a pivotal, transformational year in the early life of the internet.
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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.
Read More
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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…."
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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.
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n the beginning of WWII, with Britain becoming desperate, Churchill orders his new spy agency to recruit and train an army of female spies to infiltrate Europe and help build the French Resistance against the Nazi regime. Inspired by true events.
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n the beginning of WWII, with Britain becoming desperate, Churchill orders his new spy agency to recruit and train an army of female spies to infiltrate Europe and help build the French Resistance against the Nazi regime. Inspired by true events.
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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.
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The 2022 edition of WinterFest, running February 26 – March 6, brings an exciting slate of dramatic and documentary feature films to a screen near you.
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The 2022 edition of WinterFest, running February 26 – March 6, brings an exciting slate of dramatic and documentary feature films to a screen near you.
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