The 25th Jerusalem Jewish Film Week will be held this year from December 9 to 14 at the Jerusalem Cinematheque in a slightly scaled-down version, but one that will focus on films of Jewish interest that are more important than ever these days.
This year’s festival will feature over 30 films from 15 countries, including premiere screenings and restored classics. There will be documentaries, feature films, shorts, and animated films that examine issues of Jewish history and identity as well as interfaith issues.
Special additions to mark the war
While the film week will celebrate the festive Hanukkah season, as it always does, the current war will be marked by special events and content related to the lives taken on October 7 and the fighting since.
Evacuees from northern and southern communities are invited to all Jewish Film Week screenings and programs, free of charge. There will be events with guests from Israel and all over the world as well as lectures and panels on various topics, including antisemitism and war.
It is always a lovely experience to light Hanukkah candles at the Jerusalem Cinematheque, and this year as well, the traditional candle lightings will take place.
The film week will open with the premiere of James Hawes’s One Life, which stars two-time Oscar winner Sir Anthony Hopkins as real-life hero Sir Nicholas Winton, a British humanitarian who rescued hundreds of Jewish children from the Nazis by smuggling them from Prague to England. Helena Bonham Carter and Jonathan Pryce are Hopkins’s co-stars.
The film will play later on at the Lev Cinemas chain.
The opening-night screening will be held in the presence of VIPs, including diplomats and filmmakers. Tickets for the opening are already on sale.
At 11 a.m. on December 9, the Concerto of Cinema season will open with a screening of Days of Pick, a celebration of the music and life of iconic Israeli musician Svika Pick, directed by Shai Lahav and Ron Omer.
Roni Mahadav-Levin is the CEO of the Jerusalem Cinematheque and the director of the Jewish Film Week, and Daniela Turgeman is the artistic director
Details of the full program will be available soon at the festival website at https://jer-cin.org.il/