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One Life

Opening Night Film | New York Premiere | Post-screening discussion with producer Joanna Laurie on Jan. 10 & 11

In this vivid and stirring drama, based on true events, Sir Anthony Hopkins gives an intensely moving performance as Sir Nicholas Winton, a British stockbroker who during World War II helped Jewish refugee children escape to safety from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia.

Valeria Is Getting Married

Centerpiece Film | New York Premiere | Post-screening discussion with director Michal Vinik at both screenings on Jan. 17

Israeli filmmaker Michal Vinik explores with sensitivity and complexity the debated ritual of arranged marriages in our contemporary world, focusing on a pair of Ukrainian sisters who have come to Israel to start anew only to find themselves questioning their decisions.

Remembering Gene Wilder

Closing Night Film | New York Premiere | Introduction by Executive Producer Julie Nimoy and post-screening discussion with director Ron Frank, writer Glenn Kirschbaum, and actor Peter Ostrum (Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory) at both screenings on Jan. 24

This enrapturing and heartfelt documentary takes a close look at the life and career of American original Gene Wilder, beginning with his Jewish upbringing in Milwaukee. Interviews include Mel Brooks, Carol Kane, and Rain Pryor.

999: The Forgotten Girls

New York City Premiere | Post-screening discussion with director Heather Dune Macadam

A documentary of deep research and vivid detail, 999: The Forgotten Girls sheds light on the wrenching true story of the nearly 1,000 young Slovak Jewish women who, told by their government that they were embarking on a volunteer work assignment, were instead illegally deported to Auschwitz in 1942. Note: some images may be disturbing.

All About the Levkoviches

New York Premiere | Post-screening discussion with director Adam Breier, cast member Tamás Szabó Kimmel, screenwriter Bálint Csaba, and producer Andrea Ausztrics on Jan. 15 & 16

Told with delightfully mordant humor and a genuine warmth, this appealing domestic comedy-drama from Hungarian filmmaker Adam Breier follows an estranged father and son on the winding path toward reconciliation.

The Books He Didn’t Burn

New York Premiere | Post-screening discussion with director Jascha Hannover

This gripping, provocative documentary, narrated by Academy Award winner Jeremy Irons, follows eminent historian Timothy W. Ryback as he examines Adolf Hitler’s private library, much of which is currently housed in Washington D.C. at the Library of Congress. Note: some images may be disturbing.

Delegation

New York Premiere | Post-screening discussion with director Asaf Saban on Jan. 21 & 22

A trio of Israeli high school friends reckon with the past and their unknown future while on a class trip to Poland visiting Nazi-era Holocaust sites in this work of stirring drama and striking realism by filmmaker Asaf Saban.

Fioretta

New York City Premiere | Post-screening discussion with director Matthew Mishory and film subject Randy Schoenberg

This enthralling and personal documentary about the depths and expanses of Jewish history follows Randy Schoenberg, a Los Angeles–based genealogist and attorney who specializes in recovering Nazi-looted art, and his teenage son, Joey, as they embark on a quest to trace their family lineage.

Giado + Crossing the River

New York Premiere | Post-screening discussion with Giado co-director Sharon Yaish & art director Arit Gordon and Crossing the River director Allan Novak & producer Debi Wisch

In their deeply personal documentary, Sharon Yaish and Golan Rise use personal history to expose the harrowing conditions at the Giado concentration camp in the Libyan desert, where more than 3,000 Jews were sent from their homes in Benghazi during World War II. Preceded by Allan Novak's Crossing the River.

The Goldman Case

New York Premiere | Post-screening discussion with Dr. Clémence Boulouque, Carl and Bernice Witten Associate Professor of Jewish and Israel Studies, Columbia University on Jan. 14

This gripping courtroom drama, directed with vérité realism by Cédric Kahn, delves into the sensationalized 1976 trial of Pierre Goldman, a left-wing activist defending himself against multiple charges, including murder during an armed robbery.

James Joyce’s Ulysses

Post-screening discussion with director Adam Low and producer Martin Rosenbaum

Adam Low’s engaging documentary plumbs the depths of James Joyce’s monumental 1922 work of literature, the experimental novel with a Jewish protagonist at its center—initially banned in the U.S. for obscenity, and now regarded as one of the most groundbreaking, game-changing books ever written.

The Klezmer Project

New York Premiere

In this inventive, entirely unexpected delight from filmmakers and real-life romantic partners Leandro Koch and Paloma Schachmann, a Buenos Aires wedding documentarian and a Klezmer band clarinetist collaborate on a documentary about the music they both love.

Looking for Chloé

U.S. Premiere | Post-screening discussion with producer Sophie Jeaneau and Dr. Valerie Steele, director of The Museum at FIT

This colorful, immersive documentary tells the history of Gaby Aghion, the Egyptian Jewish woman who founded the revolutionary French fashion house Chloé.

Mothers of Today

U.S. Premiere of 35mm Restoration | Post-screening discussion with Lisa Rivo and Sharon Rivo, co-directors of the National Center for Jewish Film, on Jan. 11 & 14

In this restoration of a rarely shown domestic melodrama from 1939, screening on 35mm, audiences have the delightful chance to witness the only big-screen appearance of Esther Field, the 1930s radio star who was known as the quintessential “Yiddishe Mama.”

My Daughter, My Love

New York Premiere

During a trip to Paris, Israeli widower Shimon (played by Sasson Gabai) visits his daughter, Alma, and her husband, Dori, whose marriage seems fraught with tension, launching a drama of profound truths, penetrating the foibles and difficulties we face in talking about parenting, relationships, love, and family.

No Name Restaurant

New York Premiere | Post-screening discussion with cast member Luzer Twersky

In this spirited and absurdist culture-clash comedy, two men of different strict religious faiths—a lost and befuddled ultra-Orthodox Jew from Brooklyn and a dyspeptic but helpful Bedouin man—must work together to survive in the Sinai Desert.

Rabbi on the Block

New York Premiere | Post-screening discussion with director Brad Rothschild and film subject Rabbi Tamar Manasseh on Jan. 15 & 16

This gripping documentary feature follows Tamar Manasseh, a Black Jewish rabbi and community activist from Chicago’s South Side who has devoted her career to creating a bridge between the city’s Black and Jewish communities as she extends her activism, receives rabbinic ordination, and continues to inspire.

The Shadow of the Day

New York Premiere | Post-screening discussion with director Giuseppe Piccioni on Jan. 13 & 14

A gripping tale of love against odds set in late 1930s Italy, The Shadow of the Day follows a provincial restaurant owner and fascist sympathizer who falls for a mysterious young woman who arrives at his doorstep looking for work.

Spinoza: Six Reasons for the Excommunication of the Philosopher + Periphery

U.S. Premiere | Post-screening discussion with producer Yair Qedar and Yitzhak Y. Melamed, Professor of Philosophy & Charlotte Bloomberg Chair in the Humanities, Johns Hopkins University

David Ofek’s engaging documentary excavates the history of Baruch Spinoza, a Jewish Portuguese philosopher of the Enlightenment period who was excommunicated by Amsterdam’s Jewish authorities in 1656 when the community’s leaders believed his questioning of Jewish belief had crossed the line into heresy. Preceded by Sara Yacobi-Harris's Periphery.

Stay With Us

A delicate topic often unexplored on screen is treated with humor, irreverence, and complexity in comedian-filmmaker Gad Elmaleh’s autobiographical comic drama about a French Jewish man who shocks his family when he decides to convert to Catholicism.

Vishniac

New York Premiere | Post-screening discussion with director Laura Bialis and executive producer Nancy Spielberg

Laura Bialis’s penetrating documentary looks at the complicated life of the legendary photographer Roman Vishniac, from his early years in czarist Russia to his now-iconic 1930s images of Eastern European Jews on the precipice of destruction to his pioneering work in microscopic photography.

NYJFF 2024 Shorts Program

Post-screening discussion with Shabbos Goy co-director Adam Goott, How to Make Challah director Sarah Rosen, Anyuka director Maya Erdelyi, and The Speed of the Distance Between Us director Yuval Shapira & co-producer Ilya Marcus

Featuring Adam Goott and Alex Szlezinger's Shabbos Goy, Sarah Rosen's How to Make Challah, Maya Erdelyi's Anyuka, Yuval Shapira's The Speed of the Distance Between Us, and Edward Serotta's A Message from the Future: Bosnia Greets Ukraine.