SAN DIEGO (Press Release) – The 25th Annual San Diego Jewish Film Festival, presented by the San Diego Center for Jewish Culture at the Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center, Jacobs Family Campus, finished its ten days of screenings. The Festival showcased over 96 of the best contemporary Jewish themed films from around the world celebrating life, human rights, and freedom of expression. The mission of the Film Festival is to offer outstanding world cinema that promotes awareness, appreciation and pride in the diversity of the Jewish people to attendees of the community at large.
In addition to the carefully selected short-subject, documentary, and feature length films, the Film Festival featured an international roster of visiting guest artists, included were actors, filmmakers, and scholars, who introduced their work, participated in panel discussions, and met and greeted the festival patrons.
With over 110 time slots, attendance records were broken with advance ticket sales and sales at the door. In addition to the high attendance, audience members had an opportunity to vote for their favorite film this year. Here are the winners:
Awards were given in the following categories:
Best Drama or Comedy:
Runner up: God’s Slave directed by Joel Novoa
Winner: 24 Days, directed by Alexandre Arcady
Best Documentary:
Runner up: Theodore Bikel, directed by John Lollas
Winner: Above and Beyond, directed by Roberta Grossman
Best Director:
Runner up: 24 Days, directed by Alexandre Arcady
Winner: Next to Her, directed by Asaf Karman
Special Jury Award:
Winner: Apples in the Desert, directed by Arik Labetzy
Special Closing Night Film Award:
Winner: Little White Lie, directed by Lacey Schwartz
Best Film:
Runner up: Suicide, directed by Benny Ferdman
Winner: The Art Dealer, directed by Francois Margolin
The Audience Favorite Award was given to Above and Beyond, directed by Roberta Grossman.
On February 9th, a day was devoted to short films (THE JOYCE FORUM), which was a juried competitive program of short films. The jury named the following winners:
Awards were given in the following categories:
The Joyce Award for Best Short Documentary
- Death and The Maiden, directed by Yael Lotem / Israel and German
- White Mist (Honorable Mention), directed by Itay Netzer / Israel.
The Joyce Award for Best Director
- The Funeral, directed by Nick Green / UK
The Joyce Award for Best Drama or Comedy
- In the Still of the Night, directed by Erich Steiner / Austria
- Silent (Honorable Mention), directed by Jaco Dukes / USA
The Joyce Award for Special Jury Award
- Of Many, directed by Linda Mills / USA
2.. Never A Bystander(Honorable Mention),directed by Evelyn Neuhaus / USA
The Joyce Award for Best Film
- Ischler, directed by Attila Hartung / Hungary
The Audience Favorite Award for a short film went to The Cancer Mirror, directed by Sophie Tuttleman.
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Preceding provided by the San Diego Center for Jewish Culture.