Dec. 16, 2013 - The 25th Boston Jewish Film Festival enjoyed a huge 12-percent uptick in attendance at the annual Festival in November, attracting more than 10,000 film goers.
The Festival set an all-time record by impressively selling out of advance tickets for 17 films.
“This was simply an incredible Festival,” says BJFF Executive Director Jaymie Saks. “We were thrilled to see such a big increase in attendance throughout the Greater Boston area. This was a special Festival since it was our 25th, so the response was even more gratifying. While it may seem far away, we are already making plans for our 26th.”
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”I’d call this year a smashing success!,” says Artistic Director Amy Geller. “There was a real buzz in the air, and it felt like The Boston Jewish Film Festival was the place to be this November. When we even sold out our Monday afternoon shorts program, I realized we must be doing something right.”
The Festival, held Nov. 6-18, screened 48 films at 12 venues in the Greater Boston area.
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A total of 10,029 moviegoers attended BJFF 25, up from 8,993 in 2012.
The Jewish Cardinal, a French film based on the real-life story of Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger, won the audience award for Best Feature Film, and Life According to Sam, an inspiring story about a Foxboro family searching for a cure for their son’s rare and fatal disease, won Best Documentary.
Festival highlights included:
· World Premieres of Unorthodox, a fascinating documentary by two MIT graduates, and Your Good Friend, co-written and co-starring Rabbi Lawrence Kushner, formerly of Congregation Beth El of the Sudbury River Valley.
· Inaugural BJFF Community Leadership Award presented to Lisa Simmons, co-producer of the Roxbury International Film Festival and founder of the Color of Film Collaborative.
· U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky introduced Ten From Your Show of Shows as part of the annual Favorite Films from the Famous program at the sold-out Brattle screening.
· Live Skype interview with Vincent Bal, director of the engaging The Zigzag Kid, from his home in Antwerp, Belgium.
· Increased family programming via the Family Film Series with The Zigzag Kid, Igor and Igor and the Cranes’ Journey and Jerusalem in IMAX.
· Six films with Massachusetts connections: Boston Closing Night film The Dewey Stone Connection: From Exodus to Independence about the Brockton businessman who helped support Israel before and after independence; Life According to Sam, The BJFF Audience Award winning documentary featuring a Foxboro family (also short listed for the Best Documentary Oscar); Commie Camp, about a summer camp founded by Jewish socialists in the Berkshires; One Small Hitch, a romantic comedy written by Brookline native Dode Levenson; Unorthodox and Your Good Friend.
· Expansion to new venues: Brattle Theatre and Museum of Science and a return to the Institute of Contemporary Art.
· Three Israeli filmmakers in the Short Film Competition visited a filmmaking class at Gordon College, a Christian college in Beverly, screened their films and talked with students.
· Rashi School children worked with Festival staff to create origami paper cranes. Inspired by the film Igor and the Cranes’ Journey, students wrote their dreams inside each crane and handed them out at a screening.
About The Boston Jewish Film Festival
he Boston Jewish Film Festival, a not-for-profit arts organization, celebrates the richness of the Jewish experience through film and media. Throughout the year, the Festival engages and inspires the community to explore the full spectrum of Jewish life and culture
