Editor

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 9^th, 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

1.     Death and The Maiden, directed by  Yael Lotem / Israel and German

2.     White Mist (Honorable Mention), directed by Itay Netzer / Israel.

The Joyce Award for Best Director

1.     The Funeral, directed by Nick Green / UK

The Joyce Award for Best Drama or Comedy

1.     In the Still of the Night, directed by Erich Steiner / Austria

2.     Silent (Honorable Mention), directed by Jaco Dukes / USA

The Joyce Award for Special Jury Award

1.      Of Many, directed by Linda Mills / USA

2.. Never A Bystander(Honorable Mention),directed by Evelyn Neuhaus / USA

The Joyce Award for Best Film

1.     Ischler, directed by Attila Hartung / Hungary

The Audience Favorite Award for a short film went to The Cancer Mirror, directed by Sophie Tuttleman.

About the San Diego Center for Jewish Culture

San Diego’s only Jewish institution dedicated solely to presenting high quality, nationally recognized arts, culture & Jewish education programs. The San Diego Center for Jewish Culture, while a separate non-profit, is housed at the Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center and acts as the education and cultural arts arm of the Center. The mission of the CJC is to expand and enrich cultural life in San Diego by presenting the finest in Jewish artistic expression, encouraging the preservation of Jewish culture and heritage, and nurturing new creativity in the arts. The CJC offers a wide variety of multidisciplinary artistic programs that explore cultural identities and perspectives, promote cross cultural understanding, and highlight human themes of family, tolerance, compassion, and hope. Its facilities feature a 500-seat theatre, a Judaica library, an art gallery, and a community Holocaust Memorial Garden.

About the Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center, JACOBS FAMILY CAMPUS

The mission of the Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center, JACOBS FAMILY CAMPUS is to provide social, cultural, educational, and recreational programs to individuals and families of all ages, religions, races, and financial, physical and mental abilities.  Likewise, the JCC provides equal opportunity employment to individuals of all religions and backgrounds.  The JCC welcomes San Diego’s diverse Jewish community and the community at large.  The Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center, JACOBS FAMILY CAMPUS is located at 4126 Executive Drive in La Jolla.