Film Fests from Around the World
The Santa Barbara Jewish Film Festival returns to the New Vic Theatre November 1-5 at a tense time in Israel and around the world, but aside from beefing up security at the theater, the festival is focusing on what it does best, which is to present some of the finest international cinema about the Jewish experience via dramas, documentaries, comedies, and short films – 23 films in all culled from hundreds of submissions over four months of jury screenings.
The fest sports four Israeli entries on opening day, including romantic comedy Paris Boutique, which was nominated for six Ophirs (the Israeli equivalent of the Academy Awards), coming-of-age drama Sand Flakes, and the documentary 40 Steps. The Monkey House, an 11-time Ophir-nominated 2023 comedic literary mystery, is followed by a conversation between the famed director Avi Nesher and Gwyn Lurie, MJ’s CEO and Executive Editor.
More must-see films featuring in-person post-screening appearances include the Canadian comedy Less Than Kosher, in which a failed pop singer begrudgingly takes a job as cantor at her family’s synagogue with surprising results, followed by a musical performance by the film’s Toronto-based Dora Award-winning star Shaina Silver-Baird. A shorts program featuring five stories of family, loss, and memories precedes a panel with community rabbis discussing Jewish traditions of death and burial. A panel of women from Chabad discuss Hasidic fertility laws and customs after the Israeli drama Barren screens.
“The festival is a great opportunity to learn and understand more about cultures and subjects you may not already know and laugh a little bit too through top quality films in a warm community atmosphere,” said Briana Sapp, COO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Santa Barbara, the festival’s sponsor and beneficiary.
Visit www.sbjewishfilmfestival.org for more information, film clips, schedule, and passes.
The second annual Ceylon International Film Festival wraps up a week of free screenings at Direct Relief’s Goleta headquarters through October 27 – curated to expose local film buffs to films from Sri Lanka and elsewhere – with a red carpet event at the Lobero Theatre the next day. Featured are three additional films, an award gala for this year’s winning entries, lifetime achievement awards to Sri Lankan film icons Mudaliayaka Somarathna and Bhadraji Mahinda Jayatilaka, and live dance and music performances from five accomplished Sri Lankan, Indian, and Hispanic artists. Visit https://ceyiff.com or www.lobero.org.
