The Columbus Jewish Film Festival In Celebration of Andrew Ethan Stern is committed to presenting cutting-edge international films and ancillary programming that reflect a myriad of Jewish experiences. Festival goals include engaging Jewish individuals and groups in the production of the Festival; building and inspiring new audiences; facilitating dialogue among diverse communities; promoting Tikkun Olam and social justice; and enriching Jewish culture and the Columbus arts community. Film screenings, educational programs, social events, celebrations and community collaborations are tools used to accomplish these goals.

Schedule of Events:

November 3, 2024:

6:30 p.m: Opening Night - Diane Warren: Relentless

Directed by Bess Kargman, Documentary, 2024, USA, 90 min.

She is the most successful songwriter many have not head of. Diane Warren has penned iconic works for the world’s biggest pop stars including Cher, Whitney Houston, Aerosmith, Britney Spears, and Beyonce. This in-depth documentary reveals the artist behind the songs. Born to humble beginnings in the Van Nuys to a middle class Jewish family, Diane was an outsider at home and in school. Music became her escape, and her sole interest was in crafting the perfect pop song. With unrelenting tenacity she promoted her demos with record executives, producers, musicians, and anyone who would listen; catapulting herself to the top of the charts and the music industry, as well as earning 15 Oscar nominations. Interviews with friends, industry executives, and collaborators including Cher, Common, Gloria Estefan, Quincy Jones, and Toni Braxton provide an insider’s perspective, while Diane talks charismatically and candidly about her life and career.

Location: McCoy Center for the Arts, 100 E Dublin Granville Rd, New Albany, OH 43054.

Tickets: $30
Price inclusive of a ticket to the film & dessert reception
Reception following film.

Buy Tickets

November 7, 2024:

7:00 p.m: 999: The Forgotten Girls

Directed by Heather Dune Macadam, Documentary, 2021, USA, English/Hebrew/Slovak with English subtitles, 88 min.

This is the untold story of 999 unmarried, young Jewish women initially registered for government service in a purported shoe factory, only to be tragically sent to Auschwitz. Who were these young women? Why were they chosen? Survivors reveal the truth of this almost completely forgotten piece of women’s history, the First Official Jewish Transport to Auschwitz. Told from a uniquely female perspective, this sorority of survival asks the poignant question: why were girls targeted first?

Location: JCC Columbus, 1125 College Ave, Columbus, OH 43209.

Film is free to the public/Pre-registration is required

Register Here

November 10, 2024:

11:00 a.m: All About The Levkoviches

Directed by Adam Breier, Narrative, 2023, Hungary, Hungarian and Hebrew with English subtitles, 85 min.

In this heartwarming family comedy, an elderly boxing coach, known for his generosity but stubbornness, finds it easy to connect with everyone except his own son. Their strained relationship has resulted in years of silence, to the point where the old man has never even met his grandson, who moved to Israel with his father and adopted an Orthodox Jewish lifestyle. However, when the old man’s wife unexpectedly passes away, the family is brought back together for her funeral. As they sit shiva and mourn for a week, they embark on a journey of rediscovery, healing, and understanding.

Location: JCC Columbus, 1125 College Ave, Columbus, OH 43209.

Buy Tickets

1:00 p.m: Running On Sand

Directed by Adan Sharon, Narrative, 2023, English/Hebrew/Tigrinya with English subtitles, 104 min.

In this feel good dramedy of resilience and belonging, a young Eritrean refugee on the brink of deportation is mistaken for a professional soccer player, bringing hope to a struggling Israeli team. Dodging immigration authorities at the airport, asylum seeker, Aumari is erroneously assumed by Maccabi Netanya fans to be a Nigerian soccer star. With no sporting talent, but hailed as a hero, he united and uplifts the floundering squad, while hiding his true identity. Amid their quest for victory, he finds himself falling for the team owner’s endearing daughter, all while risking exposure.

Location: JCC Columbus, 1125 College Ave, Columbus, OH 43209.

Tickets: $12

Buy Tickets

November 12, 2024:

6:00 p.m: Matchmaking

Directed by Erez Tadmor, Narrative, 2022, Israel, Hebrew with English subtitles, 98 min.

Moti Bernstein is the son every mother wants, a student every Rabbi loves to teach, the ideal Yeshiva Bucher, the perfect match for every bride. He has it all: a good Ashkenazi family, a brilliant mind, and a nice face! In search of a wife, he has the choice of the best girls in the Jewish Orthodox world, but Moti only has eyes for his sister’s friend Nechama, who hails from a Moroccan Mizrahi family. Throwing caution - and taboo - to the wind, Moti moves to win the hand of his Sephardic love interest.

Location: Drexel Theatre, 2254 East Main Street, Bexley, OH 43209.

Tickets: $12

Buy Tickets

8:00 p.m: Seven Blessings

Directed by Eyelet Menahemi, Narrative, 2023, Israel, Moroccan and French with English subtitles, 110 min.

In this bittersweet dramedy that swept the Israeli Academy Awards with 10 wins, including Best Film, a boisterous Moroccan-Jewish clan reunited for a cross-cultural wedding that surfaces festering secrets. In early 90s Jerusalem, a diverse family celebrated a Moroccan Jewish bride and French-Ashkenazi groom’s union, infusing the occasion with joy, laughter, and a vibrant mix of languages. Yet, as the Seven Blessings ritual unfolds —  a week of festive meals honoring the newlyweds —  the facade cracks, exposing deep-seated wounds that rooted in ancient tradition. Inspired by the filmmaker’s multiethnic background, this authentic, enveloping tale delves into a complex web of relationships, culture, and forgiveness amid clashing interpretations of shared memories.

Location: Drexel Theatre, 2254 East Main Street, Bexley, OH 43209.

Tickets: $12

Buy Tickets

November 13, 2024:

6:30 p.m: Troll Storm

Directed by Eunice Lau, Documentary, 2023, USA, 83 min.

A successful realtor and soccer mom, Tanya Gersh’s life is turned upside down when neo-Nazis unleash a troll storm against her and her family. Set in the heart of Whitefish, Montana, a seemingly idyllic ski town, anti-semitic attacks against Tanya start soon after Trump wins the presidential election. The community is forced to confront the alarming local rise of far-right extremism. Courageously, Tanya takes a stand against the hate, feat, and prejudice by filing a lawsuit against her perpetrators.

Q&A following the film with Tanya Gersh and Rabbi Rick Kellner.

Location: McConnell Arts Center, 777 Evening St, Worthington, OH 43085.

Tickets: $12

Buy Tickets

November 14, 2024:

7:00 p.m: Kidnapped

Directed by Marco Bellocchio, Narrative, 2023, France/Germany/Italy, Italian with English subtitles, 134 min.

This provocative, richly staged period drama, set in 19th century Italy and based on true events, recounts the abduction and forced Christian conversion of a Jewish boy by Papal decree. In 1858 Bologna, young Edgardo is taken from his family and sent to Rome to become Catholic. Despite his parents’ desperate pleas and public outrage. The struggle to reclaim their son echoes Italy’s burgeoning nationalism and challenges the Vatican’s power. This epic uncovers a dark chapter of tyranny in the Church, artfully contrasting clashes of faith with a nation teetering on revolution.

Location: JCC Columbus, 1125 College Ave, Columbus, OH 43209.

Tickets: $12

Buy Tickets

November 17, 2024:

11:00 a.m: Mah Jongg: The Tiles That Bind

Directed and Produced by Bari Pearlman and Phyllis Heller, Short documentary, 1998, USA, 30 min.

Mah-Jongg: The Tiles That Bind is a light-hearted yet deeply moving portrait of the Asian- and Jewish-American women who play this centuries-old Chinese game, shedding light on the common and uncommon experiences of the players that simultaneously define and transcend cultural boundaries. Along the way, it proves again and again to be a bridge connecting seemingly unlike individuals, spanning generations, continents and cultures, and transcending classification as merely a game.

Location: JCC Columbus, 1125 College Ave, Columbus, OH 43209.

Tickets: $6

Buy Tickets

12:30 p.m: How to Come Alive with Norman Mailer

Directed by Jeff Zimbalist, Documentary, 2023, USA, 102 min.

From humble Brooklyn beginnings to the summit of cultural acclaim, the intimate portrait of a literary giant reveals a life as complex and contentious as the work he penned. How to Come Alive explores the rollercoaster life of America’s most controversial and best- selling author of the 20th century. Propelled by his tremendous ego and contrarian spirit, Mailer’s ceaseless visibility lasted 6 decades, 11 bestsellers, 3 arrests, 6 marriages, and 2 Pulitzer Prizes. Mailer’s ideas about love, anger, fear, and courage cut to the core of human nature and pointed to a prescription for waking ourselves up, shaking free of society’s expectations and coming alive as people. With full access to Mailer’s family and their archive, the film unearths a treasure trove of never -before -seen -footage and interviews from throughout his life. Mailer lays himself bare seeking most of all to become a bolder, better human being and encourages us to do the same – to think adventurously, speak fearlessly and careless about the consequences and coming alive as a people.

Location: JCC Columbus, 1125 College Ave, Columbus, OH 43209.

Tickets: $12

Buy Tickets

November 19, 2024:

6:30 p.m: Live and Become

Directed by Radu Mihaileanu, Narrative, 2005, France, Belgium, Italy, Israel, Hebrew, French, Amharic with English subtitles, 140 min.

The magnificent, epic story of an Ethiopian boy who is airlifted from a Sudanese refugee camp to Israel in 1984 during Operation Moses. Shlomo is plagued by two big secrets: He is neither a Jew nor an orphan, just an African boy who survived and wants, somehow, to fulfill his Ethiopian mother’s parting request that he “go, live, and become.” Buoyed by a profound and unfaltering motherly love – both in his memory and in the arms of his adoptive mother – he ultimately find an identity and a happiness all his own.

20th Anniversary Film, fan favorite from 2006.

Location: Drexel Theatre, 2254 E Main St, Bexley, OH 43209.

Tickets: Free with Registration

Register Here

November 20, 2024:

6:30 p.m: Moses Ezekiel: Portrait of a Lost Artist

Directed by Steven Pressman, Documentary, 2024, USA, 56 min.

In recent years, hundreds of Confederate monuments and memorials have been taken down throughout the United States, largely in response to the Black Lives Matter movement and related protests against the Civil War’s bitter legacy of slavery and racism. Who knew that many of the nation’s most prominent Confederate monuments were created by an internationally famous Jewish sculptor who had fought for the Confederacy as a young soldier? His Confederate monument in Arlington National Cemetery was removed in 2023. From the award-winning director of 50 Children and The Levys of Monticello, Steven Pressman’s timely and provocative new documentary film tells the unknown story of artist Moses Ezekiel while also focusing on the current fate of Civil War monuments devoted to the dangerous “Lost Cause” myth of the Confederacy.

Q&A to follow with Director Steven Pressman

Location: Columbus Museum of Art, 480 E Broad St, Columbus, OH 43215.

Tickets: $12

Buy Tickets

November 24, 2024:

6:30 p.m: Closing Night - Call Me Dancer

Directed by Leslie Champaine & Pip Gilmour, Documentary, 2023, India/Israel/USA/UK, English & Hindi with English subtitles, 84 min.

A magical journey from the streets of Mumbai to the stages of New York, Call Me Dancer is the story of perseverance, rebellion, passion, family, culture, and an unlikely friendship between a street dancer and
an Israeli dance master. Manish is a young and talented street dancer who dreams of becoming a professional dancer against the wishes of his struggling parents, who insist that he follow a traditional path. When he accidentally walks into an inner-city dance school and encounters 70-year-old Israeli ballet master Yehuda Maor, a hunger develops within him to keep going. Ambitious and passionate, Manish is determined to make it as a professional dancer, pushing himself to his physical limits if he has any chance to succeed. Though the odds are stacked against him, his perseverance through highs and lows reveals the power of dance to transform lives.

Location: JCC Columbus, 1125 College Ave Columbus, OH 43209.

Tickets: $30
Price inclusive of a ticket to the film & reception
Dessert Reception following film
Dance performance and Q&A with Manish Chauhan following film.

Buy Tickets

Dates: November 3 - 24, 2024

Purchase Reel Pass Here
Reel Pass includes access to all films, food, and events for $180

Click here for more information.