JCC Chicago Jewish Film Festival celebrates 10th anniversary

The JCC Chicago Jewish Film Festival celebrates its 10th anniversary this year with 10 new films that will run over 3 weekends from Thursday through Sunday, starting November 17-20.

For the second year now, this will be a hybrid festival with films streaming online and in theater on Sundays. A selection of screenings will include post-film conversations with filmmakers, actors, and subject matter experts.

To date, the Festival has screened more than 250 films, debuted 100 premieres, and engaged 60,000 viewers. And as always, the special films that have been selected this year seek to showcase culturally diverse, Jewishly inspired films that will captivate, educate, and inspire audiences of all generations.

“After a dearth of films over the past two years, we now find ourselves in a position of having more films to screen than we almost have time for. But we are immensely excited about the selections we have confirmed so far that include several Chicago premieres, such as iMordecai with Judd Hirsch, Carol Kane, and Sean Astin. We are delighted that the film’s Director, Marvin Samel, will be appearing live for a post-film talkback,” said Ilene Uhlmann, JCC Chicago’s Director of Community Engagement, and Festival Director. “And we have decided to leave a few spots open for our later weekends, in anticipation of finding some fascinating films that have yet to be released. I hope that movie lovers will go ahead and purchase the special Festival pass to see all 10 films,” she said.

The Festival will kick off its first weekend on Thurs. – Sun., on Nov. 17-20 with 4 films streaming and 3 of them also showing on Sunday, Nov. 20 at Landmark’s Century Place Cinema in Highland Park. The 3 in-theater films are Chicago premieres:
 
        • Love Gets A Room on Sun., Nov. 20 at 11am: A group of Jewish actors manage to stage a lively musical comedy in Nazi-occupied Poland during World War II.
 
        • Haute Couture on Sun., Nov. 20 at 1:30pm: A Jewish woman is at the end of her career as Head Seamstress at Dior Avenue Montaigne workshop when she gets her handbag stolen in the metro. Instead of calling the police, she decides to take care of the 20-year-old thief.
 
        • iMordecai on Sun., Nov. 20 at 4pm with live post-film Q&A with Director Marvin Samel: Based on a true story of a Holocaust survivor, born and raised in a different time, who must now face the realities of the modern world —including an iPhone.
 
        • March ’68 streaming online only: Two young students fall in love in the midst of social turmoil and Jewish discrimination in 1960’s Warsaw. After a protest rally at the university, they discover freedom comes at a high price.
 
Special Festival pass pricing is available to see all 10 movie including films running the weekend of January 26-29, 2023, which will highlight stories with social justice messages. The pass will also cover film shown February 23-25, 2023. 

At the conclusion of the 10th Anniversary Festival, film will be shown beginning in April in conjunction with Violins of Hope—an international sensation comprised of 70 violins that “survived” the Holocaust that the J is bringing to Chicago and across Illinois for performances, demonstrations, and educational purposes. The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center will be hosting these films in their Goodman Auditorium which seats 240 audience members. 


Also Read: More Festival News


Find details and tickets for the 10th Anniversary JCC Chicago Jewish Film Festival at jccfilmfest.org. Tickets are $15 per person, for either virtual or in-person screenings; a limited availability $100 Festival Pass will be offered to screen all 10 movies. For information on Violins of Hope, visit: Violins of Hope


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