The UK Jewish Film Festival is an annual film festival dedicated to world cinema that explores Jewish life, history and culture worldwide. It was founded in 1997 and takes place in November, in London and in other cities in the United Kingdom.
The festival is part of UK Jewish Film (UKJF),Home page, UK Jewish Film which also runs film education programmes for young people exploring racism, antisemitism, Jewish identity and interfaith themes; provides training and networking opportunities for new and emerging filmmakers through its Film Lab programme; commissions seven short films each year through its Pears Short Film Fund at UK Jewish Film and Dangoor UKJF Short Doc Fund. In 2025, it launched its Changing Perspectives Film Fund.
Organisation UK Jewish Film, whose president is its founder, Judy Ironside MBE, is chaired by Jonathan Lewis. Its chief executive is Michael Etherton.
Sir Sydney Samuelson was the festival's honorary president from 1997 to 2005. From 2014, he became an Honorary Life Patron. UK Jewish Film's Honorary Patrons include David Kustow OBE, Louise and Hilton Nathanson, Tim Angel OBE, Dame Hilary Blume, The Right Honourable the Lord Collins of Mapesbury, Vanessa Feltz, Henry Goodman, Romaine Hart OBE, Stephen Hermer, Zamir Joory, Dame Maureen Lipman, Lord and Lady Mitchell, Tracy-Ann Oberman, Lord Puttnam of Queensgate, Rick Senat, Jason Solomons, Paul Morrison and Chaim Topol.
History
In 1997 Judy Ironside founded the Brighton Jewish Film Festival. Her principal motivation to create the festival was to promote respect and understanding about Jewish cultures worldwide. The festival became a national event in 2003 and was renamed the UK Jewish Film Festival. Over the years, the organisation developed a wide variety of film-based activities and collaborations that were offered year round. In 2011 it was renamed UK Jewish Film to recognise its all year round activity. In 2015 Michael Etherton was appointed as chief executive of UK Jewish Film. He focused on increasing the profile and reach of the organisation as well as on supporting new creative talent through a new FilmLab programme and the creation of Film Festival Jury Awards. He expanded the year-round cinema programme through partnerships with key venues in London, Manchester and Glasgow, developed a year-round education programme for young people, and improved the organisation's film industry profile including through the new UK Jewish Film Festival Jury Awards. In 2021 he founded the UK Jewish Film Short Doc Fund, which commissions 5 five-minute documentary films each year reflecting different aspects of contemporary British-Jewish life. The five commissioned films are premiered at the annual UK Jewish Film Festival. In 2024 the fund was renamed the Dangoor UKJF Short Doc Fund.
1997
The first UK Jewish Film Festival took place in Brighton from 8 to 16 November 1997, with tickets available for £4. Along with screening various films and documentaries, the festival showcased a number of workshops and exhibitions, including an introduction to film-making, a photographic exhibition of Jewish weddings and a pre-Chanukah arts and craft class for children. Holocaust Day was also remembered on 10 November; the day of events was attended by more than 180 children and included a screening of the film Understanding the Holocaust and a talk by a Holocaust survivor.
1998
The second Brighton Jewish Film Festival ran from 14 to 22 November 1998. It opened with the Israeli/Swiss film The Dybbuk of the Holy Apple Field and marked Israel's 50th anniversary with a selection of films on Israeli life called "Israel at 50". The festival also screened its first gay film, Rosalind Haver's Oy Gay, a documentary on gay Jewish life in Britain. Film director Férid Boughedir was a special guest at the Festival and, in the first of UKJFF's annual Celebrity Interview series, Sir Sydney Samuelson interviewed film director Lewis Gilbert.
1999
The third Brighton Jewish Film Festival ran from 12 to 27 November 1999. The Celebrity Interview was with Stephen Fry, again interviewed by Sydney Samuelson. The festival opened with the 1997 German film Comedian Harmonists (directed by Joseph Vilsmaier), which was introduced by journalist and author David Winner. The programme contained films from Canada, the Netherlands, Israel, France and South Africa and many other countries. The South African film was Inside Out, a romantic coming-of-age tale directed by Neal Sundstrom.
A second Yiddish film was brought to the Festival – Green Fields, made in 1937. Other films screened included Didi Danquart's Jew Boy Levi, which was introduced by the film's producer Martin Hageman, and the UK premiere of Anne Frank's Diary of a Young Girl, an animated feature film produced by Stephane Dykman.
2000
The fourth Festival ran from 11 to 25 November 2000 in Brighton. The Celebrity Interview was with Chaim Topol, star of Fiddler on the Roof. Rabbi Lionel Blue's first film, a documentary looking at how spirituality can help people face old age, had its cinema premiere. After its screening, Rabbi Blue was interviewed by Simon Fanshawe. The festival closed with a showing of Matej Mináč's film All My Loved Ones, inspired by the story of Nicholas Winton, who saved hundreds of Czech Jewish children from the Nazis. Minac attended the screening.
2001
The fifth Brighton Jewish Film Festival, which ran from 10 to 25 November 2001, screened Egyptian director Khaled El Hagar's controversial film The Gulf Between Us, about a relationship between an Egyptian man and a Jewish girl in Britain.
The Celebrity Interview was with Miriam Margolyes. At a filmmakers event, "Writing Jewishly for the Screen", Gary Synyor and Paul Morrison were interviewed by Judy Ironside. For the first time short films were shown: these included films focusing on Israeli/Arab relations and a 10-minute short called The Worst Jewish Football Team in the World. A screening of psychological thriller Time of Favor was attended by its director, Joseph Cedar. A documentary about faith, sexuality and religious fundamentalism, Trembling Before G-d, was followed by a panel discussion.
In the festival's first touring programme, films were screened at the Curzon Soho and City Screen cinemas in Aberdeen, Cambridge, Oxford and York.
2002
The sixth Brighton Jewish Festival took place from 12 to 24 October 2002. Many of the films focused on the conflict in the Middle East. There was a performance by the Jewish music ensemble The Burning Bush and Sydney Samuelson interviewed Maureen Lipman and her husband Jack Rosenthal as part of The Celebrity Interview feature.
2003
The UKJFF became a national film festival, changing its name from the Brighton Jewish Film Festival to the UK Jewish Film Festival. This Festival, the seventh, ran from 25 October to 6 November 2003 and opened with Wondrous Oblivion, directed by Paul Morrison, who attended the screening and took part in a question and answer session afterwards. Zoë Wanamaker was the Celebrity Interviewee.
2004
The eighth Festival, held from 16 to 21 October 2004, opened with Sam Gabarski's Rashevski's Tango and also screened the UK premiere of Le Grand Role, attended by its director, Steve Suissa, and lead actor Bérénice Bejo. Forty films were shown, including 30 films at London's Screen on the Hill (now Everyman Belsize Park). Sydney Samuelson, with Maureen Lipman, introduced a tribute to Jack Rosenthal, who had died in May that year, including a special screening of Bye Bye Baby; Bill Nighy was a special guest. The festival toured other parts of the UK, including venues in Edinburgh, Manchester, and Belfast.
2005
The UK premiere of Live and Become opened the ninth Festival, which ran from 5 to 27 November 2005. The screening was at the Vue West End cinema in Leicester Square, with Lord Puttnam in attendance. The film was introduced by the director, Radu Mihăileanu.
2005 also saw the creation of the first Short Film Fund, which promoted film making on Jewish themes. The first winner of the award was Jes Benstock with his short film Holocaust Tourism: Whatever Happened to Never Again, which was premiered at the festival. Other films in the 2005 UKJFF included Everything is Illuminated, starring Elijah Wood, In Her Shoes, starring Cameron Diaz, Toni Collette and Shirley MacLaine, and Bee Season, starring Richard Gere. Bee Season was introduced by Anthony Minghella. The festival also hosted the UK premiere of The First Time I Was Twenty, a tale of antisemitism in Paris.
Venues for the Festival included London's The Screen On The Hill, the Tricycle Theatre, Phoenix and the Curzon Soho. Films were also shown in Belfast, Brighton, Cardiff, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester and Southampton.
2006
The 10th Festival ran from 4 to 16 November 2006. The Annual Audience Award was introduced, where the audience could vote for their favourite film. The festival opened at the Curzon Mayfair with a screening of the film Sixty Six, introduced by its director Paul Weiland and attended by its leading actors Eddie Marsan and Gregg Sulkin. The Moroccan film Marock also had its UK premiere during the festival.
2007
The 11th Festival ran from 3 to 15 November 2007. The Festival collaborated with Jewish Book Week, screening The Garden that Floated Away, a film about the acclaimed Polish-Israeli writer, Ida Fink. Israeli/French film The Band's Visit opened the Festival at the Vue West End. Alan Yentob was the guest of honour. Other events included: a Sing-A-Long-A Joseph production; an event looking at the future for independent cinema; and promotion of the Zagreb Jewish Film Festival, which was held for the first time in 2007, under licence and in collaboration with the UK Jewish Film Festival.
2008
The 12th Festival, from 8 to 20 November 2008, opened with Eran Riklis' controversial film Lemon Tree. It included a Sing-A-Long-A Hairspray event, the UK premiere of Sacred Language, Spoken Language (followed by a question and answer session with film director Nurit Aviv) and a special preview of award-winning animation Waltz with Bashir (followed by a question and answer session with art director and illustrator David Polonsky).
2009
The 13th Festival ran from 7 to 19 November 2009. Ronit Elkabetz attended the UK premiere of Jaffa as celebrity guest. To celebrate its thirteenth year, the festival included films with barmitzvah themes. Maureen Lipman introduced the television play Bar Mitzvah Boy, directed by her late husband Jack Rosenthal. The Coen brothers' A Serious Man was also shown.
2010
The 14th Festival, from 4 to 21 November 2010, particularly emphasised comedy, with a night of live comedy from Shazia Mirza and Josh Howie, who challenged Jewish and Muslim stereotypes, and an evening at the Everyman Hampstead, where Tracy-Ann Oberman, David Baddiel, David Schneider and other leading British comedians discussed the role of comedy in tackling racism and prejudice. The London venues for the Festival included the Barbican Centre, the Everyman Hampstead, BFI Southbank and Vue West End. The films shown included Mensch (a film from France, screened at the West End gala), The Debt, starring Helen Mirren and Jessica Chastain, and the Israeli documentary Gay Days (screened at an event that explored LGBT activism through filmmaking).
2011