The Long Island Jewish Film Festival returns to the Cinema Arts Centre for its second year. Curated by David Schwartz, Curator at large at the Museum of the Moving Image, the festival will present a selection of films at the forefront of Jewish cultural storytelling, hailing from the United States, and throughout the world.

The Third Annual Long Island Jewish Film Festival will run from Thursday, May 1st to Tuesday, May 6th.

Schedule of Films:

Thursday, May 1, 2025

7:00 PM -- Elie Wiesel: Soul on Fire

Curated by David Schwartz, Curator at Large at the Museum of the Moving Image

with editor/producer Michael Chomet in person

Eighty years after his liberation from Buchenwald, we seek to understand the man behind the searing memoir Night. Told largely through his own words and eloquent voice, Elie Wiesel: Soul on Fire seeks to penetrate to the heart of the known and unknown Elie Wiesel (1928-2016) - his passions, his conflicts and his legacy as one of the most public survivors of the Holocaust. With unique access to archives, interviews and employing hand painted animation, the film illuminates Wiesel’s biography as a survivor, writer, teacher and public figure

Tickets: $16 Public | $10 Members

Buy Tickets

Friday, May 2, 2025

7:00 PM -- The Heiresess

Curated by David Schwartz, Curator at Large at the Museum of the Moving Image

Isabelle Huppert stars in this recently rediscovered and restored drama from Hungarian filmmaker Márta Mészáros. Huppert plays Irèn, a young Jewish seamstress in 1936 Budapest, who is recruited by the wealthy Szilvia (Lili Monori), to conceive a baby with her military officer husband so that Szilvia can inherit her father’s fortune. Meanwhile, the rise of Nazism has begun to poison Hungary’s ruling classes, complicating Irèn’s entrée into high society. Laying bare the complicated processes of class, motherhood, inheritance, and fascism. (1980, 100 mins)

Tickets: $10 Members | $16 Public

Buy Tickets

Saturday, May 3, 2025

1:00 PM -- Aint No Back to a Merry-Go-Round

Curated by David Schwartz, Curator at Large at the Museum of the Moving Image

When five Howard University students sat on a segregated Maryland carousel in 1960, the arrests made headlines. When the largely Jewish community the amusement park joined the Black students in picketing, the first organized interracial civil rights protest in US history was born, eventually leading to the creation of the Freedom Riders. With never-before seen footage, and immersive storytelling by Emmy-award winning director Ilana Trachtman, four living protesters rescue this untold story, revealing the price, and the power, of heeding the impulse to activism.

Tickets: $10 Members | $16 Public

Buy Tickets

4:00 PM -- Janis Ian: Breaking Silence

Curated by David Schwartz, Curator at Large at the Museum of the Moving Image

At the height of the Civil Rights movement, Janis Ian, a Jewish teenage singer-songwriter from New Jersey became a sensation after releasing hit song about an interracial relationship, “Society’s Child.” Ian would go on to jam with Hendrix, party with Janis Joplin, and play duets with Dolly Parton and Willie Nelson. But she also had to work to overcome the stigma of her debut, homophobia, industry misogyny, and serious illness. With access to Ian’s music, archive, collaborators, and music journalists, this in-depth documentary chronicles the singer’s epic life journey.

Tickets: $10 Members | $16 Public

Buy Tickets

7:00 PM -- Midas Man

Curated by David Schwartz, Curator at Large at the Museum of the Moving Image

Brian Epstein is recognized today as the man who signed The Beatles, and in doing so, created the blueprint for music artist management. From his formative years to wild, unprecedented global success and the ensuing chaos as he managed and promoted some of the biggest acts in the world, Midas Man brings to life the untold story of one of the world’s most significant outsiders.

Tickets: $10 Members | $16 Public

Buy Tickets

Sunday, May 4, 2025

1:00 PM -- Ada: My Mother the Architect

Curated by David Schwartz, Curator at Large at the Museum of the Moving Image

Ada Karmi Melamede is one of the most accomplished female architects in the world, but very little is known about her outside her home country of Israel. Ada - My Mother the Architect is a deeply moving portrait of an extraordinary woman directed by her daughter, filmmaker, and former architect, Yael Melamede. Ada is a true pioneer whose work gave physical form to some of Israel’s highest democratic ideals, most notably in the acclaimed Supreme Court building in Jerusalem, the Open University, and Ben Gurion Airport.

with director Yael Melamede in person

Tickets: $10 Members | $16 Public

Buy Tickets

4:00 PM -- Bad Shabbos

Curated by David Schwartz, Curator at Large at the Museum of the Moving Image

Kyra Sedgwick and Cliff "Method Man" Smith lead a hilarious ensemble cast in the award-winning comedy that took home the Audience Award at the 2024 Tribeca Film Festival. When David and his fiancé Meg gather for his family's traditional Shabbat dinner on New York's Upper West Side, things spiral faster than you can say “hamotzi” when an accidental death (or...murder?) derails the evening entirely. With Meg’s devoutly Catholic parents due any moment to meet David’s very Jewish family, soon Shabbat becomes a comedy of biblical proportions.

Tickets: $10 Members | $16 Public

Buy Tickets

7:00 PM -- The Heiresess

Curated by David Schwartz, Curator at Large at the Museum of the Moving Image

Isabelle Huppert stars in this recently rediscovered and restored drama from Hungarian filmmaker Márta Mészáros. Huppert plays Irèn, a young Jewish seamstress in 1936 Budapest, who is recruited by the wealthy Szilvia (Lili Monori), to conceive a baby with her military officer husband so that Szilvia can inherit her father’s fortune. Meanwhile, the rise of Nazism has begun to poison Hungary’s ruling classes, complicating Irèn’s entrée into high society. Laying bare the complicated processes of class, motherhood, inheritance, and fascism. (1980, 100 mins)

Tickets: $10 Members | $16 Public

Buy Tickets

Monday, May 5, 2025

4:00 PM -- Midas Man

Curated by David Schwartz, Curator at Large at the Museum of the Moving Image

Brian Epstein is recognized today as the man who signed The Beatles, and in doing so, created the blueprint for music artist management. From his formative years to wild, unprecedented global success and the ensuing chaos as he managed and promoted some of the biggest acts in the world, Midas Man brings to life the untold story of one of the world’s most significant outsiders.

Tickets: $10 Members | $16 Public

Buy Tickets

7:00 PM -- Elie Wiesel: Soul on Fire

Curated by David Schwartz, Curator at Large at the Museum of the Moving Image

with editor/producer Michael Chomet in person

Eighty years after his liberation from Buchenwald, we seek to understand the man behind the searing memoir Night. Told largely through his own words and eloquent voice, Elie Wiesel: Soul on Fire seeks to penetrate to the heart of the known and unknown Elie Wiesel (1928-2016) - his passions, his conflicts and his legacy as one of the most public survivors of the Holocaust. With unique access to archives, interviews and employing hand painted animation, the film illuminates Wiesel’s biography as a survivor, writer, teacher and public figure

Tickets: $16 Public | $10 Members

Buy Tickets

Tuesday, May 6, 2025

4:00 PM -- Janis Ian: Breaking Silence

Curated by David Schwartz, Curator at Large at the Museum of the Moving Image

At the height of the Civil Rights movement, Janis Ian, a Jewish teenage singer-songwriter from New Jersey became a sensation after releasing hit song about an interracial relationship, “Society’s Child.” Ian would go on to jam with Hendrix, party with Janis Joplin, and play duets with Dolly Parton and Willie Nelson. But she also had to work to overcome the stigma of her debut, homophobia, industry misogyny, and serious illness. With access to Ian’s music, archive, collaborators, and music journalists, this in-depth documentary chronicles the singer’s epic life journey.

With a pre-recorded Q&A with director, writer, & producer, Varda Bar-Kar.

Tickets: $10 Members | $16 Public

Buy Tickets

7:00 PM -- Sabbath Queen

Curated by David Schwartz, Curator at Large at the Museum of the Moving Image

Filmed over 21 years, Sabbath Queen follows Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie's epic journey as the dynastic heir of 38 generations of Orthodox rabbis including the Chief Rabbis of Israel. He is torn between rejecting and embracing his destiny and becomes a drag-queen rebel, a queer bio-dad and the founder of Lab/Shul—an everybody-friendly, God-optional, artist-driven, pop-up experimental congregation.

Tickets: $10 Members | $16 Public

Buy Tickets

Dates: May 1 – 6, 2025

Location: Cinema Arts Center, 423 Park Avenue, Huntington, NY 11743

Click Here for more information.