The Film Festival that we all love and look forward to is in its 20th year and getting an exciting update. Introducing The JCC International Jewish Film Festival - emphasis on the International!  This change reflects our commitment to bring you a diverse and enriching cinematic experience from Jewish communities around the globe. To kick off the JCC International Jewish Film Festival this fall, we are screening films from Italy, France, Israel and the U.S.  This festival will continue to feature films that celebrate Jewish culture, heritage and stories told through the lens of film.

Join us on this year-long journey as we bring together community through the power of international films that showcase the mutual interests of the Jewish spirit, culture, traditions and humor.  

Film Schedule:

Tuesday, October 15, 2024

7:30 p.m: Kidnapped

Director: Marco Bellocchio
Language: Italian and Hebrew with English subtitles
Running Time: 134 minutes
Writers: Marco Bellocchio, Susanna Nicchiarelli, Edoardo Albinati
Starring: Paolo Pierobon, Fausto Russo Alesi, Barbara Ronchi
IMDB Rating: 7/10 Stars

This grand, richly staged period drama, set in 19thcentury Italy and based on true events, recounts the abduction and forced Christian conversion of a Jewish boy by Papal decree, igniting global outrage. In 1858 Bologna, young Edgardo (Enea Sala) is taken from his family and sent to Rome to become Catholic. Despite his parents’ desperate pleas and public furor, Pope Pius IX (Paolo Pierobon) stands firm. The struggle to reclaim their son echoes Italy’s growing nationalism and challenges the Vatican’s power. Directed by the legendary Marco Bellocchio, this epic uncovers a dark chapter of tyranny in the Church, artfully contrasting clashes of faith with a nation teetering on revolution.

Tuesday, October 22, 2024

7:30 p.m: Home

Director: Benny Fredman
Language: Hebrew with English subtitles
Running Time: 111 minutes
Writers: Benny Fredman, Dror Keren
Starring: Roy Nik, Yarden Toussia-Cohen, Dror Keren
IMDB Rating: 9/10 Stars

This is a drama based on a true story of an obsession that wreaks havoc on an entire community. A newly married young man’s ambition to open a computer store in his ultra-Orthodox Jerusalem neighborhood begets a shocking clash of tradition versus modernity. Devout yeshiva student Yair (Roy Nik) tries to support his family with a new business, introducing outside technology into the cloistered community. Despite efforts to adhere to strict Haredi rules, he faces vehement opposition from the locals, leading to rising tensions, the threat of violence, and marital strain, culminating in a decisive showdown. Nominated for nine Israeli Academy Awards, including Best Film, write-director Benny Fredman’s intense portrayal, based on personal experiences, offers a troubling yet potent commentary on the intersection of free will and religious dogmatism.

Tuesday, October 29, 2024

7:30 p.m: Stay with Us

Director: Gad Elmaleh
Language: French with English subtitles
Running Time: 93 Minutes
Writers: Gad Elmaleh, Benjamin Charbit, Eytan Saada
Starring: Gad Elmaleh, Régine Elmaleh, David Elmaleh
IMDB Rating: 5.9/10 Stars

Stay with Us is an offbeat French comedy starring acclaimed French/comedian Gad Elmaleh in a semi-autobiographical story of a French Jewish comedian who decides to return to Paris after living in New York and convert to Catholicism much to the horror of his family. Gad's family endeavors to bring him back to Judaism for fear of losing him forever. Inspired by the director's own fraught relationship to the Jewish faith and starring Elmaleh's real-life family, Stay With Us is a heart-warming and charming story about faith, family and acceptance. Stay With Us is a delightful film about challenging matters, and a reminder that sometimes our paths aren’t always easily laid out for us or our loved ones.

Gad Elmaleh is one of the biggest and most recognizable comedic talents in the world. His first English-language special, Gad Elmaleh: American Dream, is now available on Netflix. He has also starred in Steven Spielberg’s The Adventures of Tintin and Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris.

Sunday, November 3, 2024

5:00 p.m: The Performance

Director: Shira Piven
Language:  English
Running Time: 111 minutes
Writers: Shira Piven, Josh Salzberg
Starring: Robert Carlyle, Lara Wolf, and Jeremy Piven from Entourage
IMDB Rating: 7.8/10 Stars

Jeremy Piven is an award-winning actor and comedian who takes center stage as a Jewish tap dancer in Nazi Germany in The Performance. Based on a short story by The Crucible playwright Arthur Miller, The Performance centers on an American tap dancer named Harold (Piven) whose troupe is invited to perform in Berlin in 1937. At first, Harold, who is Jewish, pauses at the invitation, but the money will be good – and the entreaty from the charming Nazi officer Flugler (Robert Carlyle) is so strong that Harold risks it all to bring entertainment to the highest levels of the Third Reich.

Jeremy Piven is the producer and his sister Shira Piven (Welcome to Me) directs from a screenplay she co-wrote with Josh Salzberg. Jeremy says it was their mother, Joyce, who first brought Miller’s story to his attention. “I immediately knew that I had to do it,” he said. “It was such a beautiful way to illustrate how insane any type of racism, anti-Semitism, and any type of hatred is. It illustrated it so beautifully and organically.”

Fest Date: October 15 - November 3, 2024

Location: The Cranford Theater, 25 North Avenue West, Cranford, NJ

Ticket Price:  $18/film, Member Ticket Price: $15/film
Series Price (4 films): $68, Member Series Price: $56

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