March 21, 2025–The Seattle Jewish Film Festival launches its 30th festival on March 22nd, with the anticipated Opening Night film Midas Man, a drama about Brian Epstein, the visionary manager behind The Beatles. That feature is one of 30 films the festival will be screening in honor of its “Pearl” 30th anniversary.
The Pacific Northwest’s largest and longest running arts event, SJFF will showcase feature-length films from 12 countries, from lighthearted comedies and award-winning animation to powerful documentaries and gripping Israeli cinema. The festival includes 12 days of in-person screenings and events (March 22-April 6) at five venues across the greater Seattle area, plus an encore in Walla Walla and two weeks of streaming access through April 13 for virtual films.
Bad Shabbos, the Closing Night film.Highlights of the packed schedule include documentaries Janis Ian: Breaking Silence, about the legendary singer-songwriter’s fight for justice; Art Spiegelman: Disaster is My Muse, a portrayal of the Pulitzer Prize-winning “Maus” creator; and Carla the Rescuer, a film that introduces us to a 101-year-old Dutch resistance fighter from Spokane.
A spotlight on Israeli films features the soccer comedy/drama Running on Sand; the Yom Kippur War drama The Stronghold; and Torn, an in-depth look at the controversy surrounding the “Kidnapped from Israel” poster campaign.
The Blond Boy from Casbah, the Sephardic Spotlight, follows the filmmaker’s Jewish childhood in Algeria, and the screening is followed by a Sephardic coffee chat with biscochos cookies.
Gay Gezunt! LGBTQ+ Spotlight presents Pink Lady, about an ultra-Orthodox Jewish woman who discovers her husband’s affair with a man; and Sabbath Queen, a decades-spanning documentary about a rabbi-turned-drag queen.
The Closing Night Film, Bad Shabbos, an audience-award-winning, one-night-in-New York dark comedy starring Kyra Sedgwick about a Shabbat dinner gone hilariously wrong. The screening is followed by a special champagne toast and filmmaker cheesecake reception with director Daniel Robbins. The festival wraps up with the Mishpokhe Matinee, a sing-along screening of (of course!) Fiddler on the Roof with costume prizes, blintzes and borscht noshes, and trivia fun.
We’ll be reviewing some films from the festival as it goes on, so be sure to check back!
Find tickets, passes, and the full schedule at SeattleJFF.org.
