The Freedom of Expression Award, presented annually at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival since 2005, honors the unfettered imagination, which is the cornerstone of a just, free and open society. Past recipients include Norman Lear, Kirk Douglas, Lee Grant and more.
Inaugurated at the 37th San Francisco Jewish Film Festival (2017), the SFJFF audience award is chosen by ballot from all 40,000 San Francisco Jewish Film Festival attendees. All selected films are eligible for consideration. Audience Award categories include Best Narrative and Best Documentary.
The San Francisco Film Critics Circle Award, inaugurated at SFJFF37, represents a new partnership between the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival and the influential community of Bay Area film critics. The 2018 SFJFF Film Critics Circle Award will be presented in the category of Best Narrative Feature.
Another newly introduced award at the 2017 San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, this juried award honors achievements in short documentary filmmaking. All selected short documentaries in the Festival are eligible. The San Francisco Jewish Film Festival is an Academy Award® qualifying festival in the Short Documentary Subject category. Recipients of SFJFF's Best Short Documentary Award will be eligible for consideration in the Documentary Short Subject category of the Academy Awards®, without the standard theatrical run, provided the film otherwise complies with the Academy rules.
Introduced for the first time at the 2024 San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, this juried award honors achievements in short narrative filmmaking. All selected short documentaries in the Festival are eligible.
The inaugural Youth Jury will be presenting the SFJFF39 Youth Jury Prize to the winning short filmmaker on Thursday, July 25th. JFI Programming staff had the pleasure to meet with a select group of Bay Area teens to explore what it means to jury a film. The teens spent several Sunday sessions viewing short films, writing reviews, and debating and discussing the nuance and nature of each film under the direction of Program Director Jay Rosenblatt and Programmer Joshua Moore.
The Youth Jury is a program of the Jewish Teen Education and Engagement Initiative, with support provided by the Jewish Community Federation and Endowment Fund, Jewish Federation of the East Bay and The Jewish Community Foundation, and the Jim Joseph Foundation.