2022 Film Guide

Show by: Film | Festival Sections

Festival Sections

Awakenings: Stories of Transformation
JFI Supported Films
Next Wave
Present Tense: Contested Histories
Radiant Truths: Seeing Beyond Ourselves
Short Films
Special Presentations
Streaming Films
Take Action

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Arts & Culture
Bay Area Interest
Documentaries
First-Person Filmmaking
Guests In Attendance
LGBTQ+ Stories
Narratives
Shorts Programs
Shorts with Features

Country

Austria
France
Germany
Hungary
Israel
Italy
Japan
Netherlands
Poland
Spain
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Turkey
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United States

Venues

Albany Twin
Castro Theatre
Digital Screening Room

Filtered By: Streaming Films Clear All

On This Happy Note

On This Happy Note

Internationally renowned feminist Israeli playwright and TV writer Anat Gov meditates on how to best prepare for the end of her life. There is such a thing as a happy ending.

Intimate Partners: The Ethics, Complexities, and Joys of Centering Family in Nonfiction Storytelling

Intimate Partners: The Ethics, Complexities, and Joys of Centering Family in Nonfiction Storytelling

This panel examines the ethics, challenges, and joys of centering family in non-fiction storytelling.

Who Gets to Play Anne Frank?: A Conversation about Race and Casting in the Short Film Anne

Who Gets to Play Anne Frank?: A Conversation about Race and Casting in the Short Film Anne

The thought-provoking short film Anne explores Jewish identity and casting when two actresses, one Black and one white, audition to play the role of Anne Frank, prompting the debate: who is best suited for the role?

Schächten

In the late 1960s, when a young Jewish businessman fails to secure just punishment for the Nazi concentration camp commandant who murdered his loved ones, he resolves to take the law into his own hands.

Simchas and Sorrows (Next Wave Spotlight)

Simchas and Sorrows (Next Wave Spotlight)

A quirky comedy about a former Catholic school girl turned atheist who wrestles with an unplanned pregnancy, a proposal and pressure from her future in-laws to convert to Judaism.

We Burn Like This

We Burn Like This

When 22-year-old Rae witnesses the rise of antisemitism in her Billings, Montana community, she is forced to reckon with her ancestors’ trauma, and her own. Features notable performances from Madeleine Coghlan (The Rookie) and Devery Jacobs (Reservation Dogs).

Where Life Begins

Where Life Begins

While on summer vacation with her large family on a bucolic Italian farm, the rebellious young ultra-Orthodox Esther meets the divorced, non-devout Catholic Elio. The two opposites gradually discover that, with mutual admiration and magnetism, opposites attract.

Ibach

A historic piano that survived the Holocaust is restored in Philadelphia four generations later. A heartrending story of generational trauma and reconciliation.

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Download the SFJFF42 Program Guide

Special Presentations

SFJFF42's Special Presentations honor stories big and small, illuminate the diversity of Jewish experiences, champion freedom of expression, and delight with their wit and charm. This year’s special screenings feature virtuosic performances, partnerships with fellow arts organizations, untold histories and uncomfortable truths, and more.

JFI Supported Stories

The Jewish Film Institute champions emerging and established filmmakers telling bold stories about Jewish life, culture, and identity through our Filmmaker Residency and Completion Grants programs. SFJFF42 is proud to showcase this dynamic group of films that received JFI support in their creation.

Next Wave Films

JFI Next Wave is a community of Bay Area filmmakers with an eye on the up and coming, and it is a platform for films and filmmakers that challenge and expand our ideas of Jewish storytelling. These films explore modern life and identity through a Jewish lens, often dealing with subjects like art, music, travel, social justice and more.

Take Action Films

Today's national conversation and political moment has inspired a powerful revolution of filmmakers applying their trade to the moment’s most pressing issues. Focusing on issues like climate change, abortion rights, and the fight against white nationalist violence, these films respond to the urgency of our times and embolden us to take concrete action to repair the world.

Awakenings: Stories of Transformation

As we return to the movies, SFJFF42 is highlighting stories that reflect our current moment of personal and societal awakening. What moves us from a space of inertia to action, in our lives and in the world? Who do we become when we pass the point of no return? These films ask those questions, and leave it to the audience to come up with the answers.

Present Tense: Contested Histories

Our current moment is one of grappling with history. Questions of whose stories become the popular narrative, and whose remain hidden from view, are frontline conversations in communities around the world. These films reexamine commonly accepted truths with a fresh lens, unearthing aspects of the past that illuminate our present reality.

Radiant Truths: Seeing Beyond Ourselves

What if, instead of being threatened by perspectives that challenge our own, we embraced the possibility that they have something to teach us? These films embody the idea of “multiple truths” by sharing a multiplicity of (sometimes contradictory) ideas and experiences.

Short Films

Don't miss the thirty-one short films in this year's program, each of which tells a big story. All narrative shorts compete for the SFJFF Film Movement Award and all documentary shorts compete for the juried Best Short Documentary Award, the winner of which is eligible for the Academy Award in Documentary (Short Subject).

Streaming Films

For those who prefer an at-home viewing experience, SFJFF42 offers more than a dozen programs online, available in the JFI Digital Screening Room from August 1–7, 2022. Selected titles include repeat presentations from the in-person Festival and stellar titles only streaming online.