Recipient of a 2023 JFI Completion Grant
Official Selection, 43rd San Francisco Jewish Film Festival
Winner, SFJFF43 Film Movement Award for Best Narrative Short
The Anne Frank Gift Shop is a dark comedy about antisemitism that aims to meet young people where they live. And it’s sadly right on time. According to a 2020 study published by the Conference on Jewish Claims, two-thirds of young adults in the U.S. didn’t know that six million Jews died in the Holocaust. Some eleven percent somehow believed “Jews caused the Holocaust.” It wasn’t just happening in the States either; similar findings emerged in Canada, France, and Austria. Was the Holocaust truly fading from memory? And if so, how were institutions responding? The Anne FrankGift Shop is a dark comedy that imagines a meeting between two representatives from the Anne Frank House and the hip New York design firm they’ve hired to help them appeal to Gen Z. This film disarms young people with a comedic language they understand before revealing its emotional appeal.
Description provided by grantee.
Mickey Rapkin is a screenwriter and journalist. The Anne Frank Gift Shop marks his directorial debut. Rapkin's first book, "Pitch Perfect"—about the world of competitive a cappella singing groups—inspired the film franchise of the same name. Pitch Perfect 2—starring Elizabeth Banks, Anna Kendrick, and Rebel Wilson—is the highest-grossing musical comedy of all time. In television, Rapkin sold a pilot to Apple with John Wells and Warner Bros. based on Stephen McCauley's bestselling novel "My Ex-Life". He is also currently adapting his own children’s book, "It's Not a Bed, It's a Time Machine" (Macmillan, 2019), into an animated series starring Euphoria's Storm Reid. Previously a senior editor at GQ, Rapkin has written for the New York Times, WSJ, Town & Country, Esquire, and others. He lives in Los Angeles.
The Anne Frank Gift Shop also received funding from Reboot Studios in 2022.