Vancouver Jewish Film Festival announces lineup of virtual screenings, March 4 to 14

Offerings span award-winners like Asia and Thou Shalt Not Hate to documentaries on Daniel Barenboim and Golda Meir

THE VANCOUVER Jewish Film Festival has unveiled two weeks of online programming from March 4 to 14, with a roster of films from around the world.

This year’s programming has multigenerational appeal, spanning 30 dramas, comedies, and documentaries, all highlighting Jewish culture and global unity.

Among the highlights for the 32nd annual fest is Israel’s submission to this year’s Academy Awards, Asia, a moving story of a mother’s challenges with a teenage daughter who has health issues. Elsewhere, Here We Are also explores the parental bond by questioning how society cares for those with different abilities; it won multiple awards, including Best Picture, at last year’s Ophirs, Israel’s version of the Oscars. The Italian-set Thou Shalt Not Hate won the nod for Best Actor and Best Italian Film at the Venice International Film Festival for its story of a Jewish surgeon, the son of a Holocaust survivor, who helps an accident victim who has a swastika tattoo. And families will get a laugh out of Abe, about Brooklyn’s 12-year-old Abe (young actor Noah Schnapp), who cooks to unite his half-Israeli and half-Palestinian family—but everything goes wrong; it won the grand prize at the 365 International Film Festival.

Among the documentary offerings, look for Beyond the Music, which focuses on the innovative Barenboim-Said Academy in Berlin and musician and pedagogue Daniel Barenboim; Golda, which puts Israel’s only female Prime Minister in the spotlight and which won Best Documentary at the Israeli Film Academy; and Breaking Bread, about a group of Jewish and Palestinian chefs who take part in a unique food festival in the city of Haifa.

Founded in 1988, the event is the longest running Jewish film festival in Canada. Its mandate is community-building through film and storytelling.

Film tickets for the virtual fest provide access to a selected film for online viewing within BC or Canada only.

You can find the full lineup and more information here.

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