San Francisco Jewish Film Festival

About San Francisco Jewish Film Festival

San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, abbreviated SFJFF, was founded in 1980 by Deborah Kaufman and held its first edition in 1981. It is the oldest Jewish film festival in the world, a distinction that gives it an unusual position in the global Jewish cinema landscape — it has shaped how Jewish film is curated, exhibited, and discussed for more than four decades, and remains the largest festival of its kind in the United States.

The festival is presented by the Jewish Film Institute (JFI), the organisation that emerged from the festival's rebrand in 2015. Beyond the festival itself, JFI maintains a year-round programming presence: an online film archive, JFI Completion Grants and JFI Filmmaker Residency programmes for documentary filmmakers, and screenings throughout the year. For filmmakers, that broader infrastructure means a SFJFF selection can lead into year-round programming and grant relationships rather than ending at the festival itself.

When and Where SFJFF Runs

SFJFF runs as a three-week summer festival across the San Francisco Bay Area. Its primary venue is the historic Castro Theatre in San Francisco, with additional screenings in Berkeley, Oakland, San Rafael, and Palo Alto. The multi-city footprint is part of why the festival reaches over 40,000 attendees annually — it is genuinely a Bay Area festival rather than only a San Francisco one.

SFJFF's Programming Identity

SFJFF programs contemporary and classic independent Jewish films from around the world. Its mission, in founder Deborah Kaufman's framing, was about cultural and political identity as much as cinema — she described wanting to combine her Jewishness, progressive politics, and cultural identity in a single venue. Forty years on, that framing still informs what gets programmed: films that engage with Jewish identity, history, and politics as living material rather than as nostalgic frame.

The festival is currently led by executive director Lexi Leban and program director Jay Rosenblatt. Programming responsibility for a festival of this scale is concentrated in a small team, and the curatorial sensibility tends to be carried by individual decision-makers — context worth understanding when preparing a submission.

Year-Round Programmes for Filmmakers

JFI runs filmmaker support programmes that operate independently of the festival schedule:

• JFI Completion Grants — funding for documentary projects in late-stage post-production
• JFI Filmmaker Residency — for documentary makers, structured around the JFI programming year
• JFI Online Archive — long-tail availability for select festival selections

Filmmakers planning a Jewish-cinema submission strategy should consider these programmes alongside the festival itself; for documentary makers in particular, the Completion Grants and Residency are meaningful career resources that the festival selection alone doesn't provide.

Submitting to SFJFF

Filmmakers should review the official festival guidelines for current deadlines, eligibility criteria, and category-specific rules. SFJFF's curatorial focus on contemporary and classic Jewish cinema is genuinely a programming filter — work that engages with Jewish identity, culture, history, or politics has a meaningfully different reception here than work submitted purely on indie-festival merits.

Strong submissions tend to share standard characteristics: a polished screener, an accurate synopsis, a director's statement that articulates the work's perspective and connection to the festival's focus, and complete production credits.