The National Center for Jewish Film’s
Annual Film Festival
A Program of NCJF
The National Center for Jewish Film’s festival is an outgrowth of our broader work as a unique independent nonprofit film archive, distributor & exhibitor.
Since 1976, NCJF has rescued, restored and exhibited films that document the diversity and vibrancy of Jewish life.
NCJF’S archive collection of films with Jewish content is one of the world’s largest and includes silent and Yiddish narrative films, vaudeville shorts, travelogues, newsreels, antisemitic Nazi propaganda films, films of many Jewish agencies, and home movies, the earliest dating from 1903. NCJF has amassed the world’s largest collection of Yiddish language films, and led the revival of Yiddish Cinema, rescuing these languishing films from oblivion.
The Center’s rare and endangered films now screen worldwide and appear in many hundreds of documentaries, artworks and museum exhibitions.
A world leader in the collection and exhibition of Jewish film and culture, NCJF curates public programs and provides programming and research consultation worldwide, having contributed to the development of Jewish and ethnic film as a subject for academic study and public exhibition.
The Center also supports contemporary independent filmmakers by distributing their new productions and overseeing new films produced under its aegis.
Learn more about The National Center for Jewish Film.
NCJF’s festival is dedicated to Elliott Rivo (1933-2018) whose unending support of NCJF, founded by his wife of 53 years Sharon Pucker Rivo, and co-directed by Sharon and their daughter Lisa, enabled the Center to thrive. 