
Now celebrating its 35th year of bringing thought-provoking and entertaining Jewish-themed films to the area, the Palm Beach Jewish Film Festival kicks off Saturday with Matchmaking 2, an Israeli rom-com about love in the Orthodox community, the first of some 34 movies to be screened over the following three weeks.
Jodi Michelle Cutler, arts and culture director of the Mandel Jewish Community Center and director of the film festival, concedes it was difficult finding a light-hearted film to screen on the festival’s opening night. “The films this year are not very light. They are a reflection of what we have been living since October 7th,” she says, referring to the infamous date in 2023 of Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel.
Still, she points out, Matchmaking 2 “ties in with the common theme that runs throughout the festival — love. Whether it’s love for your partner or for your family — all different reflections of love.” And for the closing night (Thursday, Feb. 13) selection, Cutler’s second biggest challenge, she has an Israeli film, Soda, which is part romance and part thriller. Both the opening and closing night films are, coincidentally, by the same director, Erez Tadmor.
Cutler estimates she viewed around 250 films throughout the year, 75 of which were sent on to her 16-member screening committee. Then, through a mutual decision process, the final 34 films were chosen. They come from around the globe — Italy, France, Hungary, Netherlands, Israel, the United States, Canada, Argentina — perhaps 10 in all, she estimates.
A little more than half of this year’s films have acquired commercial distributors, but that does not guarantee that those films will return to area theaters. “We may be the only place that you will be able to see these films,” says Cutler.
One of the prime attractions of film festivals is the opportunity to hear from, and ask questions of, the filmmakers. For instance, this coming Sunday, at the world premiere of a documentary, The Pantone Guy, attending will be 96-year-old Palm Beacher Larry Herbert, the man who created the color chart system, as well as the film’s director and producers. Also expected at the festival are cast members, directors and producers of The Ice Cream Man, Listen and Set Me Free, as well as the CEO of the Budapest Jewish Community Center, who will introduce and discuss the film All About the Levkoviches.
The Palm Beach Jewish Film Festival is “a moment of community,” says Cutler. “In the times leading up to this, it’s been very difficult, socially, to get together. This is an opportunity to meet people of all different viewpoints and life situations and share, discuss and reflect on films afterwards. I guarantee you, whatever film you attend will leave you with an emotion.” The Palm Beach Film Festival will be held at the Mandel JCC in Palm Beach Gardens, Boynton Beach Cinemark and Movies of Lake Worth. For tickets and other information, go to PBJFF.org.
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Sun and Stars International Film Festival
Running at virtually the same time as the Palm Beach Jewish Film Festival is the Sun and Stars International Film Festival, from Thursday to Feb. 2. Now three years old, the Sun and Stars festival was founded by Donald M. Ephraim and Terri Sriberg, and is a successor to other area film festivals that Ephraim has created. Its artistic director is film writer and historian Barbara Scharres, who has been curating and selecting the films since the festival’s inception in 2023.
Describing its mission, Scharres says: “It’s an international festival, so the range of films are a variety from around the world, plus intriguing selections from among American independents. I try for a broad selection that covers many different cultures and nations.”
While there is no specific theme or emphasis to the movies to be screened, Scharres notes that there are some specific things to look out for. “Women are very much coming to the fore in not just this festival, but a lot of festivals around the world. Women are making some amazing films that should be able to compete in every way in the marketplace,” she said. “I think we have a very terrific cross-section of films by women in our festival. We also have some representation of LBGTQ films in the festival.

“And, of course, one of the largest demographics in the Palm Beach area is people who identify as Jewish. So we have a significant selection of films of Jewish interest.” The bottom line, however, is that “the films have to stand on their own as powerful pieces of work,” she says.
Scharres will be onsite at the Kravis Center’s Rinker Playhouse and EVO Entertainment in the Delray Marketplace. “I introduce every program and do all the onstage moderation of audience discussion,” she says. “And behind the scenes I’m also the tech coordinator between the film distributors who supply the films and the tech staff.”
But for most of the year, Scharres guides the Sun and Stars festival from her hometown of Chicago.
“I do this completely remotely. The only time I’m in Palm Beach is when the festival is on,” she says. “I would say I saw at least 150 films over several months to get down to the 27 we will have in the festival. I’m in touch with all the major and pretty much all the minor distributors in the U.S., soliciting them for access to their latest acquisitions.”
As a result, she says, all the films in the festival already have acquired a distributor. “All of them will open in the U.S. to some degree. Some will open in very specialized venues or in just a few major cities, but eventually they will all end up on home screens,” Scharres said. “For most of these films, the Palm Beach area resident that doesn’t come to the festival and see them on the big screen, their possibility in the future will most likely be limited to home video.”
The Sun and Stars festival will open Thursday evening with a splash. Following a cocktail reception will be a screening of Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story, a documentary of the life and career of show business icon Liza Minnelli. In attendance will be the film’s director, Bruce David Klein, to participate in a Q&A session with the audience at the Kravis Center’s Rinker Playhouse. Alas, the opening event is already sold out.
Asked why she felt it was important for film fans to attend the Sun and Sand International Film Festival, Scharres says: “Because to me seeing films is an enlightening, mind-expanding experience. To be able to see new films from other parts of the world and get a feeling not only for what’s going on internationally but to experience other points of view, from other cultures, to experience the drama, the tragedy, the interesting stories that you may find parallel stories in your own life, that’s a special experience.
“A film festival gives you a concentrated group of films that represent multiple ways of being entertained,” she said. “These films are really entertaining and I stand behind every selection in this festival.”
For more information on the festival, visit sasiff.org.
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What’s on
Below are some capsule reviews of major films from both festivals:
Palm Beach Jewish Film Festival
* The Ice Cream Man (Mandel JCC, PBG, Sun., Jan. 26) — Writer-director Robert Moniot packs a lot of tension in this 33-minute short about a popular ice cream parlor owner (Noah Emmerich), who incurs the wrath of infamous Nazi Klaus Barbie and has to choose between capitulation and resistance. Based on real events, the film has a nice sense of period authenticity and develops a powerful sense of drama. (Paired with the documentary short, Lion of Zion.)
* Avenue of the Giants (Mandel JCC, PBG, Mon., Jan. 27, 7 pm) — A medical diagnosis leads 74-year-old Herbert Heller, played by a frail Stephen Lang (Avatar) to break his silence of many decades and submit to telling the story of his harrowing Holocaust survival. Drawing him out is a young interviewer (Elsie Fisher, Eighth Grade), who has secrets of her own, and together they reach for mutual healing. A well-acted film based on Heller’s factual history, written and directed with admirable sensitivity by Finn Taylor.
* Come Closer (Movies of Lake Worth, Mon., Jan. 27, 7 pm) — Jump-started with what seems to be a terrorist kidnapping of teenage Nati, this Israeli-Italian co-production soon reveals itself as an exploration of grief and personal loss when Nati dies in a car crash, leaving behind his inconsolable sister Eden (Lia Elaloaf, in a remarkable debut performance). When she meets Maya (Darya Rosenn) at his funeral, Eden learns that her brother had a secret life and girlfriend. Together they form a bond of understanding and healing in this directing debut by Tom Nesher, In Hebrew and English.
* Home (Mandel JCC, PBG, Tues., Jan. 28, 7 pm; Boynton Beach Cinemark, Sat., Feb. 1, 7 pm) — Living in an ultra-Orthodox enclave of contemporary Jerusalem where the women hold down jobs while the men spend their days studying Torah does not suit Yair Kaplan (Ray Nik). With an entrepreneurial spirit, he puts his yeshiva life on hold to open a computer store, incurring the wrath of the community — which shuns such evils as the internet and radio — and threatens his marriage to Nava. Reportedly based on the experience of director Benny Fredman, what starts out as an interesting clash of beliefs and cultures turns increasingly hysterical and unpersuasive. In Hebrew and Yiddish, with English subtitles.
* This Is My Mother (Mandel JCC, PBG, Thurs., Jan. 30, 4 pm; Movies of Lake Worth, Sun., Feb. 9, 4 pm) — Florist Pierre (William Lebghil) has his life disrupted when his bipolar mother (the compelling Agnes Jaoui) escapes the clinic where she has been residing for the past two years. So he reluctantly inherits her and her manic/depressive moods, launching a road trip with her back to her care center, a journey of discovery for each of them. More a comedy than not, but with serious undertones and more than a few heart tugs, director/co-writer Julien Carpentier manages the tonal shifts with assurance. In French, with English subtitles.

Sun and Stars International Film Festival
* Midas Man (Kravis Center Rinker Playhouse, Fri., Jan. 24, 7 pm) — To the apparently endless interest in all things Beatle, this worthy addition focuses on the Fab Four’s early manager, Brian Epstein, who took them from the obscurity of Liverpool’s Cavern Club to international fame, before his untimely death at age 32. Jacob Fortune-Lloyd is aptly charismatic as Epstein, frequently breaking the fourth wall with bits of conversational narration. If the film feels disjointed, and it does, that can be attributed to its several changes of directors, eventually landing in Joe Stephenson’s capable hands. The chaps playing Beatles do not leave much of an impression, but Emily Watson and Eddie Marsan as Epstein’s parents do.
* Yaniv (Kravis Center Rinker Playhouse, Sun., Jan. 26, 1 pm) — Dedicated Bronx high school teacher and drama coach Barry Bernstein (Ben Ducoff, the film’s co-screenwriter) is devastated when district budget cuts threaten his upcoming production of Little Shop of Horrors. He needs $10,000 fast and hears he can raise it at an underground game of yaniv, an ethnic variation of gin rummy. He enlists the aid of fellow teacher Jonah, a card shark and recovering gambling addict, who dons a beard, payot and Hasidic garb and sits in on an evening’s play. What could go wrong? Everything, of course, except this tongue-in-cheek movie.
* Julie Keeps Quiet (Kravis Center Rinker Playhouse, Sun., Jan. 26, 4 pm) — Sports coaches sexual improprieties towards their young female athletes have been much in the news and clearly inspired director Leonardo Van Dijl in this tale of talented tennis player Julie (real-life up-and-coming tennis star Tessa Van den Broeck, making her acting debut), encouraged to testify against her suspended and much accused coach. But Julie wants to stay mum and concentrate on her game and an upcoming match. Julie’s dilemma takes center court prominence, and the scenes of tennis action are well rendered as well.
* Bad Shabbos (Kravis Center Rinker Playhouse, Thurs., Jan. 30, 7 pm) — Nothing says comedy quite like a dead body at a Friday night family gathering at an affluent West Side New York apartment. In this sitcom directed and co-written by Daniel Robbins, the gags fly fast and furious as favored son David brings home his Catholic fiancé to meet his folks (Kyra Sedgwick and David Paymer) and her Midwest parents fly in for added cross-cultural strain. And then there’s David’s sister Abby’s boyfriend, whose freak accident proves fatal. Yes, stereotypes abound, but the results are undeniably funny.
* The French Italian (EVO Entertainment, Sun., Feb. 2, 7 pm) — Even more New York-centric is this urban comedy about a millennial couple, Doug (Aristotle Stuart) and Valerie (Catherine Cohen), driven crazy by their downstairs neighbors, whose overly loud karaoke sessions and other clatter lead the couple to not only move out of their ideal rent-controlled apartment, but to exact revenge on the neighbors with an elaborate scheme that could only exist in movie sitcom. Learning that the noisy wife is an aspiring actress, they invent a play and invite her to audition for it. Far-fetched, sure, but first-time director-writer Rachel Walther captures the essence of contemporary narcissists, and perhaps holds a mirror up to us all.