Jewish Motifs International Film Festival


Jewish Motifs International Film Festival is a major Jewish-themed film festival held annually in Warsaw, Poland. The festival has been held every year since 2004.
"The biggest European festival focused on Jewish themes in contemporary cinematography"—according to the Polish Embassy in Bern.
The 15th edition is scheduled to take place in mid-September 2019. Initially the Festival dates were around the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising that is why the precise dates are changing but always in same season, since 2016 the festival takes place in late May. In September an exceptional change in dates occurred and Festival was moved for September.

Idea

The festival organizers declare as the aim and objectives:
Special focus of the festival films is on those produced in the Central-Eastern European region.
Active participation of the audience is specialty of the festival, which organizes direct meetings with the film directors after each screening. Organizers and other experts participate also in the debates and meetings accompanying the shows and post-festival shows, which gives them opportunity for direct interaction. That is why the festival is often described as direct networking meeting and not the festival of red carpets.
The festival partners with other similar Jewish film festivals in Brighton, Vienna and Stockholm.

History

The Festival was organized for the first time in 2004.
According to its director, Mirek Chojecki, it was supposed to be one-time event aiming in presenting tradition of the Jewish cinema, from pre-war Yiddish movies made in Poland up to modern cinema of the 21st century. The festival received such positive attention both from international guests and Polish local audience that at the closing ceremony Chojecki said "see you next year" and this promise he keeps continuing. The "Jewish Motifs" festival became an annual event but only since 2004 as International Film Festival.
Traditionally the opening and closing ceremonies are led by Andrzej Wajda and Józef Hen.

Date

From the beginning, the festival has taken place regularly in Spring, around the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1943 – which is celebrated as according to the Hebrew calendar.
Festival's editionYearFestival dates
1200418-27 April
2200519–24 May
3200611–16 May
420075–10 May
5200822–27 April
6200928 April – 3 May
7201020–25 April
-2011''
8201225–29 April
9201324–28 April
10201423–27 April
1120158–10 May
12201618–22 May
13201724–28 May
14201823–27 May
15201911-15 September

"Jewish Motifs" Association

In 2004 the group of organizers of first event has founded The Jewish Motifs Association which is a nonprofit organization responsible for organizing further editions of the festival. The Association organizes also post-festival shows and promotes festival movies at the other cultural events in Poland.

Program

The program consists of the following sections: feature, documentary, experimental, animation, short.
All the films presented, regardless of the competitive or non-competitive category, are eligible for the Audience Award.
Different educational aspect is learning-through-participation: volunteership and internship program offered by the festival. Each year there were from 15 to 80 participants of volunteer and internship program editions.
In 2018, at its 14th edition, the Festival organized a Masterclass workshop in film making led by Israeli document films director and producer Barak Heymann.
Each year the festival is also accompanied by additional events: from kosher cuisine cooking workshops to expert debates on recent topics.

Guest of Honor

Awards are in several categories:

Golden Warsaw Phoenix (Grand Prix)

Warsaw Phoenix for the best feature film

Warsaw Phoenix for the best documentary film

Warsaw Phoenix for the best short film

Warsaw Phoenix for the best experimental film

Audience award