Atlanta’s largest annual film festival begins Feb. 19 with the regional premiere of “Bad Shabbos” at Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre with director Daniel Robbins, producer Adam Mitchell and actors in attendance including Kyra Sedgwick and Milayna Vayntrub.
The Atlanta film premiere kicks off three weeks of screenings across the metro. It will feature 88 in-theatre screenings across six venues, with 35 streaming titles. Now in its 25th year, the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival, or AJFF, is expanding into a year-round affair with the Kenny Blank Vision Initiative.
The $2.5 million growth campaign is named after the festival’s Executive and Artistic Director, Kenny Blank, an arts nonprofit executive and award-winning journalist who became the first full-time director in 2005. The Blank initiative aims to make the festival a “year-round hub” for cultural engagement, education and storytelling centered around the Jewish experience.
“I am deeply honored to have my name associated with this visionary initiative and humbled by the opportunity to continue shaping AJFF’s legacy,” Blank said.
It will operate under five pillars: education, community relations, access, innovation and a filmmaker fund. The campaign aims to expand student filmmaking access, offer direct mentorship and investment opportunities for Jewish filmmakers and offer ADA-compliant programming, free screening and streaming titles.
“Kenny’s vision is about more than amplifying the flagship annual festival,” AJFF Board President Dina Gerson said. “It’s about creating a year-round, always-on platform that sparks conversation, drives innovation, and builds bridges of cross-cultural understanding.
It’s a major expansion for the long-standing festival. It aligns with a hefty film lineup of 50 films — 22 documentaries and 28 narrative works. It will start with the “Bad Shabbos” premiere at Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre.
Other screenings will take place at Springs Cinema & Taphouse, Georgia Theatre Company Merchants Walk, the historic Plaza Theatre, Sandy Springs Performing Arts Center and the Tara Theatre.
From March 7 to 16, the festival will offer streaming services for 21 features and 14 shorts.
“Our 25th anniversary represents a quarter-century of fostering connections and understanding through the transformative power of cinema,” Blank said.
This year’s narrative and documentary films will be the festival’s first time addressing the events of Oct. 7, 2023, in Israel and the following war in Gaza. Titles like “The Bibi Files,” a documentary following Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and “Of Dogs and Men” take different approaches to covering the controversial conflict.
It is a global festival, though with films from 22 countries including the United States, Brazil and Switzerland. While the films are all presented through a Jewish cultural lens, they cover topics like LGBTQ+ issues and desegregation in the 1960s.
“This year’s lineup not only highlights stories that resonate deeply with Jewish life but also redefines what it means to be a ‘Jewish’ film,” Blank said.
Special events include a young professionals night on Feb. 22 at the Plaza Theatre with a 20th-anniversary screening of “When Do We Eat?,” spotlight screenings to celebrate filmmaker Jerry Lewis, a field trip screening for students on Feb. 28 with a documentary on Elie Wiesel and a closing night awards show on March 5 at the Sandy Springs Performing Arts Center.
A full lineup of the films is available on the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival website. Tickets are available online.
The intuitive interface makes it easy to get started, but the deep mechanics keep you coming back for more.