Atlanta Jewish Film Festival, world’s largest, starts Jan. 26
The Atlanta Jewish Film Festival, the world’s largest Jewish film festival, has unveiled its full lineup and official schedule of films for the 16th annual event.
The festival will present 77 films from 26 countries over 23 days, from Jan. 26 to Feb. 17.
The lineup includes five World Premieres, nine North American Premieres and four U.S Premieres. The festival brings major new works, on Jewish and Israeli themes, to multiple theater venues across Atlanta.
“We are proud to unveil the sprawling lineup for the 2016 AJFF, featuring diverse, high-caliber films from around the globe,” said Kenny Blank, executive director for AJFF. “This is a cultural celebration and an artistic showcase meant to feed the soul and the mind, as well as entertain. It is more than just a night at the movies — it is a curated experience that engages and inspires diverse audiences with film through a Jewish lens.”
The 2016 AJFF kicks off with director Atom Egoyan’s “Remember,” a potent revenge thriller starring Oscar-winners Christopher Plummer and Martin Landau.
More twists and turns await in the murder mysteries “A Grain of Truth” and “Fire Birds,” while there’s plenty to laugh about in the coming-of-age comedy “Time to Say Goodbye” and subversive satire “Atomic Falafel.”
In the wake of the horrific Paris attacks and as prelude to the upcoming U.S. elections, topical films tackle terrorism, immigration and reproductive rights in, respectively, “Je suis Charlie,” “Children of Giant” and “The Law.”
Unforgettable performances define “Wedding Doll” and the U.S. premiere of “The People vs. Fritz Bauer,” and music takes center stage in “East Jerusalem West Jerusalem,” “Flory’s Flame” and the U.S. premiere of “The Midnight Orchestra.”
Biographies include filmmaker Sidney Lumet, Yiddish writer Isaac Bashevis Singer and philosopher Hannah Arendt. The 20th anniversary of Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination has prompted two portrayals of the fallen leader: “Rabin in His Own Words” and “Rabin, the Last Day.”
AJFF has surveyed the international festival circuit to bring such art house fare as the enchanting “Song of Songs,” the quietly unsettling “Mountain,” the shocking “Tikkun” and ghostly “Demon.”
The festival will also present Woody Allen in “The Front” and Dustin Hoffman in “Marathon Man,” Hollywood classics celebrating 40th anniversaries.
The festival comes to a conclusion with “In Search of Israeli Cuisine” on closing night with a post-film sampling of Israeli delicacies.
The Atlanta festival had record-breaking attendance of over 38,600 moviegoers in 2015. This milestone achievement adds to AJFF’s existing status as the largest film event of any kind in Atlanta. In just 15 years, AJFF’s broad-based multi-cultural audience has enabled the festival to emerge as one of the South’s foremost arts celebrations.
Tickets go on sale Jan. 10.
