Palm Beach Jewish Film Festival Marks 35 Years

The thirty-fifth annual Mandel JCC’s Palm Beach Jewish Film Festival returns to the Palm Beaches January 25 through February 13

The festival will open with a screening of Matchmaking 2 by Erez Tadmor at Mandel JCC. Photo courtesy of Palm Beach Jewish Film Festival
The festival will open with a screening of Matchmaking 2 by Erez Tadmor at Mandel JCC. Photo courtesy of Palm Beach Jewish Film Festival

The thirty-fifth annual Mandel JCC’s Palm Beach Jewish Film Festival kicks off January 25. The milestone festival will captivate, educate, and inspire with showings of Jewish-themed cinema from around the world through February 13.

Films will be screened at the Mandel JCC Palm Beach Gardens, Boynton Beach Cinemark, and Movies of Lake Worth.

The festival’s lineup highlights an array of genres, themes, and perspectives. Selections include several Palm Beach premieres and works from acclaimed directors.

The festival will open with a screening of Matchmaking 2 by Erez Tadmor at Mandel JCC. The film explores the complexities of love within the Orthodox Jewish community, focusing on arranged marriages that prioritize mutual consent. After the film, audiences will enjoy a Q&A with Barbara Black Goldfarb, a renowned matchmaker and co-founder of Elegant Introductions, moderated by Pam Comiter.

Noah Emmerich stars as Ernst Cahn in The Ice Cream Man
Noah Emmerich stars as Ernst Cahn in The Ice Cream Man.

Two of the festival’s Spotlight Films include The Ice Cream Man, featuring Noah Emmerich as Ernst Cahn, an ice cream parlor owner who is targeted by Klaus Barbie, also known as the Butcher of Lyon, after the Nazi invasion of the Netherlands during World War II. A Q&A with director Robert Moniot, producers Greg Malone and Amy Pauszek, executive producer Arlene Grande, and Samantha Livoti of the University of South California’s Anne Frank Center will follow.

Audiences will also enjoy the world premiere of The Pantone Guy. At 96, Lawrence Herbert reflects on his life, from his Depression-era Brooklyn upbringing to creating the Pantone Matching System, which revolutionized color communication. A Q&A with Herbert, director Patrick Creadon, producer Christine O’Malley, and associate producer Nelson Tracey

The final film, Soda, will close the festival at Movies of Lake Worth on February 13.
Soda will close the festival at Movies of Lake Worth on February 13.

Palm Beach Premieres include Beethoven’s Nine – Ode to Humanity by Larry Weinstein, The Grave Hunter by Yochay Rosenberg, The Ice Cream Man by Rob Moniot, Listen by Omri Bezalel, and Savoy by Zohar Wagner.

The final film, Soda, will close the festival at Movies of Lake Worth on February 13. The film tells the story of a beautiful seamstress who moves to a neighborhood of Holocaust survivors in 1956.

For festival details, visit pbg.jcconline.com/pbjff.

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