Moscow Jewish Film Festival

The organizer of the Moscow Jewish Film Festival is the Ark Foundation for the Support and Development of Jewish Cinema. The Ark Foundation was created with the aim of developing Jewish culture and preserving history, as well as promoting the ideas of humanism, tolerance and equality through the creation and distribution of cinematographic works and the organization of events in the field of cinema.[31]

To be considered for exhibition, submissions must have relevance to Jewish themes, issues, history, heritage, and culture. The festival accepts the following film types: narrative feature, documentary feature, narrative short, and documentary short.

The decision on awarding the prizes of the festival is taken by the jury, whose composition is determined by the Directorate of the festival. The jury consists of the leading masters of world cinema: directors, actors, and critics. The jury is headed by the president of the jury.

The members of the Festival jury in different years were Soviet and Russian film director, screenwriter, and actor Alexander Mitta, Rabbi, President of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia Alexander Boroda, film directors Pavel Lungin,[33] Sergei Mokritskiy, Dmitry Astrakhan, Konstantin Fam and Alexander Kott, producers Alexander Ageyev and Ruslan Sorokin, director of the Documentary film center Sofya Kapkova, TV presenter, film critic and film critic Catherine Mtsituridze[34] and others.

A public council, created in 2017, continued its work and included the following filmmakers and leaders of the Jewish community:

• Alexander Boroda — Rabbi, the President of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia, Founder and General Director of the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center, a member of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation
• Yuri Kanner — President of Russian Jewish Congress, Vice President and member of the steering committee of World Jewish Congress
• Mikhail Gusman — Journalist, First deputy director general of ITAR-TASS, recipient of the Russian State Prize, Honored Journalist of the Russian Federation.
• Boruch Gorin — Journalist, publisher
• Dorit Golender — diplomat, public figure, former Plenipotentiary Ambassador of the State of Israel in the Russian Federation (2010-2015)
• Alexander Mitta — film director, screenwriter
• Svetlana Maksimchenko — Producer, Moskino General Director and Executive Secretary of Moscow Film Commission.
• Susanna Alperina — journalist, writer

The award of the MJFF is called the "Key to Discoveries". The statuette symbolizes the place of the Jewish culture at the intersection of interaction between different countries and nationalities.[35]

The Jury awards the "Key to Discoveries" in the following categories:

• Best Film
• Best Documentary Feature Film
• Best Narrative Short Film
• Best Documentary Short Film
• Jury Prize — awarded to any picture that is part of the competition by Jury’s choice.
• Honorary Award "For outstanding contribution to the development of the Jewish cinema in Russia'' — awarded by The Public Council of the Festival[36][37]
• Since 2015 the family of producer Yakov Kaller (1946–2017) have been giving out the special Yakov Kaller Award to the best Russian Jewish-themed film.

The educational program of the Moscow Jewish Film Festival includes lectures, discussions and workshops that aim at understanding whether there exists a unique language of Jewish cinematography, and what it is made of, when it appeared, how it was developing and is being influenced by modernity; what images have been and are being created through that language and who is that hero that was born by the Jewish culture and sang by its cinematography. The Festival organizes conversations with creators of the films, film experts, writers, theologians, musicians, and with each other.

In different years the lecturers were Shakespearian and theater historian Aleksei Bartoshevich, researcher of Jewish thought Uri Gershovich, musicologist Lyalya Kandaurova, religious scholar and historian Yuri Tabak, cinematographer Valery Davydov, Russian philosopher Igor Chubarov, flash fiction author, poet and essayist Linor Goralik, director and screenwriter Oleg Dorman, film critic Valery Davydov, Alexander Bartosiewicz, Alexander Mitta, Lyudmila Ulitskaya, the lead actor in the movie Son of Saul Géza Röhrig,[38][39][40] film director and screenwriter Andrei Konchalovsky, Russian artist Nikolay Polissky, the son of Yitzhak Rabin - Yuval Rabin, film director Amir Yatsiv and others.[41]

Moscow Jewish Film Festival is attracting new audiences in order to create a better connection with Jewish culture and the Jewish cultural community. The Festival contributes to positive positioning of the Jewish community in the non-Jewish world. The growing interest from the audience confirmed the success of the festival and its events; by increasing the number of the audience and by the consistent interest shown towards the Festival by media and film industry representatives, both in Russia and worldwide. Most of the films presented at the festival were shown in Russia for the first time. Most part of the festival screenings are Russian premieres of the films.

We gladly support the Moscow Jewish Film Festival and are determined to extend this partnership, for we consider it to be important not only for the Russian Jewish Community, but for the country as a whole. The Festivals contributes significantly into establishing peace between nations and confessions.[42]

— Yuri Kanner, President of the Russian Jewish Congress

Films that talk about Jewish themes are a great contribution into dialogue between cultures, which is undoubtedly important for a multinational country that Russia is.[43]

— Alexander Boroda, President of the President of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia, General Director and founder of the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center, member of the Civic Chamber of Russia

• Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia

• Ekaterinburg Jewish Film Festival

• Official website