It’s a Wrap! 29th Annual Edition
Posted on 01/30/2026 @ 10:23 AM
By Rabbi Efrat Zarren-Zohar, CAJE Executive Director
With the Directors / Stars of the Israeli Comedy "Pure Luck" Guy Amir and Hanan Savyon (right). Winner of Best Israeli Film.
At this year’s film festival, a woman asked me how movies get chosen to be shown.
There’s a portal on the festival website where film makers can submit their work, which is then reviewed by the festival staff.
The decision is mainly based on Executive Director Igor Shteyrenberg’s extraordinary curatorial eye along with input from the year-round Festival Team (all 4 of them).
There is usually some Jewish angle — a theme, a character, a historical moment, etc.
Occasionally there isn’t a Jewish angle, but we make exceptions, like showing a movie about the treatment of Roma (aka Gypsies) during World War II.
There is no Roma film festival, so we felt it appropriate to screen the movie since the Roma and Jews were both objects of Nazi racism.
Igor Shteyrenberg, MJFF Executive Director.
When a movie is controversial in some way, addressing an issue in the Orthodox world or Israeli politics or Palestinian - Israeli relations, Igor will ask me to review the movie and sometimes we’ll bring it to another person with more expertise for an additional point of view.
For example, this year we included the film The Sea, about the journey of a 12-year-old Palestinian boy living in a village near Ramallah who is trying to reach the Mediterranean Sea.
In addition to winning the Critic’s Jury Prize at this year’s festival, it is Israel’s official Oscar entry and a record-setting recipient of 13 Israeli Ophir award nominations.
Long ago, we decided that whatever the Israelis sent to the Academy Awards, we would show our audience.
When it’s a controversial film, as it was this year (and occasionally has been in years past), we always have an educational introduction and usually (if there’s time), a talk back afterwards.
This is the benefit of having CAJE as the sponsoring organization of the Miami Jewish Film Festival.
We see movies as an opportunity for informal Jewish education and growth. And a window into another perspective beyond your own.
When we screened the film at the Cosford Cinema in Coral Gables (South Dade), an Israeli man stood up during the talk back and said: “This film has been banned in Israel. I’m so proud that our Jewish community is showing it here!”
Thank you for the compliment, but the film wasn’t banned in Israel.
Israeli Culture and Sports Minister Miki Zohar called for the defunding of the Israeli Academy of Film and Television, which runs the Ophir Awards and chose this film to represent Israel.
He claimed to have only seen “the most important parts of the movie” and said he wants to defund the Academy because the film portrays the Israeli military in a negative light.
Personally, I think the portrayal of the security services was pretty tame and fair compared to what it could have been if the filmmaker had had more of an agenda.
When we screened the film at the Miami Theater Center in Miami Shores (North Dade), one woman asked me why we were showing an “antisemitic movie.”
When I asked what she thought was antisemitic about it, she said it “humanized Palestinians.”
Another man objected to my introduction of the film because I used the term “Palestinian Israeli,” arguing that using the word “Palestinian” to describe Israeli Arabs “gives a boost to their false narrative of peoplehood.”
Let me be clear — I am in favor of humanizing people (in contrast to the alternative).
Rabbi Efrat Zarren-Zohar with "Letter to David" subjects and former hostages David and Ariel Cunio. This year's winner of Best Documentary Film. Learn more about their very special Festival spotlight last Saturday. David and Ariel were among the last Israeli hostages to finally be released this past fall. Read the feature from the Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald.
I believe our audience is intelligent and emotionally strong enough to recognize the humanity of Palestinians while (potentially) strongly objecting to their political positions.
And I am in favor of allowing Jews to define themselves (versus anti-Zionists who seek to redefine what the word “Jew” means) as well as allowing other people to define themselves.
Here’s some other ideas that I referred to in the introduction of the film:
Palestinian precarity and Israeli security consciousness are shown as interconnected, sustained by systems that normalize fear and defensive behavior, even when individual human interactions may suggest other possibilities.
One of the film’s greatest strengths is that it does not ask viewers to negate Israeli experience or memory. Rather, it creates space to hold multiple perspectives at once, and to reflect on ethical responsibility through complexity, rather than certainty.
In an interview, the film’s director and screenwriter Shai Carmeli-Pollak, said: “For me the film is not necessarily just a Palestinian story, but rather a story about two societies living on opposite sides of the wall — the Palestinian and the Israeli. I tried to make this film not just to speak about Israeli society, but about human beings, to make it more universal in a way.”
Last night, the Israeli Consulate of Miami gave an award to the Festival’s Executive Director Igor Shteyrenberg for his support of Israel through his championing of Israeli cinema and filmmakers.
Amen. Mazal Tov.
CAJE is proud of our incredible Miami Jewish Film Festival leadership and team for their extraordinary work year after year.
Thank You for your service to our Jewish community!
Announcing the 2026 Award Winners
After sixteen days and more than 130 film premieres, the 2026 Miami Jewish Film Festival is excited to announce eight major prizes for feature filmmaking and short films. Complete List of Award Winners
THE VIRTUAL FESTIVAL IS EXTENDED ONE MORE WEEK
Freshen up your home theater, pull on your nicest sweats, put on a pot of your strongest coffee, and settle in for an EXTRA WEEKEND (!!!) of the Miami Jewish Film Festival!
The virtual Festival is extended through next week, so you have an extra chance to catch a selection of those buzzworthy, acclaimed, and award-winning films available to enjoy right from the comfort of your home until Sunday, February 8!
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