Stars ready for film festival opening
starring Adrien Brody and Selma Hayek, is one of 80 films being screened
THE UK Jewish Film Festival will open on Saturday with a sold-out gala screening featuring stars Harry Lloyd and Anton Lesser. The two actors appear in
— which also includes Vera Farmiga and Mark Strong — and will attend a question and answer session after the screening at the BFI on London’s South Bank.
The 19th edition of the festival will see 80 films shown at 11 London cinemas and four other locations around the UK, over the next two weeks.
Included are 50 British premieres. Michael Etherton, chief executive of UK Jewish Film, said the focus was on supporting and nurturing creative talent.
“There are many films from upand-coming film-makers that you can see first at the Jewish Film Festival,” he said. “There’s so much to see here — not only the major international films, but also productions from filmmakers who are showing extraordinary promise.”
This year will also mark the launch of the FilmLab series, which aims to let filmgoers to take a peek behind the camera with sessions such as “How to Make a Successful Feature Film”.
The new project was “part of our support for creative talent, and involves four events with keynote speakers who are at the top of their game in the film industry”, Mr Etherton said. The Best Debut Feature Award is another feature introduced this year, and will see a high-profile jury, led by Bafta film committee chairman Nik Powell, choose between five films, including David Leon’s — about a bullied religious boy who takes up boxing — and about a Jewish Sonderkommando member.
Mr Etherton said that the festival’s programme “reflects how Jewish film is becoming more and more a part of the mainstream British cinema”.
Details of screenings are available at