The 35th New York Jewish Film Festival 2026, co-produced by the Jewish Museum and Film at Lincoln Center, screens the Jewish experience around the world. Jews are truly an international community so you can travel the world at this Festival. As a diaspora, storytelling is central to the community. New York City has the largest Jewish community outside of Israel, so this is one of the world’s most influential Jewish film festivals.
35th New York Jewish Film Festival 2026
The 35th New York Jewish Film Festival 2026, co-produced with the Jewish Museum, screens Jewish films from around the world; at Film at Lincoln Center in the Walter Reade Theater; from January 14-28, 2026. $19. This season features Argentine, French, Israeli, Dutch, Spanish, and American films. 🇦🇷 🇫🇷 🇮🇱 🇳🇱 🇪🇸 🇺🇸 ✡️
The opening night film is Ken Scott’s “Once Upon My Mother” (2025), a French drama about a Moroccan Jewish mother in the 1960s Paris suburbs who will do anything to ensure that her club-footed son has a normal life. It’s the true story of French radio personality and author Roland Perez. 🇫🇷
The centerpiece film is Guillaume Ribot’s French documentary “All I Had Was Nothingness” (2025), about filmmaker Claude Lanzmann and the making of his epic Holocaust documentary “Shoah” (1985). 🇫🇷
The closing film is Matthew Shear’s heartfelt American dramedy “Fantasy Life” (2025) about a newly unemployed paralegal whose therapist hires him to babysit her grandchildren. He bonds with the children’s mother over their shared experience of mental illness. She is a rich, depressed wife whose husband is pursuing rock star dreams. (That would make me depressed too.) It all comes to a head when he summers on Martha’s Vineyard with the family: the kids, both parents, and all four grandparents, including his therapist. Stars Amanda Peet. Oy vey! 🇺🇸
These three films show two underlying themes: the power of persistence, and strong mothers.