New York Sephardic Jewish Film Festival
The New York Sephardic Jewish Film Festival (NYSJFF), also known as the Sephardic Film Festival, is an annual New York City Film Festival sponsored by the American Sephardi Federation. It was founded in 1990. The 20th Anniversary Edition of the festival is from March 30th to April 6th, 2017.
The festival showcases films about Jewish communities of the Mediterranean and Asia, including Morocco, Yemen, Ethiopia, Kurdistan, Iran/Persia and India, as well as the Sephardi descendants of the Jews expelled from Spain.
The films are part of a movement towards popular narrative movies and more personal documentaries taking advantage of the freedom given by improvements in video cameras and associated digital hardware to pursue a more personal on-screen vision of what it means to be Jewish.
Pomegranate Award Recipients
2017 — André Azoulay, Pomegranate Award for Lifetime Achievement
2017 — Zeva Oelbaum and Sabine Krayenbühl, Directors / Pomegranate Award for Directors
2017 — Davina Pardo, Director / Rising Star Pomegranate Award
2016 — Ema Shah, Musician / Performer
2015 — Kamal Hachkar, Director
2015 — Erez Biton, Poet
2014 — Enrico Macias, Singer-songwriter
2013 — Yair Dalal, Oud and Violin Player, Composer, Singer and Teacher
2013 — Izza Génini, Director / Producer
2012 — Ronit Elkabetz, Actress / Director