Academy Award nominee Jesse Eisenberg returns to HIFF with his sophomore film as a writer/director, in which mismatched cousins David (Eisenberg) and Benji (Emmy Award winner Kieran Culkin, Succession) reunite for a tour through Poland to honor their beloved grandmother. The adventure takes a turn when the odd-couple's old…

In 1933, as German modern artists were increasingly persecuted by the rising Nazi Party, painter Paul Klee escaped to Switzerland, where a mysterious disease wreaked havoc on his body and profoundly changed his artwork. After being diagnosed with the same rare and life-threatening disease, now known as systemic scleroderma,…

Herbert Heller (Stephen Lang, AVATAR) carries a traumatic secret: now the beloved owner of a toy store in Northern California, Herbert is a Holocaust survivor. The Nazis forced him into the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp at age 12, but he managed to escape and kept the secret from everyone—including his own children—for…

Newly engaged couple David (Jon Bass) and Meg (Meghan Leathers) plan to introduce their parents for the first time over Shabbat dinner at David's parents’ Upper West Side apartment. As the finishing touches for the evening come together, a dead body throws a wrench into this high-stakes affair. This day of rest is anything but,…

Ezra, who is Black and Jewish (aka Blewish) struggles to fit in; can he manage to embrace his whole…

"Sometimes I'm afraid the tale might be forgotten. Sometimes I'm afraid it is forgotten already." Told primarily through his own eloquent words, ELIE WIESEL: SOUL ON FIRE seeks to understand the man behind the searing and widely read memoir Night. Penetrating at the heart of the known and unknown, the film dives into the…

Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie is torn between rejecting and embracing his destiny—he is the dynastic heir of 38 generations of Orthodox rabbis, including the Chief Rabbis of Israel, but also a drag-queen rebel and founder of Lab/Shul, an everybody-friendly, artist-driven, experimental congregation. When he decides to return to…

Shaped by her Jewish upbringing in the heart of Motown, award-winning songwriter/artist Allee Willis’s offbeat individuality made her an icon of 1980s Los Angeles, from star-studded parties at her real-life Pee-Wee’s Playhouse to her prolific career penning some of the most iconic pop songs of our time. But beneath the…

Based on a novel of the same name by the late Martin Amis, THE ZONE OF INTEREST is the latest feature from English director Jonathan Glazer (UNDER THE SKIN). This Cannes Grand Prix-winning film centers on the domestic lives of Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss (Christian Friedel) and his wife Hedwig (Sandra Hüller, 2006 HIFF…

The lived experiences of women impacted by the Dobbs decision are interwoven with the various lawsuits Jewish and interfaith leaders are currently launching to challenge the overturning of Roe v. Wade, state by…