"One of the Best Jewish Film Festival's in the US"
- The Forward
"One of South Florida's Best Film Festivals"
- Miami New Times
"Best of Miami, Readers Choice"
- Miami's Community Newspapers
"An important stop for any filmmaker"
- Sun-Sentinel
"A monumental festival"
- The Miami Herald
The Miami Jewish Film Festival (MJFF) is one of the largest and longest-running festivals of its kind and the world's premier Jewish film festival. MJFF is a leader in the curation and presentation of new film and media exploring universal themes of identity, history, and culture. MJFF attracts more than 31,000 filmgoers and industry professionals to its annual two weeks of inspiring films, events, panels, and parties. Screenings take place at ten major venues throughout Miami during January. Works in all forms and genres are considered.
The Miami Jewish Film Festival is proud to announce its inaugural competition sidebar in which select films will be judged and compete for an $18,000 Grand Jury Prize. The cash prize is the first such award to be offered by any Jewish film festival in the world. The Festival will also offer a new Next Wave Jury Prize, selected by a jury from the Festival’s Next Wave membership, which is exclusive to 21-35-year-olds. MJFF will continue to present its prestigious Critics Prize, Audience Awards for Best Narrative and Documentary Film, and Short Film Jury Prize.
MJFF presents dramatic and documentary features, experimental, and animated features and shorts about Jewish history, culture, and identity as well as films that reflect life through a Jewish lens. The programming staff takes a broad view of what makes a film Jewish and have been known to curate films that are Jew(ish) as well as films about issues that are relevant to Jewish communities and resonate with other cultural communities across the globe.
The Festival receives significant industry recognition; each year several films premiering at the Festival are acquired for US distribution. Recent distributors who have acquired films directly from the Festival include Kino Lorber (The Last Resort), Samuel Goldwyn Films (Sobibor), Strand Releasing (The Other Story), Menemsha Films (1945, In Search of Israeli Cuisine, Leona), Passion River Films (The Barn), and Go2Films (Sefarad).
GRAND JURY PRIZE - $18,000
Miami Jewish Film Festival's top award, presenting $18,000 USD prize to the jury-selected feature film (60 minutes or longer) that is open to any filmmaker whose work – feature narrative or documentary – presents either a substantial portion of its content as Jewish interest or is produced in Israel.
NEXT WAVE JURY PRIZE - $5,000
A juried prize selected by 21-35-year-olds presenting $5,000 USD to a film of any genre that best exemplifies the richness and resonance of cinema's future.
SHORT FILM COMPETITION JURY PRIZE - $500
Winner receives a non-exclusive US distribution release of their film through Film Movement, as well as a $500.00 USD prize.
AUDIENCE AWARD FOR NARRATIVE
Presented to the filmmakers of the Festival audience’s choice of best narrative feature (60 min or more).
AUDIENCE AWARD FOR DOCUMENTARY
Presented to the filmmakers of the Festival audience’s choice of best documentary feature (60 min or more).
CRITICS JURY PRIZE
Presented to a film of any genre voted on by all accredited film critics covering the annual Festival, for the film they consider the best of that year’s selection.
