The Philadelphia Jewish Film + Media Festival (PJFMF) is an annual fall festival dedicated to engaging audiences in Philadelphia and the surrounding cities with bold and unapologetically Jewish storytelling across cinema and digital media from around the globe. The festival is presented by Philadelphia Jewish Film and Media (PJFM), a nonprofit organization that creates connection and community through Jewish cinema and digital storytelling.

PJFM welcomes everyone to engage with Jewish culture and values through its educational and entertaining year-round programs. The organization believes that today’s storytellers are tomorrow’s changemakers, poets, philosophers, and visionaries. While cinema remains the organization’s focus and legacy, PJFM believes it is important to highlight new and innovative ways Jewish stories are created and shared today.

*PLEASE NOTE: submissions through FilmFreeway are considered for all year-round PJFM programming, including those outside of PJFMF. If your project is selected, our team will reach out to you regarding which program it has been offered to appear in. If a project is featured in a year-round event, it is no longer eligible to appear in PJFMF. If a project's team wishes to specifically screen at PJFMF, they are open to deferring their invitation for a year-round program with the understanding that this is not a guarantee that they will then be selected for PJFMF. No phone calls please.

Awards & Prizes

Audience Awards:
- Best Narrative Feature
- Best Documentary Feature
- Best Short Film
- Best of Digital Chutzpah (specific awards determined at the discretion of the programming team)

Rules & Terms

Our festival is unique in that all forms of digital media are eligible for exhibition. This includes, but is not limited to:

Film (feature or short length)
Episodic (Television or web-series)
Digital art
Gaming
Music videos
Podcasts
Mixed media performance
5D
AI (Artificial Intelligence)
Metaverse (3D Virtual Worlds)
XR (Extended Reality) (AR, MR, and VR)

So long as a project incorporates media into its creation, it is eligible for our festival. Please do not hesitate to submit your project, even if it goes beyond these mediums.

All submissions must cooperate with the following guidelines, or else they risk disqualification:

- All submitted projects must either be Jewish in content or creation. Examples of this include: its story, character(s), and/or setting(s) are Jewish, one of the project's creators is Jewish, the objective of the content regards Judaism, the story for which it's based on has a Jewish relevancy, etc. Projects that submit a cover letter specifying their Jewish content have a better chance of being selected. If its Jewish content is not apparent to our programming team, the project will be disqualified.

- All submitted projects must have been completed/released within two years of the festival dates. Please specify if the project has already premiered in either Philadelphia or the Greater Philadelphia Area.

- All time-based content must be a minimum of 1 minute. All short-length content must be a maximum of 40 minutes. Anything beyond that will be considered a feature presentation.

- All submissions must be presented either in English or with English subtitles.

- No more than two works may be submitted per individual filmmaker.

- By submitting your project, you authorize PJFM to use, distribute and share the film poster, trailer, synopsis and movie stills in our social media and promotional materials.

- All fees are non-refundable.

- PJFM has no obligation to accept submitted works or provide an explanation as to why the work has been rejected.

- Submissions are considered for all year-round PJFM programming, including those outside of PJFMF. If your project is selected, our team will reach out to you regarding which program it has been offered to appear in. If a project is featured in a year-round event, it is no longer eligible to appear in PJFMF. If a project's team wishes to specifically screen at PJFMF, they are open to deferring their invitation for a year-round program with the understanding that this is not a guarantee that they will then be selected for PJFMF. No phone calls please.
7 Reviews
Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
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Networking
  • Adam Kritzer

    It was an absolute honor to have our east coast premiere at the Philadelphia Jewish Film + Media Festival (Philly JFM). I cannot say enough good stuff about the fest and the team. I've attended and screened at many fests over the past 15 years, and the hospitality of Philly JFM is unrivaled. They treat filmmakers with such a deep amount of respect, kindness and generosity. The communication was top-notch, and their programming choices are diverse and ambitious. They are not afraid to program weird, challenging films, which is one of the highest compliments I can give a festival in 2025. The venues are rad! The Q&As after my screenings, facilitated by Program Director Larry Fried, were so insightful and engaging. Larry's thoughtful questions helped the audience understand the film better, and also encouraged me to consider the film in new ways.

    All to say, do not sleep on PhillyJFM. It is one of the coolest festivals in the country.

    Thank you to Kristen, Larry, Beth, Paige and the rest of the PhillyJFM team for having us, and making it such an incredible experience. More to come.

    December 2025
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  • Jacob Perdue

    Amazing experience. Felt very welcomed and felt the festival overall was a great celebration of Jews and Judaism in the arts

    December 2025
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  • Shari Albert

    Absolutely, hands down the best festival experience I've had so far. Everyone was so lovely, warm, and welcoming. Not to mention professional, as our block of shorts was expertly curated. I was thrilled to be a part of this festival and can't recommend it enough! Best block of shorts we've been in so far - we were very happy to be in such good company. Well run, well executed, and I would never hesitate to submit here again. Larry and his team were awesome. <3

    November 2025
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  • Chen Heifetz

    Philadelphia Jewish Film and Media were absolutely lovely! Every interaction with them was so warm and easy. The festival itself looks wonderful.
    Really hoping to visit in person someday!

    November 2025
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  • Suki John

    We are deeply honored to have been nominated for best Narrative Feature Film for our dance film about the Holocaust, Sh'ma: A Story of Survival. Thank you so much for recognizing the power of dance, music, and film to tell important stories!

    September 2023
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