Shoelaces

The History of Jews in America Through Film

September 2019-March 2020

The JCC Chicago Jewish Film Festival is proud to present a brand-new film series that examines the history, stories, experiences and legacy of American Jews from the earliest days of moving pictures to present.

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Feature Film

At the CJFF, our goal is to inspire movie-goers to expand their understanding of Jewish culture and to bring a wide-variety of entertaining films, with a Jewish lens, to our community. We promote films that have a Jew-ish connection to life, culture, history both on-screen and behind-the-scenes. To qualify as a CJFF submission, films must meet the basic category requirements and resonate with our Jewish community.

Short Film

To qualify as a CJFF submission, Short Films must meet the basic category requirements and themes of the Feature Film category. While Feature Films must be over 75 minutes, Short Film Submissions must be under 30 minutes including all intros and credits.

Student Filmmaker Competition

We’re looking for student filmmakers of all experience levels to share previously created or new narrative or documentary short films (an original motion picture that has a running time between 3 and 10 minutes, including all credits. Filmmakers must reside in the Chicagoland area/suburbs (this includes parts of Wisconsin and Indiana) or be participants in a JCC Chicago program (including Camp Chi, Springboard, etc.)

Prizes: Two $500 prizes awarded to first place entries in both High School and College/Post Graduate categories. Additionally, both films will be screened in theater at the 7th Annual JCC Chicago Jewish Film Fest in 2020.

Submissions are accepted through Film Freeway:

Deadline: December 2, 2019 at 11:59pm