AJFF Goes All Virtual in 2022

For the first time in its 22-year history, the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival is going all virtual. Starting Feb. 16, the entire line up of 55 films will be streamed and available to watch at any time during the 12-day festival.

The festival had planned to offer a number of theatrical releases, including the opening and closing night programs, as well as in-person showings of its young professional night film and a special late-night classic.

But all of that was scrubbed on Jan. 20, after the program guide had already been printed and a little over a week before the full lineup of films was publicly announced. The last-minute decision was made by the festival board, based on the recommendation of a COVID-19 task force of healthcare professionals that has been working closely with the festival all year.

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The AJFF’s executive director, Kenny Blank, was forced to cancel all in-person theater showings at the 2022 festival less than a month before it was scheduled to begin.

According to Kenny Blank, the longtime executive director of the festival, the decision was a painful one, made only after considerable deliberation.

“We had a very sobering meeting with our COVID Medical Advisory Group in the middle of January,” he recalled. “We have always said we would let the science and the data drive our decision-making process. There’s a whole host of considerations to look at here, but ultimately, it is a safety-first determination. It was clear that, in this current environment, it was not safe to bring audiences together for a sustained 12-day period in theaters.”

The socially distanced 2022 festival will open on Feb. 16 with the East Coast premiere of “The Survivor,” a new film by veteran director and producer Barry Levinson. The opening night program will feature a conversation between Levinson and Ben Mankiewicz, the host of Turner Classic Movies.

“The Survivor,” starring Ben Foster, is about a Polish Holocaust survivor who tries to start life anew in New York after the war.

The film, which includes a bravura performance by star Ben Foster, is about a Polish Holocaust survivor who tries to start his life anew in America but is haunted by memories of his experiences in Auschwitz, which he survived only because in boxing matches put on for the amusement of the camp guards he successfully fought for his life. The losers were executed.

Based loosely on the true story of Harry Haft, a Jewish boxer and survivor of Auschwitz, who once fought in the ring with Rocky Marciano, the middleweight boxing legend.

At press time, the festival was still completing its lineup of celebrity guests for at least 16 of its films. Mariette Hartley, whose long career as a star in film and television goes back to the early 1960s, has been scheduled to appear for the world premiere of a film she wrote and in which she stars, “Our (Almost Completely True) Story.” Also booked are the Israeli filmmaking brothers, Yoav and Daron Paz, whose historical thriller, “Plan A,” is set in Germany in the aftermath of World War II.

This year’s festival offerings, culled from the hundreds of films reviewed by the festival’s volunteer screening committee, feature a number of outstanding productions, including a half dozen films that are having their North American premieres in Atlanta. Among these is the selection for Young Professionals Night, “Love and Mazel Tov,” a German romantic comedy about a young doctor who pretends to be Jewish in order to pursue a relationship with a woman he has fallen for.

“Love and Mazel Tov,” a romantic comedy from Germany, is the Young Professionals Night selection.

Also having its American debut, on Feb. 27, is “Woman of Valor,” an Israeli documentary about how an Orthodox woman defies the conventions of her religious community to become a social activist and political leader. The film is in the running for the festival’s Jury Prize for Best Documentary, one of six prizes that will be awarded this year.

Several of the films to be screened come laden with honors; among them, the highly controversial “Ahed’s Knee,” by acclaimed Israeli filmmaker Nadav Lapid. The film won the Jury Prize at Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for eight Ophirs, Israel’s top movie award. (I’ll be introducing the film at the festival.)

Another film to watch is the Israeli comedy “Greener Pastures,” which was nominated for 12 Ophirs, including Best Film. It tells the story of an Israeli nursing home resident who finds romance and a new source of income by dealing medical marijuana to those who live in his senior community.

“Image of Victory,” which revisits Israel’s War of Independence in 1948, was made by the veteran Israeli film director Avi Nesher, whose films have been audience favorites in past years at the AJFF. It has been nominated for 15 Ophir Awards.

In an effort to recreate some of the personal moviegoing experiences of the past, the festival has brought back its Virtual Lobby, a series of seven informal discussions of important issues raised by the year’s offerings.

The closing night selection is “Woman of Valor,” an Israel documentary about an Orthodox woman who becomes a political activist.

Like so many important cultural and entertainment events, this year’s AJFF faces formidable competition from the unprecedented growth of online streaming platforms with a seemingly vast array of offerings at little or no cost. But, according to Blank, this avalanche of content lacks the personal touch that has made the festival such an important Atlanta celebration.

“We miss that we don’t have that opportunity to see our audience face to face and see the experience and the transformation that happens when they come out of the theater and watch these movies. No one wants to see us back in theaters more than the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival staff. They have been so committed, so dedicated, so creative and just relentless in finding ways that the great show everyone has come to expect from us will go on.”

For those who have bought tickets to the festival in the past, the 103-page program guide should be arriving by mail byearly February. Ticket sales for the general public begin at noon on Feb. 9. For more information, visit www.AJFF.org.

The video trailer for the 2022 AJFF is available.