AJFF set to Celebrate 25th Anniversary
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AJFF set to Celebrate 25th Anniversary

Atlanta Jewish Film Festival plans $2.5 million campaign to enhance year-round programming.

The Kenny Blank Vision Initiative is a $2.5 million fundraising campaign named for the festival’s director.
The Kenny Blank Vision Initiative is a $2.5 million fundraising campaign named for the festival’s director.

The Atlanta Jewish Film Festival kicked off its 25th Silver Anniversary celebration with a preview of this year’s festival before a capacity audience in The Temple’s social hall on Jan. 14. The AJFF has scheduled 50 feature films and documentaries from 20 countries during the festival this year, which opens on Feb. 19. There’s an additional 14 short films running in three programs.

The anniversary is being used by the AJFF as an opportunity to reposition itself in time of rapid technological and social change. However, the festival, and its executive and artistic director, Kenny Blank, sees all these challenges as an opportunity.

“The 25th milestone is a springboard for growth,” Blank notes, “expanding education, investing in filmmakers, enhancing access and driving innovation to deepen community impact.”

The festival is returning to the Cobb Energy Center for its opening night presentation on Feb. 19 of “Bad Shabbos.” It’s an American comedy film that springs to life amidst the mishaps and unpredictable calamities of a Shabbat dinner on the Upper West Side of New York City.

“Bad Shabbos,” a comedy about a Sabbath dinner that goes awry, is the festival’s opening night film.

On March 1, there a tribute to Jerry Lewis, the comedy great, who died in 2017. His son, Christopher, will be the guest for screenings of Lewis’s 1960 production of “The Bell Boy.” He’ll also be on hand for a documentary surrounding the controversial unfinished 1972 film Lewis attempted to create about a clown and the children he befriends in Auschwitz.

The closing night on March 5 at the Sandy Springs Performing Arts Center is “Cheers to Life,” a Brazilian dramatic comedy that follow a young couple to Israel as they rediscover themselves, their spiritual identity and each other.

Following the 80 screenings in six theaters around the city, 15 of the films, along with the three programs of shorts, will be available, virtually, in Georgia from March 7-16.

When tickets go on sale to the general public at noon on Feb. 5, you’l be able to buy them, for the first time, on a newly released smartphone app. The program will also allow you to build a personal schedule for the films you’re attending, to receive breaking news about updates to scheduled events and audience awards voting. It’s available as both an Apple and Android app.

A tribute to film comedy legend Jerry Lewis is scheduled for March 1.

The app will also help the festival develop a more personal relationship with its many supporters as it pursues a campaign over the next year to raise $2.5 million to fund an expanded series of programs. The campaign, which is called the Kenny Blank Vision Initiative, is an outgrowth of a comprehensive review of what the festival wants to become in the future, a more active supporter of year-round programming and educational opportunities.

The AJFF is planning to expand streaming offerings and free screening events. It hopes to create classroom programming and curriculum development with its educational partners and will offer for the first time at this year’s festival a school field trip program on Feb. 27.

It’s expanding its filmmaker fund to support young creative talents with direct grants and mentoring relationships.

The new funding is also aimed at making a concerted effort by the festival to broaden its appeal beyond the Jewish community through stronger intergroup partnerships and community-focused events.

Kenny Blank has a long history of service on the board of the Arthur Blank Family Foundation that his father has generously funded. He welcomed the personal nature that the new initiative represents.

“I am deeply honored to have my name associated with this visionary initiative and humbled by the opportunity to continue shaping AJFF’s legacy,” he said.

The AJFF Board President Dina Gerson believes that the fund will be more than just a way to grow the reach of the annual festival, it will be a way to extend the work of the festival throughout the year.

“The Kenny Blank Vision Initiative transcends the festival, ensuring that our storied organization is positioned as a powerful engine for cultural growth, year-round audience engagement, and global impact,” Gerson said.

The new fundraiser is also in recognition of the new challenges that have beset the Jewish community locally, nationally and internationally since the attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. The American Jewish Committee, an AJFF founding partner, took note of those challenges in the introduction to the 2025 AJFF program guide that was mailed earlier this month to the community.

In it, the local AJC chair, Belinda Morris, and Dov Wilker, AJC southeast area director of the organization, noted that “unprecedented levels of antisemitism underscore the vital need for resilience and unity,” and have confirmed the missions of both the AJC and the AJFF.

“Now, more than ever,” Morris and Wilker wrote, “our roles are critical.”

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