Short Film Competition

A showcase of some of the most exciting and thought-provoking short films from around the world featuring stories from established filmmakers and new emerging talent.

THE BROTHER MIKE TAPES
Southeast US Premiere | Directed by Rodd Perry & Mike Cohen
USA | 11 minutes | 2022

For 15 years, Brother Mike Cohen secretly recorded conversations with his parents as they begged him to declutter his room, lectured him about the length of his hair, and tried to discourage his dream of becoming a rock and roll DJ. Decades later, a college friend would bring these intimate family moments to life through animation.

THE CHOSEN ONE
Southeast US Premiere | Directed by Elazar Fine
USA | 19 minutes | 2022

After impulsively shaving off his beard and sidelocks, a young Hasidic man experiences a nightmarish transformation that leads him right back to where he started.

EDEN'S EMPIRE
International Premiere | Directed by Joshua Trachtman
Israel | 17 minutes | 2022

A lonely thirteen-year-old girl whose parents are splitting up runs away to the woods near her home, where an unexpected companion helps her come to terms with feelings of powerlessness and loss.

GEFILTE FISH
Southeast US Premiere | Directed by Yuliya Lanina
USA | 6 minutes | 2022

In this hand-drawn animated short, a family meal in the Bronx serves up past trauma, silenced truths, and a fish stuffed with secrets.

LETTER TO A PIG
Southeast US Premiere | Directed by Tal Kantor
France | 16 minutes | 2022

A Holocaust survivor writes a thank you letter to a pig that saved his life in this award-winning animated short film. After his testimony in a classroom, a young student dreams a tragic version of his story. Beyond her personal vision, the film also explores the themes of collective trauma, vengeance, human evil, and compassion.

MAKE ME A KING
Southeast US Premiere | Directed by Sofia Olins
UK | 16 minutes | 2022

When Ari, a Jewish drag king, is ostracized by their family, they cling to their real-life hero, Pepi Littman, who carved out a space for drag kings over 100 years ago. A film about family, in all of its forms, and being your true, authentic self at any cost.

MINYAN DUTY
Southeast US Premiere | Directed by Ivan Kander
USA | 14 minutes | 2022

Hoping to say Kaddish after their mother’s death, Leah and Ariel find themselves one person short of making a Minyan—the quorum of ten Jewish adults required for evening prayer service. As a result, they turn to an unconventional solution.

NAKAM
Southeast US Premiere | Directed by Andreas Kessler
Germany | 33 minutes | 2022

Twelve-year-old violin player Mitka is supposed to execute an attack on several SS officers in the name of a Ukrainian partisan movement, but this attempt will also put his only friend in mortal danger.

OMI
Southeast US Premiere | Directed by Adam Lebowitz-Lockard
USA | 15 minutes | 2022

When he's ready to take the next step with his shiksa girlfriend, a young Jewish man gets possessed by the spirit of his dead Yiddish grandmother, OMI, who has plans of her own.

THE PEACOCK THAT PASSED OVER
Southeast US Premiere | Directed by Max Goldberg
UK | 4 minutes | 2022

Four years ago a peacock suddenly landed and has settled ever since on the grounds of a Leeds synagogue. Whimsical and charming, the film explores the responses of a diverse section of that Yorkshire community.

REMNANT
North American Premiere | Directed by Avital Simckes
Israel | 29 minutes | 2022

A young Holocaust survivor tries to overcome the nightmares of the past and live under a new identity as an underground commander, when another survivor, a childhood friend, joins his unit.

THE RECORD
Southeast US Premiere | Directed by Jonathan Laskar
Switzerland | 9 minutes | 2022

In this stunning animated short film, an antique music instrument dealer receives a magical vinyl record from a traveler: “It reads your mind and plays your lost memories.” Obsessed by this endless record, the antique dealer listens to it again and again, and the memories reemerge until one last and most painful memory is revealed: how he got separated from his mother on the Swiss border during World War II.

SOLO
North American Premiere | Directed by Anat Eisenberg
Israel | 27 minutes | 2022

15-year-old Rina, estranged from her mother, fights for a place at her demanding ballet school. During preparations for the end-of-the-year performance, she is granted a solo role and decides to persuade her mother to come and see her dance. On the eve of the premiere, when she is sure that all the stars are working in her favor, Rina is forced to take a closer look at her mother's demons.

UNFOUND
International Premiere | Directed by Shahar Balfour
Israel | 8 minutes | 2022

In two parallel timelines, a little girl and an old lady lose their way as they wander on a journey between reality and imagination.

THE WALTZ
Southeast US Premiere | Directed by Yulia Ruditskaya
USA | 5 minutes | 2022

Shadows from an interwar Yiddish poem by A. Lutzky waltz at the edge of a modern world as it crumbles under their feet.

WHATSAPP, GARIN GILBOA?
International Premiere | Directed by Itzhak Fuchs
Israel | 25 minutes | 2022

Seeking to find out what remains of the Religious Zionism he once knew, filmmaker Itzhak Fuchs reflects on the glamorous period of his youth in 1967, when he served in a religious paramilitary group. Fifty years later, his peers create a WhatsApp group to revive their lost connections.

YELLOW STAR
World Premiere | Directed by Skobun Skobun
Ukraine | 18 minutes | 2023

Set in 1941 and entirely made in Ukraine, Yellow Star centers on a small Ukrainian town occupied by German troops, where a Jewish family learns about a Nazi-planned operation to send children from the Ghetto to a concentration camp.