The twelfth annual WinterFest, presented by the Jewish Film Institute, is an electrifying showcase of bold, independent films that expand and evolve the Jewish story across two action-packed days at the Vogue Theater in San Francisco. From innovative dramatic features to illuminating documentaries, WinterFest 2025 invites communities in the Bay Area and beyond to dive deep into tales that entertain, challenge, educate, and delight us.

Schedule of Events:

1:30 pm: Creative Interventions: The Role of Art in Healing Political Division

Tatyana Tenenbaum, director, Everything You Have is Yours

Hadar Ahuvia, participant and choreographer, Everything You Have is Yours
Additional guests to be announced

October 7th and the war in Gaza poured fuel on the fire of long standing political polarization and community divisions, making the need for nuanced conversations more vital than ever before. But as topics like Israel, Palestine, and antisemitism continue to dominate the headlines, Jewish communal discussions around these themes are increasingly fraught. Film, and the arts more broadly, offer an alternative lens for unpacking past and current events that can then create space for complexity, nuance, and healing when words alone are not enough. Winterfest selection Everything You Have is Yours tackles these themes head on, tracing the familial and communal fractures that break out along political lines. In addition to the film's director and main participant, this panel will include Jewish community thought leaders and creative practitioners discussing the role of the arts in addressing these emotionally charged topics, and how art works to heal the internal divisions that prevent it from being discussed in the first place. - REBECCA PIERCE

4:30 pm: Outsider. Freud

The life and legacy of Sigmund Freud, one of the most influential and studied figures in modern psychology, is re-examined in this fresh new portrait of the man behind the theory. Over the course of four acts, this fascinating documentary combines animation, dreams, and insights from leading psychoanalysts. A deep dive into Freud's experiences of marginalization as a Jew in Vienna during Hitler's rise provides the context for how this moment shaped his theories and personal life. Through an intimate lens, the film reveals new dimensions of Freud's legacy, focusing on the profound effects of being an outsider.

Outsider. Freud is the latest entry in Qedar's The Hebrews Project, a documentary series dedicated to preserving the histories of Hebrew writers and Jewish authors from the 17th century to present. Crucial to imparting and sharing the stories of those who came before and influence today, this film honors and upends the legacy of Freud as we know it.

7:00 pm: The Zweiflers - Episodes 1-3

JFI WinterFest presents the first three episodes of the series

When the Zweifler family patriarch, Holocaust survivor Symcha, announces his plans to sell the family's deli empire, it causes a shift for the whole extended family to navigate. As news of the sale brings old buried secrets from his past to the surface, the three generations of Zweiflers reflect on their family's history, and their obligations to one another. And when the eldest grandson Samuel, a music manager in Berlin who returns home to Frankfurt, unexpectedly finds himself thrust into fatherhood, he is caught between honoring old traditions and creating new ones.

A vibrant and complex exploration of the intergenerational conflicts that emerge when desires and duty clash, and how the past seeps into the present. Led by an exceptional ensemble cast, this comedic drama, which won three prizes at the Cannes International Series Festival, portrays a modern German Jewish family's everyday challenges, moral dilemmas, and blurred boundaries with refreshing nuance and endearing humor. - CELESTE WONG