The Dayton Jewish International Film Festival offers outstanding world cinema that promotes awareness, appreciation and pride to the diversity of the Jewish people and to the community at large. Our goal is to educate and entertain through evocative, narrative and documentary films that portray the Jewish experience from historic to current global perspectives.

Schedule of Events:

Thursday, June 5, 2025

7:15 pm: Opening Night - Matchmaking

The film will be followed by a dessert reception

Location: The Roger Glass Center for the Arts (29 Creative Way, Dayton, OH 45479)

Cost:
Individual Ticket: $18
Season pass: $110 (includes all films, except Bee Movie, which requires separate registration)

(Israel, 2022, 96 minutes, Hebrew with English subtitles) Comedy

Like a modern-day Romeo, Moti (Amit Rahav) falls head over heels for his sister's friend Nechama (Liana Ayoun), but isn't allowed to date the charming, beautiful young woman because she comes from a Mizrahi (Middle Eastern) family, not an Ashkenazi (European) family like his own. To the great despair of both his parents and an exasperated matchmaker, he goes to comical lengths to pursue his one true love.

Tuesday, June 10, 2025

7:15 pm: Running on Sand

Location: The Neon (130 E. 5th Street, Dayton, OH 45402)

Cost:
Individual Ticket: $12
Season pass: $110 (includes all films, except Bee Movie, which requires separate registration)

(Israel, 2023, 104 minutes, Hebrew with English Subtitles) Drama-Comedy

Aumari, a young Eritrean refugee living in Israel, is about to be deported back to his home country. After a spontaneous escape attempt at the airport, he is mistaken for a Nigerian striker, who is supposed to arrive at the same time. Aumari seizes the opportunity and benefits from his change of identity as the new key acquisitions for the team of Maccabi Netanya. Despite the absence of any soccar talent, Aumari is able to cover up and heal the divisions of his struggling team, while a tender romantic bond with the charmingly unconventional daughter of the team owner is growing.

Thursday, June 12, 2025

7:15 pm: Shari Lewis and Lamb Chop

Location: The Neon, (130 E. 5th Street, Dayton, OH 45402)

Cost:
Individual Ticket: $12
Season pass: $110 (includes all films, except Bee Movie, which requires separate registration)

(United States, 2023, 92 minutes, English) Documentary

Coming of age can be difficult, but is always more bearable when you have someone who connects with you on a cellular level. Shari Lewis - a children's television pioneer before Fred Rogers, Jim Henson, and others - was one of those people. She was a dancer, singer, and magician, but was best known as the ventriloquist behind sock puppets Charlie Horse, Hush Puppy and, of course, Lamb Chop. This heartfelt and entertaining doc charts the life, loves, and career hits and misses of the spunky perfectionist who forever changed the face of children's television. Featuring ventriloquists she inspired and nostalgia-laden clips, this upbeat portrait brims, like Lewis, with warmth and charm. Shari and Lamb Chop are the tonic we all need to reconnect with our inner children, and celebrate pure imagination.

Sunday, June 15, 2025

7:15 pm: The Blond Boy from the Casbah

Location: The Neon (130 E. 5th Street, Dayton, OH 45402)

Cost:
Individual Ticket: $12
Season pass: $110 (includes all films, except Bee Movie, which requires separate registration)

(France, 2023, 128 minutes, French with English subtitles) Comedy-Drama

Passionate filmmaker Antoine travels to his birthplace, Algiers, with his young son to present his new film: an account of his childhood in mid-20th-century Algeria during the country's civil war. As he wanders through the city, the filmmaker immerses us in the moments of happiness, laughter, and tears of his childhood - spent between school, friends, and his Jewish family. Growing up in the final moments of Algeria's pre-independence period, the young Antoine discovers his profound fascination with cinema and starts to understand who he truly is.

Tuesday, June 17, 2025

Simone - Woman of the Century

Reception at 9:30 a.m.
Film begins at 10:00 a.m.

Location: The Neon (130 E. 5th Street, Dayton, OH 45402)

Cost:
Individual Ticket: $12
Season pass: $110 (includes all films, except Bee Movie, which requires separate registration)

(France, 2022, 140 minutes, French, Hebrew, and German with English subtitles) Docudrama

This film tells Simone Veil's life story through the pivotal events of the 20th century. Touching on her childhood, political battles, and tragedies, Simone - Woman of the Century is an intimate and epic portrait of an extraordinary woman who eminently challenged and transformed her era, defending a humanist message still keenly relevant today.

Thursday, June 19, 2025

7:15 pm: A Night of Short Films

Location: The Neon (130 E. 5th Street, Dayton, OH 45402)

Cost:
Individual Ticket: $12
Season pass: $110 (includes all films, except Bee Movie, which requires separate registration)

Films include:

The President's Tailor (United States, Germany, 2024, 39 minutes, English): Martin Greenfield learned to sew while mending shirts for the Gestapo in Auschwitz when he was fifteen, and went on to make suits for U.S. presidents and stars. This is the story of America's greatest tailor, and the bespoke menswear empire he left behind.

Fiddler on the Moon (United States, 2024, 30 minutes, English): This short finally answers the question that has plaqued scientists, theologians, and comedians for millennia: Will Judaism survive in space? Starring Neil deGrasse Tyson, astronauts Jeffrey Hoffman and Jessica Meir, and a quorum of rabbis and researchers.  

How to Make Challah (United States, 2023, 12 minutes, English): In 1975, director Sarah Rosen's Aunt Jane filmed her 97-year-old immigrant grandmother baking challah on the Upper West Side. In 2022, Rosen continued this ritual, filming Aunt Jane (80) baking challah for the first time. The film includes archival footage from Jewish life at the turn of the 20th century.

Periphery (Canada, 2022, 27 minutes, English, Portuguese with English subtitles. Also available online Tuesday, June 10 - included when you purchase Running on Sand online ticket): Both a film and an evocative photographic project bearing witness to diversity in the Jewish community, it shares individuals' multiracial and multiethnic narratives. The short film creates space to look, listen, and learn as they share their experiences and explore ideas of representation, intersecionality, ethnicity, race, and sexuality.  

Mahjong and Mahashas (Australia, 2023, 15 minutes, English): This short documentary about Sydney's Singaporean Sephardic community weaves together interviews, photographs, original music and contemporary content. The clatter of mahjong tiles; mouthwatering mahashas made of tomatoes stuffed with meat and rice, and cacophonous gatherings of extended family will immerse audiences in a culture rich in tradition, customs, and heritage.

Sunday, June 22, 2025

3:15 pm: Troll Storm

Location: The Neon (130 E. 5th Street, Dayton, OH 45402)

Cost:
Individual Ticket: $12
Season pass: $110 (includes all films, except Bee Movie, which requires separate registration)

(United States, 202, 83 minutes, English) Docudrama

A successful realtor and soccer mom's life is turned upside down when neo-Nazis unleash a troll storm against her and her family. In the face of an alarming growth of American fascism, she finds solidarity with her community by standing up, fighting back and ultimately filing a landmark case for the First Amendment, setting a precedent that could shape America's future.

7:15 pm: Bad Shabbos

Location: The Neon (130 E. 5th Street, Dayton, OH 45402)

Cost:
Individual Ticket: $12
Season pass: $110 (includes all films, except Bee Movie, which requires separate registration)

(United States, 2024, 84 minutes, English) Comedy

Kyra Sedgwick and Cliff “Method Man” Smith lead a hilarious ensemble cast in this new comedy, winner of the Audience Award at the 2024 Tribeca Film Festival! When David and his fiancé Meg gather for his family's traditional Shabbat dinner on New York's Upper West Side, things spiral faster than you can say “hamotzi” when an accidental death (or…murder?) derails the evening entirely. With Meg's devoutly Catholic parents due any moment to meet David's very Jewish family, soon Shabbat becomes a comedy of biblical proportions.

Tuesday, June 24, 2025

7:15 pm: Come Closer

Location: The Neon (130 E. 5th Street, Dayton, OH 45402)

Cost:
Individual Ticket: $12
Season pass: $110 (includes all films, except Bee Movie, which requires separate registration)

(Israel, Italy, 2024, 100 minutes, Hebrew with English subtitles) Drama

Eden, consumed by grief after her brother's death, discovers and becomes obsessed with his secret girlfriend, embarking on a journey of passion, obsession, and self-discovery, ultimately exploring the complexities of love, loss, and healing. The film showcases how the path to healing can be fraught with challenges. In September 2018, screenwriter Tom Nesher's brother Ari was killed in a car accident shortly after his 17th birthday. She wrote the screenplay for the film, initially titled Finally, which is based on her personal story.

Thursday, June 26, 2025

7:15 pm: Shoshana

Location: The Neon (130 E. 5th Street, Dayton, OH 45402)

Cost:
Individual Ticket: $12
Season pass: $110 (includes all films, except Bee Movie, which requires separate registration)

(United Kingdom, Italy, 2024, 121 minutes, English, Hebrew, Arabic, and Russian with English subtitles) Drama-Historical Thriller

The film is set in 1930s-40s British Mandatory Palestine. If follows the tragic love story of Shoshana Borochov, daughter of one of the founders of socialist Zionism, and British police officer Tom Wilkin. Wilkin and fellow police officer Geoffrey J. Morton hunt for Zionist militant Avraham Stern who was plotting to evict British authorities. The film takes place in Tel Aviv, where tensions are high as the British, under the mandate, attempt to maintain order in a city with a mixed Arab and Jewish population.

Sunday, June 29, 2025

6:30 pm: Midas Man

Location: The Plaza Theatre (33 S. Main Street, Miamisburg, OH 45342)

Cost:
Individual Ticket: $18
Season pass: $110 (includes all films, except Bee Movie, which requires separate registration)

(United Kingdom, 2024, 112 minutes, English) Drama-Musical

Meet Brian Epstein, the Jewish Liverpudlian who lived a thousand lives in a few short years, a visionary who transformed music history. From running a Liverpool record store to shaping the sound of a generation, Epstein's journey is a roller coaster of ambition, passion, and relentless pursuit of greatness. Jacob Fortune-Lloyd stars as the mastermind behind The Beatles' meteoric rise.

Includes a reception with light refreshments before the movie.

Sunday, July 13, 2025

3:15 pm: Bee Movie - Children's Event

Location: The Neon (130 E. 5th Street, Dayton, OH 45402)

(United States, Canada, 2007, 91 minutes, English) Animated Comedy-Drama

Barry B. Benson, a bee just graduated from college, is disillusioned at his lone career choice: making honey. On a special trip outside the hive, Barry's life is saved by Vanessa, a florist in New York City. As their relationship blossoms, he discovers humans actually eat honey and subsequently decides to sue them.

Date:
June 5 - July 13, 2025

Location:
Various Venues in Dayton, OH

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