11th Oklahoma Jewish Film Festival

Presented by the Jewish Federation of Tulsa and Circle Cinema, see the best in contemporary Jewish films from March 23-27.

The Oklahoma Jewish Film Festival’s mission is to use the power of compelling stories to bring people of all religions and cultures together to enrich, educate, and entertain about the global Jewish experience. We offer films that bring people together, spark conversations, and combat antisemitism and all forms of hatred. OKJFF includes an educational component, offering a free Holocaust educational film to middle and high school teachers as part of their curriculum teaching students about history, hate, intolerance, and the effects of being a bystander. For information on bringing your class to view the Holocaust Education Film, contact Sofia Thornblad, Director of Holocaust Education, Sherwin Miller Museum of Jewish Art, 918-492-1818 or curator@jewishmuseum.net.

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Tickets on sale now - get your All Access pass to see all seven films for one great price of $70

The pass includes admission to all seven film screenings. Tickets for individual films are $12 each. Keep scrolling for those tickets and info on each film.

Bad Shabbos - Sun 3/23 at 3:00p

Comedy (English – 1h24min). Tickets $12 each.

Winner of the 2024 Tribeca Audience Award, this fast-paced comedy is set on a single night during a New York City Shabbos dinner. Bad Shabbos follows an engaged interfaith couple who are about to have their parents meet for the first time. Then, an accidental death gets in the way. Uproariously funny with an ensemble featuring Kyra Sedgwick, Method Man, David Paymer, and Milana Vayntrub, this dark comedy is filled with twists, turns, and laughs you won’t see coming!

Sabbath Queen - Sun 3/23 at 7:00p

Documentary (English, Hebrew, Yiddish with subtitles – 1h45min). Tickets $12 each.

With special guest, local drag queen, Alistair Abulafia DeVane Summers.

Film Co-Sponsor: Twisted Arts Film Festival. Visit TwistedFest.org for more.

Filmed over 21 years, "Sabbath Queen" follows Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie’s journey as the heir of 38 generations of Orthodox rabbis who is torn between accepting his ancestral destiny or becoming a drag queen rebel. In addition to his drag persona, Lau-Lavie is a queer bio-dad and the founder of Lab/Shul: an everybody-friendly, G-d optional, artist-driven, pop-up experimental congregation. With incredible access, award-winning director Sandi DuBowski ("Trembling Before G-d," Sundance 2001) joins Rabbi Amichai on a life journey and cinematic quest to creatively and radically reinvent religion and ritual while challenging gender norms in a rapidly changing 21st century.

Soda - Mon 3/24 at 7:00p

Drama (Hebrew with subtitles – 1h39min) Tickets $12 each.

With a special introduction by "Soda" director Erez Tadmor

Lior Raz (Fauda) stars as Shalom Gottlieb, a former partisan leader and factory foreman in an Israeli working-class neighborhood in 1954. Eva (Rotem Sela, Beauty and the Baker) is a beautiful seamstress who arrives in town with her daughter. For Shalom, she represents a chance at happiness and a life filled with beauty and laughter. But rumors of her past as a Kapo during the Holocaust shake the community, and Shalom’s desire to be with Eva betray both his family and the fellow survivors living in the neighborhood. Amidst these swirling suspicions, he is determined to discover the truth. Nominated for 3 Israeli Academy Awards.

Yaniv - Tue 3/25 at 7:00p

Comedy (English – 1h20min) Tickets $12 each.

Two desperate high-school teachers from the Bronx become embroiled in a high-stakes caper that is way over their heads. Their misadventure begins with noble intentions, as they try, albeit unsuccessfully, to secure funding for a spring musical production for their students. Their unconventional solution? Infiltrating an underground card game called “Yaniv” run by an ultra-Orthodox Jewish group, all in pursuit of claiming the coveted prize money. However, despite their best-laid plans, chaos ensues, resulting in a riotous, comedic unraveling with moments of profound depth and heartwarming warmth.

Shari & Lamb Chop - Wed 3/26 at 1:00p

Documentary (English – 1h28min). Tickets $12 each.

Introduction by Tulsa puppeteer David Bizarro

All guests have a chance to win a Lamb Chop Doll!

This heartfelt and entertaining film charts the life, loves, and career hits and misses of the spunky children’s television pioneer Shari Lewis, a young Jewish girl from the Bronx to the country’s most famous ventriloquist. 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. Featuring ventriloquists she inspired and nostalgia-laden clips, this upbeat portrait brims, like Lewis, with warmth and charm.

The Blond Boy from the Casbah - Wed 3/26 at 7:00p

Drama (French with subtitles – 2h6min). Tickets $12 each.

A film within a film, this loving portrait of the once thriving Sephardic community in Algiers in the 1960s finds a famed French filmmaker returning home with his teenage son to present his beautifully reenacted memoir. 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. In the present, the adult Antione wanders through the city, immersed in the moments of happiness, laughter, and tears of his youth - spent between school, friends, and his Jewish family.

Running on Sand - Thu 3/27 at 7:00p

Drama/Comedy (Hebrew with subtitles – 1h44min). Tickets $12 each.

African Meal Reception with closing film "Running on Sand" on Thu 3/27

Join us for closing night of the Oklahoma Jewish Film Festival with an African Inspired meal by Afrikan Delights. If you would like to attend the dinner, a combo ticket that includes dinner and the film must be purchased in advance for $30. The food pairs well with the closing film, "Running on Sand," about an Eritrean refugee living in Israel and his plight as he is about to be deported back to his home country.

Followed by post-film discussion with Rabbi Dan Kaiman and Genevieve Rahim from the Refugee Resettlement Program at Congregation B’nai Emunah.