By Andrew Adler
Community Editor
A rollicking celebration of Yiddish. Iran and Israel grappling on the Judo mat. Animation blending with magical realism to illuminate a forgotten corner of the Holocaust. And amid Swinging Sixties London, the “Fifth Beatle” transforms a quartet of mop-topped Liverpool lads into the most famous band on the planet.
Welcome to the 2026 edition of the Louisville Jewish Film Festival.
Continuing the vision of its founding partner, the Louis Levy & Wilma Probst Levy Film and Theater Arts Fund, this year’s edition kicks off Feb. 7 at the Trager Family JCC and runs through Feb. 22. The lineup comprises 11 examples of cinematic imagination, many already acclaimed on the international festival circuit. As Kentucky’s only Jewish film festival, it’s a prime opportunity to consider what it means to be creative, filtered – literally – through a Jewish lens.
It’s the culmination of a process that began almost immediately after the 2025 festival. Festival Director Tricia Kling Siegwald has spent the past year speaking with distributors in the U.S. and Israel, culling through dozens of potential successor films. A six-member preview committee makes the first cut after viewing close to 40 candidates, with the full committee of 16 voting on the final candidates.
The ten chosen films reflect a defining imperative: offer multiple genres that will appeal to a broad range of tastes and backgrounds. Some will gain mainstream attention (witness last year’s “Bad Shabbos,” which enjoyed a nationwide theatrical release before moving to Netflix’s streaming environment). Others will make the rounds of festival screenings, tucked away until – perhaps – a distributor deems them worth putting in front of a wider audience.
As Chrysler used to say, quality is job one.
“I’m researching award-winning films and getting solicited by some of the bigger distributors,” explains Siegwald, Senior Director, Adult Programming & Special Projects at the Trager Family JCC. “It’s an ongoing relationship. It never stops.”
Take this year’s opening film: Welcome to Yiddishland, a finalist for the Documentary Australia Award at the 2024 Sydney Film Festival. Already the film has been shown at such venues as the Miami Jewish Film Festival and the Jewish Federation of the Berkshires.
Tracing the revival of the Yiddish language via literary and performing arts, Welcome to Yiddishland is among the 2026 Louisville Jewish Film Festival’s most accessible properties. It also has the benefit of lightness and fun, one reason why Siegwald and her committee colleagues chose it for the opening night on Feb. 7. The event, which begins at 7:30 p.m. and is sponsored by Wilma Probst Levy, begins with what organizers describe as “an immersive Yiddish experience featuring Yiddish-themed light hors d’oeuvres, treats, and entertainment from the band, Lost Tribe.”
A showing of the 95-minute film will follow in the Shapira Foundation Auditorium. Opening night tickets are $22.
There are eight additional in-person film presentations. Bellarmine and Cinemark were added as venues relatively late in the planning process, when it became clear that Baxter Ave Cinemas Filmworks would be unavailable. The facility closed for good this past Dec. 31.
(You can buy a pass that provides admission to all in-person showings for $89 – a $118 value.)
To be sure, this year’s lineup is resolutely eclectic – which is precisely what the festival committee wants to emphasize.
“I think that for a lot of these films, there is no true definition of what it means to be a ‘Jewish film,’” says Rachael Lubarsky, a Louisville-based freelance marketer and a first-time committee member.
“What’s great about the committee is that it comprises people of lots of different ages and backgrounds, which sets you up for some interesting discussions,” Lubarsky says. “There were very few films where it was unanimous whether we liked it or not. A couple of times I was like, ‘Oh, well, this film is a no-brainer – it was great,’ and I would express my feelings about it – and then, from the other side of the room, there’d be someone who said, ‘Well, I didn’t like this film and let me tell you why.’ And when I heard the justifications for the different perspectives, I was like: ‘I didn’t think about that, but that’s a valid point.’”
“We encourage everybody to keep notes on every film they see,” said committee co-chair Janet Hodes. “Tricia does an incredible job finding things the rest of us can’t. And there are people on the committee who are always out there looking, or they might receive an email about this or that film. Another person goes to, say, the Miami festival, or this one went to Palm Springs.”
Several candidates emerged quickly as sure-fire choices. One example is Midas Man, a “musical biopic” starring Jacob Fortune-Lloyd as Beatles manager Brian Epstein – whose shaping of the Fab Four was so influential that he’s often been dubbed the “Fifth Beatle.”
“I’m a Boomer,” says committee co-chair Keiley Caster. “As soon as I saw we had ‘Midas,’ I knew all Boomers would flock to that film.”
Discussions over potential choices were robust – in a healthy way.
“There is a lot of passion,” Hodes acknowledges. “But nobody is aggressive.”
“I think we’re all old enough to remember Siskel & Ebert,” Caster says, referring to the pair of Chicago film critics who were television fixtures during the 1990s. “They got passionate, but they never came to fisticuffs.”
Lots of passion, and in several of this year’s films, a fair amount of intrigue. Take, for example, Tatami, described in its festival synopsis as “an intense political thriller inspired by real events” – in this case, an impending confrontation between two elite female judo athletes – one Israeli, the other Iranian. And in an example of art following life, Tatami is “the first feature film to be co-directed by an Iranian and an Israeli filmmaker.”
Another film boasting contemporary relevance is The Sea, which tells how 12-year-old Khaled travels from his Palestinian village to witness the sea for the first time in his life – a journey cut short – and then propelled forward – by unexpected circumstance.
“It’s such a dreamy, beautiful film,” Hodes says. “I don’t know if you could call it a controversial film. But I suppose that depends on one’s perspective.”
Recognizing the value of cultural context, several festival events will feature post-screening talks.
For The Property on Feb. 8, director Dana Modan and Rutu Modan – author of the graphic novel that inspired the film – are set to participate in a virtual Q&A moderated by UofL Jewish Studies professor Ranen Omer-Sherman. On Feb. 10 after Among Neighbors, David Finke – CEO of Jewish Family & Career Services will talk with Holocaust survivors who participated in the Weisberg Family Fund for Jewish Oral History project.
Ain’t No Back to a Merry-Go-Round, a documentary recounting how Howard University students forged an alliance with a white community during the summer of 1960, will be preceded on Feb. 12 by a panel featuring civil rights activists Raoul Cunningham and Marie Abrams. Adria Johnson, President & CEO of Metro United Way, will moderate.
Lastly, visitors attending the Feb. 19 showing of Midas Man can sample beverages and light snacks beforehand, along with Beatles tunes performed by pianist John Austin Clark.
If you can’t make the in-person showings, the 2026 festival offers several virtual presentations, accessible online as long as you’re accessing them from Kentucky or Southern Indiana. From Feb 7-14, you can take in the free short film Catalogue of Noses – along with Pink Lady, Halisa and Among Neighbors. Feb. 15-22 includes Catalogue of Noses plus Ain’t No Back to a Merry-Go-Round, The Property and Malachi (this one will be available exclusively in virtual format).
A Virtual Film Pass is $54.
To buy tickets – including in-person and virtual film passes – and for lots more information about the 28th Louisville Jewish Film Festival, go online at tinyurl.com/54uexk8h