“Seven Blessings” and “No Name Restaurant” were two of the winners of this year’s Atlanta Jewish Film Festival’s (AJFF) Jury Awards.
This year’s festival ran from Feb. 13-26, and had its closing night showing of the documentary “Shari and Lamb Chop” yesterday at the Sandy Springs Performing Arts Center. The festival is finished with in-person screenings, but will offer a special streaming encore from Feb. 27-March 7 with 32 films available to watch online.
The 2024 festival featured 48 feature films and 15 shorts from 20 countries. The jury that picked this year’s winners included Dara Jaffe, associate curator at the Academy Museum of Motion
Pictures; Eric Warren Singer, acclaimed screenwriter and producer; lauded filmmaker Jeremy Kagan; and TV Chef, producer, and author, Alton Brown.
The list of winners can be found below.
Best Narrative Feature: “Seven Blessings,” from director Ayelet Menahemi.
Best Documentary Feature: “How to Come Alive with Norman Mailer,” directed by Jeff Zimbalist
Best Short Film: “Girl No. 60427,” directed by Oriel Berkovits and Shulamit Lifshitz
Building Bridges Award: “No Name Restaurant,” directed by Peter Keller and Stefan Sarazin
Emerging Filmmaker Award: “The Return from the Other Planet,” directed by Assaf Lapid
Human Rights Award: “The Future,” directed by Noam Kaplan and “Kidnapped: The Abduction of Edgardo Mortara,” directed by Marco Bellocchio.