Portland Jewish Film Festival 2026 Illuminates Shared Humanity Through Boundary-Breaking Stories
PORTLAND, OR (December 18, 2025) – In a moment when the world feels sharply divided, the 2026 Portland Jewish Film Festival invites audiences to gather together and see one another more fully through the power of story. Presented by the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education (OJMCHE) in partnership with PAM CUT, this year’s festival highlights films that widen our lens on identity, memory, conflict, and care, while reminding us that our shared humanity remains the most compelling narrative of all.
Running February 24 – March 1, 2026, the festival marks its third year under OJMCHE’s stewardship since being bequeathed from the Institute for Judaic Studies, which founded it in 1993. Guided by OJMCHE’s mission to challenge bias and inspire moral responsibility, the festival’s screening committee selected a slate of films featuring international award contenders, deeply personal documentaries, and visionary works that expand what Jewish storytelling can mean today.
WHAT: A Festival to Bring People Together
This year’s lineup creates space for multiple truths. Stories include a Palestinian boy’s journey across Israel; the current day and animated recollections of Polish Christian and Jewish neighbors navigating the ruptures of World War II; and a Jewish Israeli-American family grappling with the abduction of their daughter on October 7, 2023. These films, collectively urgent, surprising, and intimate, push beyond headlines and offer opportunities for empathy, reflection, and conversation.
The festival begins with a robust community kickoff celebration designed to spark dialogue and invite audiences of all backgrounds into the conversation. Numerous community partners will host tables representing a diverse cross-section of Portland’s cultural, spiritual, civic, and educational spheres. Talkbacks with filmmakers and experts deepen the experience and offer the opportunity for direct engagement with creators, ensuring the films continue to resonate beyond the screen. Festival passes include premium access to seat selection and events, a commemorative badge, and festival merchandise.
WHEN & WHERE: 2026 Festival Lineup & Schedule
Many of the films are also available through virtual screenings.
The Stamp Thief
Tuesday, February 24 at 6 PM – Whitsell Auditorium, Portland Art Museum
From an Oscar-, Peabody-, and Emmy Award-winning team comes a real-life detective story with the emotional stakes of a heist film. The documentary investigates a tale dating back to the Holocaust: that a mysterious Nazi stole priceless stamp collections from concentration camp victims and buried the stolen stamps in a small town in Poland. Embarking on a real-life “Argo”-like adventure, one-time “Seinfeld” producer Gary Gilbert sets out to confirm the story and recover the stamps… with nothing less than justice, decades overdue, at stake.
The Sea (Israel’s official submission for the 2026 Academy Awards)
Wednesday, February 25 at 6 PM – Tomorrow Theater
Khaled, a 12-year-old boy from a Palestinian village, gets the chance to see the sea for the first time in his life on a school trip. But when they reach a military checkpoint, the soldiers claim his permit is invalid and send him back home, while his classmates continue their trip. Deeply disappointed, Khaled sets out to the sea on his own, even though he doesn’t know the way and doesn’t speak Hebrew. When his father, Ribhi, an undocumented laborer working in Israel, learns that his son is missing, he leaves his job in search of him—risking arrest and the loss of his livelihood. This luminous winner of Best Film in Israel’s Ophir Awards explores borders both literal and emotional.
Holding Liat (named to the Best Documentary Feature Shortlist for the 2026 Academy Awards; Winner: 2025 Best Documentary, Berlin International Film Festival)
Thursday, February 26 at 6 PM – Oregon premiere in a special collaborative screening at Cinema 21
Filmmakers Brandon and Lance Kramer capture a Jewish Israeli-American family’s harrowing emotional journey and anguished fight to bring home their daughter, Liat Beinin Atzili, kidnapped by Hamas on October 7, 2023, from Kibbutz Nir Oz. Tensions rise as the family navigates conflicting perspectives. With connections to Oregon as Liat’s family is a longstanding part of the state’s Jewish community and her sister, cousin, aunt, and uncle all reside in Portland, this documentary reveals the collision of love, politics, advocacy, and grief as her parents navigate governments, media, and community movements while holding fast to a vision of peace.
Among Neighbors
Saturday, February 28 at 6 PM – Tomorrow Theater
Using exquisite hand-drawn animation to bring the past to life, “Among Neighbors” investigates the story of a small, rural town where the longstanding peace between Jewish and Polish neighbors was shattered by World War II. The film focuses on the only living Holocaust survivor from the town, and an aging eyewitness who saw Jews murdered there, six months after the Nazis were defeated. Produced and directed by award-winning filmmaker Yoav Potash (“Crime After Crime,” Sundance Film Festival), this film reveals the fragile threads of coexistence.
Maintenance Artist
Sunday, March 1 at 12 PM – Tomorrow Theater
For nearly six decades, groundbreaking artist Mierle Laderman Ukeles has transformed the unseen labor of human service—cleaning, parenting, maintenance, housework—into collaborative public art that radically shifts our view of the value and dignity of labor in society. A feminist icon and daughter of an Orthodox rabbi, Ukeles challenges society to rethink the overlooked acts of caring. As the longstanding artist-in-residence of New York City’s Department of Sanitation, her canvas has been the streets, landfills, and workplaces of New York, revealing the unseen systems of service underpinning modern life. Toby Perl Freilich’s portrait traces a life of profound artistic and civic devotion.
Bliss (Hemda)
Sunday, March 1 at 6 PM – Tomorrow Theater
In this intimate, multi-award-nominated drama, an older Israeli couple confronts long-buried truths that threaten the foundation of their relationship. Starring celebrated actors Sasson Gabay and Assi Levy, Bliss (Hemda) offers a quietly powerful meditation on loyalty, love, and the parts of ourselves we hide even from those closest to us.
HOW: A Shared Humanity, Center Stage
In this year’s festival, audiences encounter people separated by borders, belief, trauma, or time, yet each story reveals how deeply interwoven our lives truly are. Through these films, OJMCHE continues its commitment to creating spaces where people can come together, ask hard questions, hold complexity, and recognize the essential dignity in every human story.
More information, passes, and individual tickets (available Jan. 5th): ojmche.org/events/portland-jewish-film-festival
About the Portland Jewish Film Festival – Launched in 1993 by the Institute for Judaic Studies and entrusted to OJMCHE in 2020, the Portland Jewish Film Festival is a vital platform for showcasing bold yet nuanced films that illuminate the complexity, history, and joy of Jewish life through diverse perspectives from around the world. Guided by OJMCHE’s mission, the festival creates space for conversation, reflection, and meaningful connection through the power of cinema.
2026 media sponsor: Oregon Public Broadcasting
2026 promotional partners include (to date): Art/Lab, Congregation Beth Israel, Congregation Neveh Shalom, Eastside Jewish Commons, Jewish Federation of Greater Portland, and Mittleman Jewish Community Center.
About OJMCHE – The Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education explores the legacy of the Jewish experience in Oregon, teaches the enduring and universal relevance of the Holocaust, and provides opportunities for intercultural conversations. The main and east galleries, on the first floor, feature rotating exhibitions of national and international stature, while four core exhibits anchor programming. The museum also features a robust series of public programming, including film screenings, lectures, and exhibition-related education, in addition to a beautiful museum shop, all in downtown Portland. Learn more at ojmche.org
For additional information, media materials and interview inquiries, please contact:
Amelia Lukas, Principal, Aligned Artistry; 415-516-4851; amelia@alignedartistry.com