Your Jewish Film Festival Committee started curating JFF 2025 just weeks after our 2024 festival closed. Our survey feedback was overwhelmingly in favor of returning to the B & B Theaters in Creve Coeur, and those are the comfy seats you’ll be sitting in again next year!
JFF 2025 will once again feature 12 films over 2 weeks, with 3pm and 7pm features being shown March 30, April 1, April 3, and April 6-8.
The St. Louis Jewish Film Festival has a screening committee comprised of 5 members. This “Fab Five” watches every single film either submitted or requested and passes on only the best to be watched and voted on by the larger 15-person committee.
We sat down with long standing member, Judy Plocker to ask about her involvement with the Jewish Film Festival Committee.
JFF: “So, what inspired you to join the JFF committee?”
Judy: “I was inspired to join the JFF committee originally by Zelda Sparks, the Cultural Arts director at the time. I had attended the festival since its inception and tried to see as many films as I could fit in my schedule. When Zelda asked me to be on the committee I jumped at the chance. I haven’t looked back since. Going to the movies is one of my favorite things and I have enjoyed watching hundreds of films whether they made it into the festival or not.”
JFF: “What excites you about JFF 2025?”
Judy: “What excites me about the festival for 2025 is not knowing what gems we are going to discover. The process of previewing films is so much fun and we never know what films will be winners. We were so lucky this past year to be able to go to the B & B theater in Creve Coeur. It was the perfect place for us location wise and the ability to use two theaters if we had an overflow audience. I think our audience loved the location and the comfort of this theater.”
JFF: “Speaking of this year, did you have a favorite film from JFF 2024?”
Judy: “My favorite film from this year’s festival was Remembering Gene Wilder. I love all kinds of movies, but I am a sucker for entertainment related films. I especially like comedy and music related films. This film about Gene Wilder was so well made and informative that I think it hit the ball out of the park for our festival.”
JFF: “Is there anything you’d like to see more of coming out of JFF 2025?”
Judy: “I would like to see a great variety of films from as many countries as possible and as many genres as possible. I hope we find more musical films. Music always brings a large audience. I would like to see cute romantic comedies, suspenseful movies, some documentaries, and historical films.”