Welcome to the online home of the 14th Annual Contra Costa International Jewish Film Festival.

Click on "Schedule" to see our outstanding line-up. Click on "Directions" to get information for all of our venues.

The words “See a Film, See the World” are more than a slogan. They reflect the core values of our Film Festival: to expand the vision of our audience. The films we are screening this year examine historic events, explore contemporary issues and share a vision of what might be. They build bridges that make it easier to experience the world and its different cultures and backgrounds.

For 2009, our Festival is bigger than ever, with more screenings than ever before. We showcase films that examine Jewish life around the world (Villa Jasmine, The Tree of Life, Srugim ), as well as several which focus on pivotal episodes in Israel’s history (Altalena, The Affair, Etz O Palestine, Eichmann).

One dominant theme runs through our 2009 films. Hidden stories, stories where both the heroes and/or their adversaries confront secrets in their past, underlie our offerings. At both the CineArts and the Vine Cinema, we present the French film Un Secret, the story of a man who searches for the truth of what happened to his family in Vichy France. The Closing Night film at the CineArts is the exciting thriller The Debt in which three Israeli spies must prevent a three-decade old secret from being revealed. We are also showing the hilarious and innovatively filmed documentary The Tree of Life, which traces the “buried” history of an Italian Jewish family. These films will make you rethink history and ponder your own life’s secrets.

Whether you see one movie or all of our screenings, we thank you for being part of building our community… one amazing film at a time!

See you at the movies!