The Northern Virginia Jewish Film Festival (NVJFF) will celebrate its 13th year of Culture, Community and Chutzpah as it screens 13 films from April 18-28. Presented by the Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia and Angelika Film Center & Café at Mosaic, the festival committee previewed more than 70 Jewish-themed or Israeli-made films to comprise this year’s selections.

Opening night of the NVJFF is the film Hava Nagila: The Movie, a documentary romp through the history, mystery and meaning of the great Jewish standard that is a musical shorthand for anything Jewish. The opening night dinner-and-film event is Thursday, April 18, at the Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia in Fairfax. Twelve additional films will screen through Sunday, April 28, at new state-of-the-art boutique cinema Angelika Film Center & Café at Mosaic in Fairfax. Opening weekend will include the documentary Life in Stills, the romantic comedy Dorfman in Love and the regional premiere of the drama The World is Funny (the film received an unprecedented 15 Ophir nominations, the Israeli Academy Awards®).

“In celebration of our 13th (Bar Mitzvah) year, we’ve selected films that demonstrate, illuminate and celebrate the breadth and depth of Judaism’s culture, identity, creativity, diversity and resiliency,” said Dan Kirsch, JCCNV Cultural Arts director and film festival director. NVJFF is partnering with Angelika Film Center & Café at Mosaic to present this year’s Festival. The 13 films to be shown are: A Bottle in the Gaza Sea, An American Tail, Dorfman in Love, Hava Nagila (The Movie), Hitler’s Children, Kaddish for a Friend, Kinderblock 66, Koch, Let My People Go, Life in Stills, Orchestra of Exiles, Portrait of Wally and The World is Funny.

“Angelika offered us a remarkable opportunity to be part of a new center of cultural and entertainment activity in our region,” said Jeff Dannick, executive director of the JCCNV. “In addition to providing a beautiful, centrally-located venue for our film festival, the partnership with Angelika has enabled us to leverage their expertise, insights and relationships within the art film world, which will bring the quality of our film festival to a whole new level.”

“We are incredibly pleased to be partnering with the Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia to host the film festival,” said Ellen Cotter, chief operating officer of the US Cinema division of Reading International, Inc. “This is exactly the type of event Angelika seeks out in each of our communities. We look forward to our continued involvement with this event and welcome other opportunities such as this in the Northern Virginia and Washington, D.C. area.”

Various films will include a program following the screening; guests include Dr. James Loeffler (Hava Nagila), Ben Peter (Life in Stills), Steven Moskovic (Kinderblock 66), James Siranovich (Orchestra of Exiles), Yael Ingel (A Bottle in the Gaza Sea), and Ori Soltes and Michael Hausfeld (Portrait of Wally).

Single tickets are $11; senior (60 and older) and student tickets are $9; an all-access pass (excluding opening and closing events) is $60; the opening night dinner-and-film event is $39; the closing night event is $13 and includes a dessert and coffee reception; and a double feature ticket (two films in the same day) is $16. Tickets for all film showings and special events are now on sale online through www.jccnvarts.org; tickets will also be on sale at the door starting one hour prior to each screening.

For more information about the Northern Virginia Jewish Film Festival, visit www.jccnvarts.org or call the JCCNV box office at 703-537-3000.