24th Annual Boston Jewish Film Festival concluded

The fun-filled 24th Annual Boston Jewish Film Festival concluded Monday night with a bang - 3 great screenings in Arlington, Danvers and Framingham bringing to a climax 13 days of excellent films and insightful discussions, peels of laughter and occasional tears.

"This has been the most fascinating, enlightening and enjoyable 12 days of my professional life," says BJFF Artistic Director Amy Geller. "I’m so very grateful to our loyal and engaging audiences, our world-class filmmakers, and our gracious panelists for making my first festival as Artistic Director so special and rewarding. To tell you the truth, I’m a bit sad that it’s ending. But I look forward to continuing our conversations and hearing your stories throughout the year at other events. Thank you!"

The Festival began Nov. 7 with the funny, yet also sad, Israeli documentary Life in Stills with the very warm Director Tamar Tal and film subject Ben Peter in the house and ended the Boston part of The Festival with the crowd rhythmically clapping with joy as the credits rolled for Hava Nagila (The Movie), a very lively, yet informative documentary about the song. Gold medal gymnast Aly Raisman even got in on the action with a video shout out to The Festival just before the start of Hava.

Soon, we start work on our 25th Festival, and we need your help. Remember those blue slips of paper you received as you entered to fill out our online survey? Doing so helps with fundraising and future programming. The deadline is Dec. 1. And you also can win an iPod Touch from Tech Superpowers for doing so.

From all of us at The Festival, a huge round of thanks to you for your support of Jewish film and culture. Without you, we would not exist. We want to see you during the year as well when we show Jewish films. And then get ready for the 25th edition of The Boston Jewish Film Festival!