San Francisco, CA

JEWISH FILM INSTITUTE

EIN 94-2854068

Arts, Culture & Heritage Film & Media Arts Faith communities

Mission

The Jewish Film Institute inspires communities in San Francisco and around the world to expand their understanding of Jewish life through film, media, and dialogue.

IRS-recognized 501(c)(3) public charity Contributions are tax-deductible

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About JEWISH FILM INSTITUTE

The Jewish Film Institute (JFI), founded in 1980 as the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, is the premier curatorial organization for Jewish film and media. As presenter of the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival (SFJFF) and a year-round arts organization, JFI programs exhibitions, educational initiatives, archival work, filmmaker services, and online distribution to broaden and deepen public understanding of Jewish life and culture.

JFI operates a range of filmmaker support programs (including the JFI Completion Grants and Filmmakers in Residence), the JFI Film Archive and JFI On Demand, and annual festivals and events that reach local audiences in the Bay Area and global online viewers. In the last 2–3 years JFI continued its festival programming (SFJFF44 in 2024 and planning for SFJFF45 in 2025), awarded Completion Grants and maintained its year-round exhibition and residency activity, while advancing its archival and online initiatives to extend reach beyond in-person screenings.

Notable achievements

Founded the world’s first Jewish film festival (1980)

Originally established as the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, JFI created the first and longest-running Jewish film festival in the world and has grown into a year-round institute presenting festival programs, exhibitions, and community events that attract tens of thousands of attendees annually.

Academy Award®-qualifying festival

SFJFF (presented by JFI) earned qualifying status in the Academy Award® Documentary Short Subject category, making it the first Jewish film festival to grant filmmakers a route to Academy consideration for short documentaries.

Filmmaker support & Completion Grants

JFI’s Filmmakers in Residence and Completion Grants provide creative, production and finishing support to Jewish-content films; since 2020 JFI has distributed significant finishing funds (including $250,000 awarded to 19 projects) and the program has helped projects premiere at major festivals and reach broader audiences.

At a glance

Total assets: $1.6M
Annual revenue: $1.6M
Tax status: 501(c)(3)Public charity
EIN: 94-2854068
Location: San Francisco, CA
Website: jfi.org
On Mahalo since: April 2026

Financial figures from the IRS Business Master File, the IRS’s registry of tax-exempt organizations.

Recognition

Four-star rating and accountability recognition from independent charity evaluators for financial and governance transparency.

Designation as an Academy Award®-qualifying festival in the Documentary Short category (a distinction that increases visibility and awards eligibility for participating filmmakers).

Documented global reach through in-person festival attendance (tens of thousands annually) and online programming that has reached audiences in many countries and delivered millions of digital views.

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