The 27th Annual Rutgers Jewish Film Festival - Bookends & Double Panther

BOOKENDS

Country: USA
Year: 2026
Director: Mike Doyle
Run Time: 99 minutes
Language(s): English, German, and Yiddish with English subtitles

NEW JERSEY PREMIERE

After a messy breakup with his boyfriend, aspiring novelist and hopeless romantic Nate (Noam Ash) must move upstate to live with his grandparents in their Jewish retirement community. Featuring wonderful performances from F. Murray Abraham (Amadeus, The White Lotus), Caroline Aaron (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel), and Charlie Barnett (Star Wars: The Acolyte), Bookends is a heartfelt queer comedy about the power of intergenerational relationships and how it's never too late to start over.

DOUBLE PANTHER

Country: Israel
Year: 2026
Director: Marco Carmel
Run Time: 97 minutes
Language(s): Hebrew with English subtitles

SPECIAL SNEAK PREVIEW

In 1970s Jerusalem, criminal nightclub owner Yaakov Elbaz is recruited by police to be an informant within Israel's rapidly rising Black Panther movement. Though reluctant at first, Elbaz slowly begins to side with the Black Panther's cause--civil rights for Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews--only for his double life to put it all in jeopardy. Based on historical events and starring Israeli Oscar-winner Yaakov Zada Daniel, Double Panther is a moving political thriller about collective action and social justice in the early years of Israeli statehood.

Presented by: The Allen and Joan Bildner Center for the Study of Jewish Life with support from The Karma Foundation