Warsaw Jewish Film Festival

In 2003, Daniel Strehlau,^[2] a Polish-American film director founded by his own author idea the pioneering Warsaw Jewish Film Festival (WJFF.pl)^[3]—the first festival of its kind in Eastern Europe and of course in Poland — dedicated to the film industry professionals, who create films about Jewish life and culture. Under his leadership (2003–2013), the festival gained international recognition and became an early platform for films that later received Academy Awards and nominations, including Camera of David awarded:^[4]

• West Bank Story (Oscar winner)
• Beaufort and Katyń (Oscar nominees)
• Ida (Oscars winner, 2015)

Strehlau was also among the first to recognize the talents of Guy Davidi, Benh Zeitlin, László Nemes, and Guy Nattiv, whose films (Beasts of the Southern Wild, Five Broken Cameras, Son of Saul, Skin) later won Oscars.

The 22nd edition 2024 opened with the Polish premiere of "A Real Pain," and the festival director Magda Makarczuk introduced the filmmakers on stage: Jesse Eisenberg, Kieran Culkin and Jennifer Grey and producers Ali Herting and Ewa Puszczyńska. The Q & A with distinguished talents was let by Grazyna Torbicka. The movie won "Camera of David" awards and in 2025 "A Real Pain" was awarded Oscar and Oscar Nominations.

The festival issues annual awards called "Camera of David" (Polish: Kamera Dawida), sketched on the festival's logo. The festival award is a bas-relief depicting a pictogram of a film camera from the 1920s, along with a tripod whose head forms the "Star of David". The creator of the award, Daniel Strehlau, stated that if King David were alive today, he would be a filmmaker, and specifically a filmmaker from Warsaw, Poland.

It is issued separately for categories of feature narratives and feature documentaries, short narratives and short documentaries as well as Honorary Camera of David Award, given to a distinguished individual to whom the festival is dedicated each year.

Over the years, the Camera of David Awards honored luminaries such as Steven Spielberg, Andrzej Wajda, Roman Polanski, Barbra Streisand, Agnieszka Holland, Woody Allen, Agnès Varda, Paul Mazursky, Janusz Kamiński, Quentin Tarantino, Joel & Ethan Coen, Gustaw Holoubek, Tadeusz Konwicki, Amos Gitai, Laios Koltai, John Daly, Martin Landau, Caroline Link, Lina and Slava Chaplin, Hany Abu-Assad, Daniel Burman, Shira Geffen, Jerzy Hoffman, Paul Schrader, László Nemes, Pawel Pawlikowski, Yariv Horowitz, Claude Lanzman, Matej Minac, Nurith Cohen, Evgenia Dodina, Alex Claude, Samuel Maoz, Tad Taube, Radu Gabrea, Jessy Eisenberg, Kieran Culkin, Jennifer Grey and hundreds of others.

Distinguished jury chairs have included Irvin Kershner, John Daly, Prof. Henryk Kluba, Daniela Weber (Berlinale), Malgorzata Zajaczkowska, Evgenia Dodina, Grace Guggenheim and more.

The festival's tradition also includes promoting peace between Israelis and Palestinians, which is why the festival has repeatedly hosted filmmakers from Palestine and Israel side by side. The festival featured filmmakers from Jenin and ethnic musicians, Israeli and Palestinian diplomats, and intellectuals such as Prof. Shevah Weiss (Speaker of the Knesset), Konstanty Gebert, Khaled Naef Ghazal Soufan – Ambassador of Palestine to Warsaw, Alon Simhayoff – Second Secretary of the Israeli Embassy in Poland, Yair Dalal, Jamal Dajani and more, creating an unprecedented space for dialogue on peace and coexistence.

Strehlau currently serves as a member of the festival's Honorary Film Selection Committee, while the event continues under the direction of his former wife, Magda Makarczuk-Strehlau, who is also the President of "Camera of David wjff.pl" Foundation. The Deputy Director is Ignacy Strączek.^[5]

The festival is a member of the Association of European Jewish Film Festivals, which was established during the World Conference of Jewish Film Festival Directors in Boston in 2004.^[6]

• Stephane Kaas [nl] (director), Rutger Lemm [nl] (writer), Etgar Keret: Based on a True Story (2017). Camera of David Award Best Documentary Feature
• Brandon Gross (director), Skyler Gross (director), On My Way Out: The Secret Life of Nani and Popi (2017), about Roman (Popi) and Ruth (Nani) Blank, Holocaust survivors.^[7] Camera of David Award, Best Short Documentary

• Roman Polanski Camera of David Award for his film The Pianist and for his lifetime contribution in cinematography.^[8]

• Camera of David Grand Prix: Pamiętam [I Remember] (2001) dir. Marcel Lozinski, Poland