UK Jewish Film
British Jewish film charity, founded in Brighton in 1997, whose flagship event is the UK Jewish Film Festival
| UK Jewish Film
| |
|---|---|
| Type | Film festival and registered charity |
| Founded | 25 April 1997 |
| Registration ID | 1072914 (Charity Commission); company 03360075 |
| Headquarters | 2nd Floor, Connaught House, 1-3 Mount Street, London W1K 3NB |
| Location | London |
| Key people | Judy Ironside (founder and president) |
| Website | ukjewishfilm.org |
UK Jewish Film is a British film charity, whose flagship event is the UK Jewish Film Festival. The company, UK Jewish Film Ltd (no. 03360075), was incorporated on 25 April 1997 as Brighton Jewish Film Festival Ltd, renamed UK Jewish Film Festival Ltd on 19 June 2003, and given its present name on 14 September 2011. It is a private company limited by guarantee. Its registered office is 2nd Floor, Connaught House, 1-3 Mount Street, London W1K 3NB, and it is active. Its latest accounts were made up to 30 June 2025.[1] The organisation describes itself as a registered charity (no. 1072914).[2] In August 2014 it was at the centre of a public dispute with the Tricycle Theatre over funding from the Embassy of Israel.
History
According to the organisation's biography of its founder, Judy Ironside, she "started the Brighton Jewish Film Festival in 1997" and, in 2005, achieved "a national move to become the UK Jewish Film Festival". "With a new identity of UK Jewish Film, established in September 2011, there followed programmes of year round excellence and broader educational programmes." The same biography says she established the Pears Short Film Fund at UK Jewish Film in 2007 and "started the Geneva International Jewish Film Festival" in 2011.[3] Those dates are consistent with the Companies House changes of name.[1]
The organisation's about page says it is "dedicated to developing an environment in which Jewish film entertains, educates and enlightens diverse audiences in the UK and internationally", that its flagship festival has "approx 15,000 visitors", and that it also runs a festival in Geneva, "450 year-round screenings and previews", an on-demand platform and education programmes. It says that "since our inception, the UK Jewish Film Festival has welcomed over 500,000 visitors", and that "the 30th UK Jewish Film Festival will take place in November 2026".[2] Those figures are the organisation's.
On 21 November 2014 Screen Daily reported that Ironside, then founder and executive director, would "take on a new role as president", and that Michael Etherton had been appointed chief executive officer, with the new roles due to be announced at the festival's closing-weekend gala the following day. Stephen Margolis would continue as chairman of the board.[4]
Tricycle Theatre dispute, 2014
The Tricycle Theatre had hosted the festival for the previous eight years and had been due to screen 26 films as part of the November 2014 festival.[5] On 5 August 2014 the dispute became public. The theatre's artistic director, Indhu Rubasingham, said that "the festival receives funding from the Israeli embassy and, given the current conflict in Israel and Gaza, we feel it is inappropriate to accept financial support from any government agency involved." She said the theatre had "offered to provide alternative funding to cover the loss of the contribution from the Israeli embassy" but that the festival "decided it was not willing to decline sponsorship from the Israeli embassy and, to our regret, withdrew the festival from the Tricycle."[5]
Ironside, then founder and executive director, said the theatre had "shown themselves unwilling to work with what is clearly an apolitical cultural festival" and had "chosen a boycott over meaningful engagement".[5] The decision was criticised as antisemitic by, among others, the actress Maureen Lipman and by Stephen Pollard, then editor of The Jewish Chronicle, who wrote: "Be clear on this. @tricycletheatre is now officially antisemitic. It is singling out the Jewish state for boycott."[5] Nicholas Hytner, then director of the National Theatre, said he supported the Tricycle "without reservation".[5] Those statements are recorded here as they were made; this page does not treat the accusation of antisemitism as a finding.
Jewish News reported on 13 August 2014 that Sir Trevor Chinn had ended a five-year funding relationship with the theatre, and that Celia Atkin had also withdrawn her support, and that "around 200 people protested the theatre's decision outside the venue last Thursday" (7 August 2014), "organised by the Campaign Against Antisemitism".[6]
On 15 August 2014 the theatre and the festival issued a joint statement. The theatre "withdrawn its objection and invited back the UK Jewish Film Festival on the same terms as in previous years, with no restrictions on funding from the Embassy of Israel in London". The statement added that, "although the festival is not able to return in 2014, we hope to begin the process of rebuilding trust and confidence with a view to holding events in the future."[7] The statement does not itself establish what caused the change of position. The festival did not return to the theatre in 2014.
According to Gideon Falter, writing in Jewish News on 3 September 2014, Rupert Nathan's Facebook campaign over the Tricycle decision "soon joined forces with" the Facebook group from which the Campaign Against Antisemitism grew.[8]
See also
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Companies House, "UK JEWISH FILM LTD, company number 03360075", accessed 10 November 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 UK Jewish Film, "About UK Jewish Film", accessed 10 November 2026.
- ↑ UK Jewish Film, "Judy Ironside MBE", accessed 10 November 2026.
- ↑ Michael Rosser, "UK Jewish Film names new heads", Screen Daily, 21 November 2014.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 Hannah Ellis-Petersen, "Tricycle theatre refuses to host UK Jewish Film Festival while it has Israeli embassy funding", The Guardian, 6 August 2014 (URL dated 5 August 2014; the page records that the article was amended on 6 August).
- ↑ "EXCLUSIVE: Tricycle donors pull funding after Film Festival boycott", Jewish News, 13 August 2014.
- ↑ "Tricycle Theatre in UK Jewish Film Festival U-turn", BBC News, 15 August 2014.
- ↑ Gideon Falter, "Let's turn fear of anti-Semitism into fight", Jewish News, 3 September 2014.