Earl Parker Award for Jewish Film

The Edmonton Jewish Film Festival (EJFF) has opened applications for the 2026 Earl Parker Award for Jewish Film. This award of $1,500 will be presented at the EJFF opening night.

Eligible projects must be related to Jewish identity, themes, or culture, and may be fictional or non-fictional. Applicants must be engaged in a film or video project at any stage of production, including but not limited to: script writing, storyboarding, cinematography, postproduction requirements, as well as seeking distribution for a finished film. Alternatively, the award may be applied to the costs of attending workshops or a course of study in film or video production, developing related practical skills, or establishing a program of study designed to create Jewish content films or videos.

Who is eligible? The competition is open to Canadian residents of any age. School groups may apply.

Deadline to apply is March 31, 2026. Apply now.

For questions, please contact Chloe Soibelman.

2025 Earl Parker Award for Jewish Film

Jonah Zwaigenbaum is the 2025 Earl Parker Award winner. He is a third year Bachelor of Science in Nursing student at MacEwan University. Jonah’s previous experience in filmmaking includes a previous short film which won a competitive grant from the MacEwan fine arts faculty, about two burglars who accidently break into the same house and fall in love. It was recently shown in a premiere screening in front of over 50 students and faculty, and is submitted to NextFest, and the Edmonton Short Film Festival. Jonah also has 10 years of vocal training experience, and have performed in many plays/musicals including Legally Blonde, Clue, and Urinetown.

He is filming a music video for a song that he is in the process of writing. It is about an angsty Jewish eight-year-old’s experience at Jewish summer camp and an unfortunate 'accident' they face while at this camp. This musical short film will touch on Jewish themes of identity and growing from mistakes, as well as the experience of going to a Jewish summer camp.

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2024 Earl Parker Award for Jewish Film winner

Becky Wosk’s project, titled One Thread, is a documentary-style short that will feature multiple interviewees of diverse backgrounds who all have one commonality—being Jewish. Becky dedicates this film to her grandfather, Saul Wosk, who immigrated with his family from Ukraine to Canada in the late 1890s. He fought in Israel’s War of Independence, instilling in Becky a sense of pride and strength in her Jewish identity.

Becky is the winner of the 2024 Earl Parker Award for Jewish Film.

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2023 Earl Parker Award for Jewish Film winner

Thanks to the Edmonton Jewish Film Festival, David Ivanchikov will be exploring the world of filmmaking as he heads to Concordia University in Montreal to study fine arts, this fall. David is the winner of the 2023 Earl Parker Award for Jewish Film. He heard about the award in a Hillel Edmonton post on Instagram. He had been enrolled in Open Studies at the University of Alberta and was seeking financial support for his goal to obtain a fine arts degree.

His video was a school project for his Eastern religious class, and it focused on comparing the Jewish pressure to achieve, to the Buddhist ideal of aimlessness. Video footage, taken on his phone, illustrated David’s everyday life, with scenes such as bus stops and landscapes.

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2022 Earl Parker Award for Jewish Film winner

The Klezmer Kitchen Party -- Creating a New Canadian Jewish Tradition!
Produced by KlezKanada
2022 Earl Parker Award Winner

KlezKanada will create and premiere a short film documenting the Klezmer Kitchen Party, a new project to see what happens when Jewish culture is given a seat at the table for this distinctively Canadian custom. The film will bring together musicians, culinary artists, and dancers from Yiddish, Quebecois, Newfoundland, and Irish Canadian communities who will play together, hold literary readings and sing in Yiddish, English, and French. KlezKanada will work with Montreal-based Hungarian Jewish filmmaker Tamás Wormser, filming in kitchens around Quebec. The film will be live-streamed to a virtual audience as the closing event of the digital component of KlezKanada’s summer festival, in August 2022.

The Edmonton Jewish Film Festival will also screen the Klezmer Kitchen Party at the 2023 EJFF.

2021 Earl Parker Award for Jewish Film winner

The Edmonton Jewish Film Festival congratulates Malka Martz-Oberlander, winner of the 2021 Earl Parker Award for Jewish Film.

The Four Children
Directed by Malka Martz-Oberlander
2021 Earl Parker Award Winner

The film will be a story about four teens with very different backgrounds and convictions who set out together on a trip to Israel. In this short “dramedy”, Malka will explore the different types of Jews in us all: the Jews we want to be and the Jews we would prefer not to be.

2020 Earl Parker Award for Jewish Film winner

David Michael Frankel Feinstein-Goldberg and the Unbarmitzvah
Directed by Malka Martz-Oberlander
2020 Earl Parker Award Winner

A heartwarming, authentic comedy about a Jewish boy discovering the meaning of tradition and family in a world that doesn’t always accept him.

2019 Earl Parker Award for Jewish Film winner

No Simple Past
Produced by KlezKanada
2019 Earl Parker Award Winner

Documentary about KlezKanada’s summer retreat exploring the Yiddish Glory Project, the lost songs of World War II.