December 14 - January 14, 2025 | Celebrate Hanukkah with eight nights of exclusive, award-winning new films, series and Q&A sessions available to view from the comfort of your home! (Not included with a ChaiFlicks subscription - Special Purchase Required)

The Hebrew Hammer - Featuring an exclusive Q&A with creator Jonathan Kesselman!
The best (and potentially only) Jewxploitation movie, a Hanukkah comedy classic, returns to streaming exclusively for the Hanukkah Film Festival. The Hebrew Hammer is the story of Mordechai, an Orthodox Jew hired by the Jewish Justice League after discovering that Santa's evil son - who has come to run the North Pole after staging a coup with the help of a reindeer, Blitzen - has plans to eradicate Hanukkah.

Running on Sand - Featuring an exclusive Q&A with director Adar Shafran!
Aumari, a young Eritrean refugee living in Israel, is about to be deported back to his home country. After a spontaneous escape attempt at the airport, he is mistaken for a Nigerian soccer player, who is supposed to arrive at the same time and join a football club in Israel’s first division. What follows is a classic comedy film which manages to be funny, bittersweet, and intellectually engaging, all at the same time.

The Unorthodox
From the director of ChaiFlicks hit series The New Black Eliran Malka, comes this irreverent retelling of the rise of Israel’s Shas political party, which platformed the voices of Orthodox and Sephardic Jews — starting a revolution in Israeli politics which reverberates to this day. In the style of his beloved hit series, Malka fuses fiction and reality in a lighthearted yet emotionally powerful way in The Unorthodox.

Yaniv
One of the biggest hits of this year's film festival circuit, Yaniv is a fresh, young comedy about an ancient card game with Jewish roots. A high school teacher in the Bronx (Ben Ducoff) loses funding for the school musical and convinces his fellow statistics teacher—secretly a recovering gambling addict—to help him cheat at an underground card game run by the Hasidic Jewish community. The plan goes awry with mounting consequences, but help comes at an unexpected time from the least likely people.

Neighbours
Sero is extremely fond of his neighbors, the last Jewish family in a village where Jews and Kurds once coexisted peacefully. When he begins his first year of Arabic school, Sero is inundated with the fiery nationalism of a new teacher intent on shaping the children into upstanding citizens of the Assad regime. With a fine sense of humor and satire, the film depicts a childhood which manages to find light moments in a challenging reality, drawing parallels to life in present-day Syria and the Middle East.

Shadow of the Day
Set in picteresque central Italy, The Shadow of the Day is a dramatic and gripping love story taking place in the interwar period of the 1930s. Luciano, a wounded World War I veteran runs a classy restaurant, observing the world from his pleasant perch and abiding by the rules of the time. When a young woman named Anna appears looking for work, affection starts creeping in as love — and the looming onset of WWII — put his world in danger. Featuring an ensemble cast including Lino Musella (The Hand of God) and Vincenzo Nemolato (Gomorrah), Giuseppe Piccioni’s thoughtful melodrama reflects on fascism and the pre-war atmosphere of control and isolation.

Checkout — a special Hanukkah episode!
Known in Hebrew as Kupa Rashit, 'Checkout' is Israel's #1 smash hit comedy. The mockumentary series follows the hilarious antics of a diverse cast of customers and staff of a struggling Israeli supermarket. Headed by the overly eager general manager, Shira (Noa Koler, "The Wedding Plan", HBO's "Our Boys") and assisted by Ramzi – for whom no job is too small – the store's staff is always looking to cut corners while eccentric customers look for more than just to complete their weekly shopping.

The New Black
The New Black - known as Shababnikim in Hebrew - follows four rebellious students at a prestigious Orthodox Yeshiva in Jerusalem, as they try to reconcile their desire for modern life with their religious upbringings. This original comedy became an instant success in Israel, winning four Israeli Television Awards and becoming one of the most successful series on Israeli television.