Three ‘Must-See’ Comedies - At The Donald M. Ephraim Sun & Stars International Film Festival

“Whether your ideal comedy experience evokes belly laughs or smiles of delight, we have it all, from a look back at the still fresh and funny legacy of a daring American comic to an array of European box office hits,” promises Barbara Scharres, SASIFF Artistic Director.

Sunday, January 25th, 2026 – 7:30 p.m.

ETHAN BLOOM

(Coming-of-age Comedy, 2025, North Palm Beach County Premiere. Directed by Herschel Faber. USA, 90-minutes)

The Opening Night Screening of The Donald M. Ephraim Sun & Stars International Film Festival©, presented by MorseLife.

This delightful film paints a revealing portrait of adolescence, humorously exploring the struggles of an awkward teenager navigating the loss of his mother, his search for faith, and the pressures of his father’s expectations. Starring Hank Greenspan from the CBS hit comedy The Neighborhood and movie/TV actress Rachelle Lefevre (White House Down, Proven Innocent, Boston Legal, Big Wolf on Campus), ETHAN BLOOM captures the perils of first love, religion, and speculation about the afterlife as the 13-year-old title character attempts to evade his Bar Mitzvah by converting to Catholicism. Meanwhile, his widowed dad (played by Joshua Malina from The West Wing) has engaged curvaceous redheaded Rabbi Dani to administer private instruction in the Torah. Talk about complications. Torn in multiple directions, Ethan communes nightly with his mom and dead dog in the heaven he imagines for them, while struggling by day with his enthusiastic discovery of solo pleasures of the flesh. It all comes together in a spectacularly moving finale when faith, sex, love, and family all coalesce in well-deserved harmony.

Note: Director Herschel Faber and screenwriter Maylen Dominguez will be present for audience discussion.

At the Kravis Center’s Rinker Playhouse in West Palm Beach

Wednesday, January 28th – 7:00 p.m.

THE MARCHING BAND

(En Fanfare)

(Culture-clash Comedy with Music, 2024, Florida Premiere. Directed by Emmanuel Courcol. France, 103-minutes—In French with English subtitles)

A music-filled and oh-so-French comedy/drama reunites two brothers separated in childhood by adoption. The strains of Ravel’s “Bolero” run through this tale of family lost and found when Thibault (Benjamin Lavernhe), an orchestra conductor, is compelled by a medical emergency to seek a DNA match and discovers the brother he never knew. Just when it appears that refined Thibault and wrong-side-of-the-track Jimmy (Pierre Lottin), a smalltown factory worker, will never reach a meeting of the minds, a musical crisis that threatens Jimmy’s beloved hobby, the factory employee’s band, becomes the catalyst for a finale that spectacularly merges community, family, and rousingly tuneful innovation in a way sure to bring audiences to their feet.

At the Kravis Center’s Rinker Playhouse in West Palm Beach

Tuesday, February 3rd, 2026 – 4:00 p.m.

A WORLD APART

(Un Monde a Parte)

(Comedy/Drama, 2024, Palm Beach County Premiere. Directed by Riccardo Milani. Italy, 113-minutes—In Italian with English subtitles)

Disillusioned primary school teacher Michele (Antonio Albanese) requests reassignment from Rome to a remote snowbound village in the Italian Alps where the air is pure, the students less jaded, and where he will teach in the equivalent of a one-room schoolhouse. The idyllic life he envisions comes with its own unique obstacles in this Italian hit comedy-drama that radiates warmth and humanity even as the teacher faces community rancor, a romantic temptation, and the challenge of an administrative plan from above to close the area’s only school for good. The solution to the problem is pure genius, opening this isolated little town to a new vision of their place in the world.

At Hooky Entertainment Delray Marketplace in Delray Beach

For more information about SASIFF or to purchase tickets, please visit: www.sasiff.org.

About The Donald M. Ephraim Sun & Stars International Film Festival:

The Donald M. Ephraim Sun & Stars International Film Festival©, presented by MorseLife, aims to bring highly anticipated, critically acclaimed, and thought-provoking films to Palm Beach County. As a world-class film festival, it represents a major contribution to the cultural life of Palm Beach County and returns next month for its fourth season with screenings at the Kravis Center’s Rinker Playhouse from Sunday, January 25th, 2026 - Saturday, January 31st, 2026, Hooky Entertainment Delray from Sunday, February 1st, 2026 - Thursday, February 5th, 2026 with the closing night screening at glamorous new Glazer Hall in Palm Beach on Friday, February 6th, 2026. SASIFF was co-founded by film buffs and cultural philanthropists Donald M. Ephraim and Terri Sriberg.

For more information about purchasing tickets or becoming a sponsor, please visit: www.sasiff.org. Or: www.facebook.com/DME.SASIFF. And: www.twitter.com/dmesasiff. Or: www.instagram.com/dme_sasiff. Email: info@sasiff.org. Or call: (561) 220-6735.

About MorseLife:

MorseLife serves more than 3,600 seniors every day on its campus in West Palm Beach and through its community outreach programs. Founded in 1983, MorseLife is a provider of health care and residential services for seniors in Palm Beach County. A charitable, not-for-profit organization, its programs also include short-term rehabilitation, long-term care, independent and assisted living, memory care assisted living, hospice, home health care, care management, meals-on-wheels, and PACE. Since its beginnings, MorseLife has built a reputation and tradition of caring for seniors with excellence, dignity, and compassion.

For more information, visit: https://morselife.org. Or: www.facebook.com/MorseLife. Or: www.twitter.com/MorseLifeHealth. Or: www.instagram.com/morselifehealth. Or: www.linkedin.com/company/morselife-inc-/. Or contact: info@morselife.org.

(Photo Credit: Sun & Stars International Film Festival)