Nov. 11-12

Slip into your pajamas, and go to the Coolidge Corner Theatre for the Nov. 4 midnight screening of "Wide Awake" (with its filmmaker Alan Berliner in attendance) and you'll get in free. And you'll get midnight snacks! Has the 18th annual Boston Jewish Film Festival gone wacky? No.The Coolidge does stuff like this and BJFF executive director Sara Rubin says New Yorker Berliner has "suffered from insomnia, and it's a meditaiton on insomnia - but it's very funny." The BJFF runs from Wednesday Nov. 1 through Nov. 12, but and Rubin says one of the questions raised by looking at the scope of the 57 movies (including 19 shorts) is: "Who's Jewish? There's such a range within Judiasm and there's a range in terms of observance. Our festival has tended to reach out to Jews who are secular or questioning their identity. ... We often have films that push the envelope." Rubin picks "Sisters," as tops in that realm this year. The Festival, which is primarily held at the Coolidge, the Museum of Fine Arts and the West Newton Cinema, includes "Wrestling with Angels" with playwright Tony Kushner, directed by Freida Lee Mock (Nov. 7, Coolidge, 7 p.m.).

While it's hard to choose favorites among your children, but Rubin selects "You're So Pretty" - "a look at four Jewish women living in Paris, a girls night out, chick-flick" (Nov. 9, 9 pm Coolidge) and "The Tribe" - "a Peter Coyote-narrated film by Tiffany Shlain, an 18-minute meditation on being Jewish in America, which is connected with history of Barbie, who was created by a jewish woman."(Nov. 12, MFA, 4:15 p.m., with other shorts). Also, Rubin chooses opening night at the Coolidge (Nov. 2, 7 p.m.) "Four Weeks in June," with Tuva Novotny playing opposite Ghita Norby. We also the 7-short film program that follows at 10. It includes a 5-minute movie "Jewz N' the Hood," where Orthodox Jews fight it out on the streets of Brooklyn with the Reconstructionists. Say this: The BJFF is not pending to any PC-code. There's lots and lots of stuff going on, including a filmmaker panel discussion Nov. 6 at 1 p.m. at the Coolidge with Berliner, Doug Block, Nina Grunfield, Abraham Ravett and Barbara Scuch.

Best bet for specifics: Go online to bjff.org or call 617-244-9899