That Eric Alper

The Toronto Jewish Film Foundation is proud to announce the 34th annual Toronto Jewish Film Festival (TJFF), taking place in-person June 4–14, 2026, with screenings across Toronto and a selection of films available online across Ontario through to June 23.

This year’s Festival features 85 films from 22 countries, alongside two panels and two short film programmes, reflecting a wide-ranging international slate spanning documentary, narrative, and archival work. With 58 in-person screenings and 27 online presentations, TJFF continues its hybrid model, expanding access for audiences both in Toronto and across Ontario .

Opening the Festival on Thursday, June 4, at the Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema is the world premiere of Dust Bowls and Jewish Souls: Another Side of Woody Guthrie, directed by Steven Pressman. The film offers a revealing look at the lesser-known influence of Jewish culture on the iconic American musician, drawing on archival materials and personal histories. 

Closing out the in-person programme on June 14 is You Had To Be There: How the Toronto Godspell Ignited the Comedy Revolution, an intimate documentary revisiting the 1972 Toronto production that launched the careers of Eugene Levy, Martin Short, Gilda Radner and others, capturing a defining moment in Toronto’s cultural history.

This year’s programme includes 48 Canadian premieres, among them six International Premieres, six North American Premieres, and three World Premieres, highlighting TJFF’s continued role in bringing new and significant work to Canadian audiences.

Among this year’s highlights are films recognized at major international festivals, including Tell Me Everything (Sundance), Where To? and Safe House (Berlinale), Holofiction (Venice), and Brother Verses Brother (SXSW), Dead Language (Tribeca), alongside a strong slate of premieres and emerging voices. This year’s awards further reflect the strength of the programme: Duki Dror’s UNraveling UNRWAreceives the David A. Stein Memorial Award—the “Tzimmie”—a $5,000 prize for the Best Documentary making its Canadian Premiere at TJFF; and Netalie Braun’s Oxygen receives the Micki Moore Award, a $5,000 prize for the Best Narrative Feature directed by a woman. The NextGen Award for Best Short Film, selected by a jury of York University film students and sponsored by the Leonard Wolinsky Foundation, goes to It Might Even Be Real, directed by Yael Bonne.

Across the programme, films engage with questions of history, identity, and representation, from archival explorations of collective memory to contemporary stories shaped by political and social realities. Titles such as 1948: Remember, Remember Not, One Street in Silwan, and The Sea reflect a sustained engagement with how narratives are constructed, contested, and lived.

“This year’s programme reflects a range of perspectives that don’t always sit easily together, but that’s part of what makes a festival meaningful,” said Stuart Hands, Director of Programming. “Cinema creates space to encounter different histories, experiences, and points of view—sometimes in tension with one another—and to sit with that complexity rather than resolve it too quickly.”

These themes extend into the Festival’s public programming, including free panels such as Challenging Narratives: Voices of Protest in Israeli Cinema and Shared Memory: The Holocaust in Popular Art, which bring filmmakers and artists into conversation around the ethical and cultural dimensions of storytelling.

The Festival will welcome 33 guests (and counting) for in-person appearances, offering audiences opportunities for post-screening discussions and direct engagement with filmmakers and participants.

From formally inventive documentaries and archival works to intimate character-driven stories and lighter fare, TJFF2026 invites audiences to engage with a diverse range of perspectives across cultures and generations.

The Festival also includes a series of free screenings and public events, spotlighting archival gems, cult favourites, and artist-led conversations. These include The Boys and Other Snapshots of Jew-ish Toronto featuring live filmmaker commentary, Rob Reiner’s rarely screened short-lived TV series Free Country, Sidney Lumet’s Bye Bye Braverman, the 40th-anniversary presentation of Alex is Lovesick, and the panel Shared Memory: The Holocaust in Popular Art.

TJFF2026 also welcomes Belgian-Israeli cartoonist Michel Kichka as this year’s Artist-in-Residence. Best known for his graphic novel Second Generation: The Things I Didn’t Tell My Father, Kichka draws on his experience as a child of Holocaust survivors with humour, clarity, and deep personal insight. His residency spans a documentary portrait, a Carte Blanche screening, and the free public panel Shared Memory: The Holocaust in Popular Art, offering audiences multiple opportunities to engage with his work and perspective across the Festival.

TJFF’s online programme runs June 11–23, extending the Festival beyond the theatre with a curated selection of features and shorts available to stream across Ontario in 72-hour windows. The online lineup includes titles such as Bookends, Surviving Malka Leifer, Sapiro v. Ford: The Jew Who Sued Henry Ford, The Sea, The First Lady, Daytrip, and If These Walls Could Rock.

For the first time, the Festival will also host the Jewish Film Presenters Conference (June 3–4), a biennial gathering of international programmers and industry professionals. The conference includes a pitch event highlighting projects by Jewish filmmakers, with a focus on supporting new work and strengthening Jewish storytelling in Canada.

The People’s Choice Award, sponsored by Delaney Capital Management, will be announced following the Festival.

The full 2026 Festival lineup & event list can be found at https://tjff.com/tjff2026/