This festival has ended. Looking for something happening now?
Upcoming festivals in GTA →🔗 Jump to a section
🎬 34th Toronto Jewish Film Festival
📅 June 4 – 14, 2026
📍 Multiple Toronto venues + online
🅾 Some free screenings
🎥 87 screenings
🏳️🌈 Pride at TJFF stream
34th Toronto Jewish Film Festival 2026
The Toronto Jewish Film Festival is back for its 34th edition, and honestly — if you’ve never made it out, this is a strong year to start. In-theatre from June 4 to 14, with online screenings running all the way through June 23, TJFF is one of the largest Jewish film festivals in the world and the kind of two-week stretch where you can comfortably catch four films in a weekend and still feel like you’ve barely scratched the surface.
This year’s lineup pulls 87 screenings from more than 25 countries — documentaries, dramas, comedies, archival rediscoveries, shorts programs and panel discussions. There’s a tribute to Woody Guthrie’s Jewish songbook on opening night, a centrepiece doc about Holocaust fiction in popular culture, and a closing night film about the Toronto cast of Godspell that quietly produced half of SCTV. Plus a whole online catalogue if you’d rather watch from the couch.
🎥 Documentaries
🎞 Drama
😄 Comedy
📰 Archival
🎤 Shorts & Panels
🌍 25+ countries
📱 J-Flix Virtual Cinema
💡 A handful of TJFF events are free this year — including two panels and five archival screenings. We’ve pulled the full list together in the Free Programming section below.
✨ Why TJFF Is Worth Your Time
TJFF has been running since 1993, which makes it older than most Toronto film festivals you could name — and quietly, one of the largest Jewish film festivals on the planet. It’s also one of the most genuinely varied: the programming swings from a Mexican documentary about a forgotten Sephardic singer, to an Israeli protest cinema panel, to a 1968 New Hollywood comedy starring George Segal, and somehow it all hangs together.
What people don’t always realize until they go is that “Jewish film festival” here means something pretty expansive. It’s not just movies about religion or the Holocaust — though those are present and thoughtfully programmed. It’s films from Argentina and Uzbekistan and Georgia, comedies about online dating, music documentaries, and a healthy dose of Toronto stories that don’t get told anywhere else.
The other thing worth knowing: the crowds tend to stick around for the Q&As, and a lot of films screen with directors, subjects or panelists in the room. That post-film conversation is genuinely a big part of what makes TJFF feel different from just going to the multiplex.
🎪 The Four Marquee Films
Every TJFF anchors itself around four big titles — Opening Night, Centrepiece Drama, Centrepiece Documentary and Closing Night. If you’re only going to a few films, start here.
Opening Night · Thu June 4 · 7:30pm
Dust Bowls & Jewish Souls: Another Side of Woody Guthrie — Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema
A documentary that reframes the most American of folk singers through the Jewish roots he absorbed from his mother-in-law, Yiddish poet Aliza Greenblatt. There’s a reason this opens the festival — it’s a love letter to cultural cross-pollination, and exactly the kind of story TJFF does best.
Centrepiece Drama · Sun June 7 · 8:00pm
Oxygen — Al Green Theatre
A drama that comes in highly anticipated as the festival’s prestige Sunday-night feature. Tickets for the centrepiece dramas have historically been the first to sell out — book early.
Centrepiece Documentary · Thu June 11 · 5:45pm
Holofiction — Al Green Theatre
A documentary about how the Holocaust gets depicted in popular fiction — the books, the prestige TV, the Oscar bait. Expect a thoughtful, sometimes uncomfortable Q&A. Pair this with the free Shared Memory panel on June 13 for a deeper dive.
Closing Night · Sun June 14 · 8:00pm
You Had to Be There: How the Toronto Godspell Ignited the Comedy Revolution — Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema
The closer is a love letter to a very specific moment in Toronto cultural history — the 1972 Toronto production of Godspell, whose cast included Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Martin Short, Gilda Radner, Paul Shaffer and Victor Garber. Yes, all of them. In one show. This is the kind of Toronto-specific story that lands extra hard at TJFF.
📅 Day-by-Day: Highlights from the 11-Day Run
There are way too many screenings to list (87 in total), so here are the picks that stand out per day. The full schedule has everything.
Thu · June 4 — Opening Night
The festival opens with Dust Bowls & Jewish Souls at Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema (7:30pm). One screening, one room, the whole festival community in one place.
Fri · June 5
Poland Versus History (1pm, Leah Posluns) · The Safe House (1pm, Varsity). A gentle Friday with two afternoon matinees — both strong picks if you can sneak away from work.
Sat · June 6
An Al Green Theatre takeover. Free Country: A Tribute to Rob Reiner (1pm, free), the Challenging Narratives panel on protest cinema in Israel (3:30pm, free), The Boys and Other Snapshots of Jew-ish Toronto (6pm, free) — then a 9:15pm double-shot of Bookends (Empress Walk) and The Sea (Al Green).
Sun · June 7 — Centrepiece Drama
Eight films in one day. Headliner is Oxygen at 8pm (Al Green). Other standouts: Tovah, the Tovah Feldshuh biography (5pm, Empress Walk); Surviving Malka Leifer (2pm, Al Green); The Legend of Juan Jose Mundo (5pm, Al Green).
Mon · June 8
Sapiro v. Ford: The Jew Who Sued Henry Ford (5:30pm, Al Green) — the wild legal saga of the 1927 libel case that took down Ford’s antisemitic newspaper. Followed by I Draw Them The Best I Can (8pm, Al Green) and Nandauri (8pm, Leah Posluns).
Tue · June 9
New Yiddish Talkies shorts programme (2:30pm, Carlton). Bella (3pm, Leah Posluns) brings the comedy. Where To? (7:30pm, Varsity) and Frontier (8:15pm, Leah Posluns) anchor the evening.
Wed · June 10
Kichka: Telling Myself (6pm, Al Green) profiles this year’s Artist in Residence, Belgian-Israeli cartoonist Michel Kichka. UNraveling UNRWA (5:30pm, Leah Posluns) is one of the more debated docs on the slate.
Thu · June 11 — Centrepiece Doc
Ten screenings, the biggest day of the festival. Holofiction (5:45pm, Al Green) is the centrepiece doc. Also: Labors of Love: The Life and Legacy of Henrietta Szold (5:30pm, Leah Posluns), Dead Language (8:15pm, Hot Docs), and If These Walls Could Rock (6pm, Carlton).
Fri · June 12
Love, Statistically Speaking (1pm, Leah Posluns) and Segal (1pm, Varsity) — a comedy-and-biography matinee combo. Quieter evening for Shabbat.
Sat · June 13
The Artist in Residence day. Life is Beautiful: Michel Kichka Carte Blanche (1pm, Al Green, free). Free panel Shared Memory: The Holocaust in Popular Art at 4pm. Bye Bye Braverman (6:30pm, Al Green, free archival). Then I Had the Heart and Tell Me Everything at 9:15pm.
Sun · June 14 — Closing Night
Nine films, then closing night. Don’t miss The First Lady (2pm, Al Green), We Met at Grossinger’s (5pm, Hot Docs), and Cabaret Total (5pm, Empress Walk) on the way to You Had to Be There at 8pm (Hot Docs).
📍 The Essentials
In-Theatre Dates
June 4 – 14, 2026
11 days across Toronto
11 days across Toronto
Online Dates
Through June 23, 2026
Via J-Flix Virtual Cinema
Via J-Flix Virtual Cinema
Number of Screenings
87 films across all formats and venues
Tickets
Individual tickets & passes. Public box office opened May 14.
Accessibility
ASL and closed captioning offered on select screenings — check film pages.
Best For
Cinephiles · Jewish community · documentary lovers · history buffs · Toronto curious
🎥 Where the Films Are Playing
TJFF screens across more than half a dozen venues in Toronto. Most are TTC-accessible and clustered around the city centre and midtown. Click any venue below to open it in Google Maps.
🅾 Free Programming at TJFF 2026
A meaningful portion of the festival is free this year — including two panels and five archival screenings. These tend to fill up fast even though they don’t cost anything, so still grab a ticket in advance.
Free Special Events
● Shared Memory: The Holocaust in Popular Art panel · Sat June 13, 4pm, Al Green
● Challenging Narratives: Voices of Protest in Israeli Cinema panel · Sat June 6, 3:30pm, Al Green
● Challenging Narratives: Voices of Protest in Israeli Cinema panel · Sat June 6, 3:30pm, Al Green
Free Archival Programming
● Alex Is Lovesick (online)
● The Boys and Other Snapshots of Jew-ish Toronto · June 6, 6pm, Al Green
● Bye Bye Braverman · June 13, 6:30pm, Al Green
● Free Country: A Tribute to Rob Reiner · June 6, 1pm, Al Green
● Life is Beautiful: Michel Kichka Carte Blanche · June 13, 1pm, Al Green
● The Boys and Other Snapshots of Jew-ish Toronto · June 6, 6pm, Al Green
● Bye Bye Braverman · June 13, 6:30pm, Al Green
● Free Country: A Tribute to Rob Reiner · June 6, 1pm, Al Green
● Life is Beautiful: Michel Kichka Carte Blanche · June 13, 1pm, Al Green
📱 Can’t Make It to a Theatre? Watch Online
TJFF runs an online arm called J-Flix / TJFF Virtual Cinema, and it’s one of the more underrated features of the festival. Films premiere in-theatre, then become available online a couple of days later for a limited streaming window.
For 2026, the online catalogue runs all the way through June 23, with each film typically available for a 2–3 day window. So if you miss something opening week, you very likely have a second shot.
💬 Online titles include Bookends, The Dreamer, Elena’s War, Frontier, The Legend of Juan Jose Mundo, Looking for Yadida, Nandauri, Poland Versus History, Rosenthal, Royal Swap, Sapiro v. Ford, The Sea, Shadow Murder, Shabbat on the Other Side of the River, Shooting, Surviving Malka Leifer, UNraveling UNRWA, When You Listen to This Song, and more.
💡 A Few Things Worth Knowing Before You Go
🎫 Buy tickets for the four marquee films early. Opening Night, Closing Night and both centrepieces routinely sell out. The box office opened May 14 — if you’re reading this and you haven’t booked yet, do that first.
🎮 Consider a Festival Pass. If you’re planning to see more than five or six films, the festival pass usually works out cheaper than buying individually. Early-bird pricing closed May 10, but standard passes are still available.
🚗 Plan around the venue. Hot Docs Ted Rogers is Bloor & Bathurst, Al Green is on Spadina, Empress Walk is North York. Don’t book a 5pm at Empress and a 7pm at Hot Docs without checking the TTC trip first.
💬 Stay for the Q&As. A lot of films have directors, producers, or subjects present. The post-film discussion is often the best part — especially for the documentaries.
📊 If you miss it in theatre, check J-Flix. Most of the in-theatre films pop up online a few days later for a short streaming window. Worth checking before assuming you’ve missed something.
🎤 Sneak a free one in. The free archival programming and the two free panels are a no-risk way to dip your toe in if you’ve never been to TJFF. Strongly recommended: Free Country: A Tribute to Rob Reiner on June 6.
Support TJFF 💛
TJFF is a not-for-profit that keeps ticket prices accessible and a meaningful chunk of its programming free. It runs on donations, memberships, and a dedicated volunteer base — if you appreciate what they do, consider giving back.
❓ Common Questions
Schedule and ticket details may change — always confirm on the official TJFF schedule before heading out.
