Toronto Palestine Film Festival 2026

Palestinian cinema, music, and art — 19 years running in Toronto

📍 Get Directions Full Program

Five days of in-person screenings at TIFF Bell Lightbox, followed by an extended online program — TPFF brings Palestinian shorts, features, and cultural events to Toronto audiences for its 19th year.

🎬 In-person + online 💬 English subtitles 🎵 Music & culture events 👨‍👩‍👧 All ages welcome

💡 TPFF is entirely volunteer-run and non-profit, conceived in 2008 to mark the 60th anniversary of the Nakba — it now hosts more than 30 programs of events and screenings each year.

Why Go Program Passes Essentials Getting There FAQ

✨ Why This Festival Is Worth Your Time

TPFF was conceived in 2008 to mark the 60th anniversary of the Nakba, and nearly two decades later it has grown into one of the more consistent showcases of Palestinian storytelling anywhere in North America. It’s entirely volunteer-run and non-profit, which shows in the festival’s programming philosophy: rather than chasing scale for its own sake, TPFF has expanded deliberately, now running more than 30 programs of events and screenings each year across film, music, and culture.

The venue itself carries weight. Screening at TIFF Bell Lightbox — the same downtown Toronto home of the Toronto International Film Festival — puts TPFF’s selections in a genuinely prestigious cinema setting, with the kind of projection and sound quality that does justice to the visual and narrative craft on display. Past editions have paired screenings with live music, including a headline performance from Palestinian hip-hop pioneers DAM and a Canadian debut from singer and flautist Nai Barghouti, giving the festival a cultural footprint that extends well beyond the screening room. The festival has also hosted panel discussions and speaker events addressing the legal and political dimensions of the Palestinian experience, including sessions with law professors and human rights advocates, positioning TPFF as a space for dialogue as much as for cinema.

The festival’s hybrid structure is also worth noting: five days in-person at TIFF Bell Lightbox, then an extended online program that runs for nearly a week after, meaning the reach isn’t limited to whoever can make it downtown during a single week. Every film is subtitled in English and the event is open to all ages, making it accessible to a genuinely broad audience — students, film scholars, and anyone simply looking to encounter Palestinian cinema and culture directly. The festival also runs an ongoing film residency and an open call for submissions each year, accepting work from Palestinian filmmakers and from non-Palestinian filmmakers whose films engage with Palestine, which keeps the selection genuinely global rather than limited to established names.

🗓️ Festival Structure

TPFF runs as a two-phase festival: in-person screenings first, then an extended online window.

🎟️ Festival Passes

TPFF sells a Flex Pass covering the full festival program:

Early Bird — $45 CAD before Sept 14 Regular price — $54 CAD

🌍 A Global Selection Process

Unlike festivals that rely primarily on invited or curated submissions from established filmmakers, TPFF runs a genuinely open call for entries each year, accepting shorts and features in any genre from Palestinian filmmakers as well as from non-Palestinian filmmakers whose work engages with Palestine. There are no application fees, which lowers the barrier for emerging and independent filmmakers who might not otherwise be able to afford festival submission costs.

That openness shows up in the finished program: recent editions have included homegrown shorts from the diaspora, film blocks tracing the connections between Palestine and Lebanon, work documenting daily life in Gaza, and archival programs revisiting events like the 1958 Intifada alongside newer documentary storytelling. The result is less a single curated narrative and more a mosaic of perspectives, stitched together across borders and generations of Palestinian filmmakers — a structure that rewards attending multiple screenings rather than picking just one film, since each program block tends to build on themes introduced elsewhere in the festival.

📋 Essentials at a Glance

🚗 Getting There & Parking

TIFF Bell Lightbox sits in the heart of Toronto’s Entertainment District, one of the most transit-accessible venues in the downtown core.

By transit: St. Andrew Station on Line 1 is a short walk away, and multiple streetcar routes run along King Street directly to the venue.

Driving: Downtown parking near the venue is limited and can be pricier on weekday evenings — transit is generally the more reliable option, particularly during peak screening times.

❓ Common Questions