Artistic Director's Welcome

Look at us now!
New logo, new website, new look!
When we applied to Revenue Canada to do a film festival, we were advised to incorporate the name as the Toronto Jewish Film Foundation, with the Festival being a project of that Foundation and allowing us to do other projects as well. How wise was that advice!

Here we are, twenty four years later, and along with our new look, we have an exciting new plan.

Over the years, we have collected about two thousand screeners of the films we have shown at our festivals.

They languish on the shelves of our conference room. Filmmakers commit their time, max out their credit cards, beg and grovel to raise funds to make these films, which is their passion. Many of these films make the rounds of the over 100 Jewish film festivals around the world for a year or two and then fade into oblivion.

We decided to do something about that by launching a live streaming platform with many of these films. You will be able to screen them at your leisure for free. As we add titles, some will be available for a modest fee, but we are committed to keeping as many as possible free of charge.

We are giving new life to filmmakers’ works and they are delighted to be part of this exciting project. We are beginning with 5 films and adding titles as we get permission from the rights holders.

Searching for the rights holders for some of these older films is a challenge in itself, but this project offers us a trip down memory lane. We hope you will enjoy these films.

Our challenge remains to engage the next generation of filmgoers. Once they attend a screening, they get what we are doing, and their concept of a Jewish film festival changes.

So, here is a project for us all.

For our 25th Festival, choose a film and invite people who have never come—children, grandchildren, friends, anyone who loves film. Our first commitment is to fine film—high quality Jewish-content films.

We hope you encourage them to go to our website and explore the possibilities, by genre or title, documentary or fiction.

The reality of TJFF is different from what non attendees think it is.

Let each of us commit ourselves to introducing a new person to TJFF as we take the Festival into the next 25 years with a new and bold look.

Let’s make year 25 the most attended Festival.
What other festivals make the line-ups snack friendly?