Directing duo Mihal Brezis and Oded Binnun expand their Oscar-nominated short Aya into a mesmerizing feature. First premiering at the Tribeca Festival and nominated for 12 Ophir Awards, the film begins with a chance encounter at an airport: while waiting for her husband, Aya impulsively pretends to be the chauffeur assigned to pick up a visitor arriving from Denmark. Their brief encounter stirs an unexpected longing that destabilizes Aya’s carefully ordered life. Co-written with Tom Shoval (A Letter to David) and Amital Stern, the film is a nuanced mediation on intimacy, chance and desire, anchored by luminous performances from Sarah Adler (The Cakemaker) and Ulrich Thomsen (The Celebration).

After impulsively shaving off his beard and sidelocks, Efrayim Eisenstein (Luzer Twersky) is violently thrown out of his family home. He finds refuge with his estranged, ex-religious aunt Stephanie, but flees her apartment in the middle of the night after she walks in on him in a particularly shameful moment. Also starring Malky Goldman (The Vigil, Moishe Badhan or The Tale of a Wedding Entertainer) and Mike Burstein (Two Kuni Lemel, Juda).

A trio of 1970s student films captures the hangouts and attitudes of secular Jewish youth around Bathurst Street. Alan Zweig’s funny and introspective The Boys (1977), with Ralph Benmergui and Joel Axler, follows dateless twenty-somethings hoping for connection. Lawrence Plaza (1973), made by Zweig along with Bernie Lightman and Paul Hutter—friends from Bathurst Heights Secondary School—is a scrappy comedy about awkward college students trying to hook up. And in Eric Weinthal’s Justice (1974), a kid swipes a pack of gum from a Bathurst and Eglinton convenience store and sparks a chase with the cops through the leafy streets of Forest Hill.
Lawrence Plaza and Justice will screen with live filmmaker commentary.

A four-minute Yiddish music video featuring Joseph Landau, of the Toronto-based music group, Yosl & the Yingels. The song tells the story of a son who begs his mother's permission to go out on Friday night to have fun and ‘be happy'. Shot in the North York apartment of Josephs' Bubbe, the video evokes retro urban, Jewish culture and traditions.

Tattoo is a short drama about a Zaydeh visiting his estranged family overnight. His young grandson discovers the grandfather he knew is haunted by a traumatic past, passing like a hereditary specter.

An exploration of the current political climate in Israel and how it shapes the work of filmmakers that engage with government and military policy, and life in the West Bank. International reception, including the impact of cultural boycotts, will also be addressed. Panelists include filmmakers Shai Carmeli Pollak (The Sea) and Netalie Braun (Oxygen and Shooting).

A panel exploring how Holocaust memory is conveyed through popular visual artforms, addressing ethical representation, trauma depiction, and audience impact. Panelists include TJFF2026 Artist-in-Residence, Michel Kichka, author of the graphic novel, Second Generation: The Things I Didn't Tell My Father, and Michal Kosakowski, director of Holofiction.

From delicate romance to slapstick comedy to mordant humour, this collection of new short films by young Israeli directors showcases distinct voices. Created by filmmakers including Eden Abitbol (a writer on the hit series The New Black) and beloved actress Moran Rosenblatt (Wedding Doll) in her directorial debut, the stories explore unexpected encounters in a divided society, sibling rivalry, and young love confronting mortality.

A devout woman disguises herself as a man to take a tango lesson in a 1915 Buenos Aires brothel… An idealistic Israeli dreams of Russian Yiddish poet Peretz Markish during a raid siren… This eclectic shorts programme showcases new films from Argentina, the United States, Sweden, and Israel that highlight the Yiddish language.