Canada\u2019s Jewish community was celebrating a victory, Aug. 15, as Toronto\u2019s International Film Festival (TIFF) reversed a decision it had made earlier in the week, to pull a film about October 7 from the schedule.\u00a0<\/p>\n
TIFF had initially accepted\u00a0The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue,\u00a0a documentary by Toronto filmmaker Barry Avrich about a retired IDF general\u2019s race to save his son and their young family who were living on Kibbutz Nahal Oz, when Hamas terrorists invaded the community.\u00a0<\/p>\n
On Aug. 12, Deadline.com, an entertainment industry website, reported that TIFF had reversed course and informed Avrich by email that the film was being pulled from the schedule, citing issues that the footage shot by Hamas had not been legally cleared for use, as well as mentioning security concerns.<\/p>\n
The abrupt decision by one of the world\u2019s most prestigious film festivals made international headlines. Two days later, on the evening of Aug. 14, the festival\u2019s CEO Cameron Bailey, and Avrich issued a joint statement saying the decision had been reversed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBoth TIFF and the filmmakers have heard the pain and frustration expressed by the public and we want to address this together,\u201d read the statement. \u201cWe have worked together to find a resolution to satisfy important safety, legal, and programming concerns. We are pleased to share that\u00a0The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue\u00a0will be an official TIFF selection at the festival this year, where we believe it will contribute to the vital conversations that film is meant to inspire.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The statement also contained an apology, of sorts. \u201cIn this case, TIFF\u2019s communication around its requirements did not clearly articulate the concerns and roadblocks that arose, and for that, we are sorry.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Please see the following statement from TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey regarding The Road Between Us. pic.twitter.com\/Qg9D7p3KEZ<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 TIFF (@TIFF_NET) August 13, 2025<\/a> <\/p>\n Details about the world premiere screening will be announced Aug. 20. The festival, which is celebrating its 50th\u00a0anniversary, runs from Sept. 4-14.<\/p>\n Henry Wolfond, chair of UJA Federation of Greater Toronto\u2019s Countering Antisemitism and Hate Committee, was one of several high-profile Torontonians, along with Heather Reisman, CEO of Indigo Books and Music, politicians and leaders of Jewish organizations to lobby TIFF board members about returning the film to the schedule.<\/p>\n Wolfond said over 60,000 emails were sent to TIFF from around the world by people outraged by the decision.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s great to celebrate the reversal of that (decision), but the fact that so many people, thousands of people, had to do this, is really a\u00a0shanda,\u201d Wolfond said in an interview with The CJN.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Wolfond says the TIFF board members that he personally knows and contacted were also disturbed by the initial decision. The film will require additional security when it is screened, but that should not be an obstacle to showing it, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe people I spoke to, they did raise the concerns about the security\u2026 but from the perspective of censorship or excluding a film because it happened to be an Israeli story, they were as outraged as we in the community are,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s hard not to see antisemitism as playing a role in this when they came back with an excuse that the footage from Hamas body cams of the atrocities they committed on Oct. 7, that half the population of the planet has seen, \u2026 that not having the permission from the terrorists themselves to air this should be the roadblock. You you have to read between the lines and say there\u2019s more to it than that. Other documentaries where there\u2019s footage of atrocities taking place in the world, this demand has not been imposed.\u201d<\/p>\n The controversy at TIFF this week is not an isolated instance, Wolfond believes. \u201cUnfortunately, it\u2019s reflective of what\u2019s happening with arts institutions globally since Oct. 7, with antisemitic bias showing itself.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n He points to the difficulty that the film,\u00a0October 8, which documents the rise of antisemitism on university campuses, has encountered in finding distributors and placement in film festivals.\u00a0<\/p>\n The decision to include\u00a0The Road Between Us\u00a0in the festival and then rescind the invitation generated a\u00a0groundswell of opposition<\/a>, with former donors calling on current financial supporters to rescind their pledges and to boycott the festival.\u00a0<\/p>\n