TIFF retreat shows creative world must stop caving to anti-Israel hatred

On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas carried out the deadliest attack on Jews since the Holocaust. Among those caught in the onslaught was retired Israeli Maj-Gen. Noam Tibon. When he learned that terrorists had reached Kibbutz Nahal Oz, where his son, daughter-in-law and granddaughters lived, he drove south. Along the way, he pulled survivors from cars, stopped to help soldiers, and ultimately rescued his family.

His story is the subject of “The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue,” a new documentary by Canadian filmmaker Barry Avrich. The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) initially invited the film to its 2025 lineup. Then, just weeks before opening night, TIFF pulled it. Festival officials cited unresolved legal clearance for footage, including material filmed and livestreamed by Hamas, and pointed to the risk of disruptive protests. The Associated Press reported TIFF’s claim that the filmmakers “had not met certain conditions” and insisted the decision was not about censorship.

FILMMAKER ALLEGES ‘CENSORSHIP’ AFTER TORONTO FILM FESTIVAL DROPS OCT. 7 HAMAS ATTACK DOCUMENTARY

Cameron Bailey speaks on behalf of the Toronto International Film Festival, 2025 Inductees, Arts and Entertainment during the 2025 Canada’s Walk Of Fame Induction Gala held at Metro Toronto Convention Center on June 2025 in Toronto, Ontario.  (Photo by Jeremy Chan/Getty Images)

It’s bad enough that October. 7 survivors and their families have been silenced across the world, with the atrocities constantly denied in a new form of Holocaust revisionism. Now, film festivals are trying to silence Jewish voices because October. 7 doesn’t fit their pro-terrorism narrative. This is a major warning call to every major film festival that antisemitism is not acceptable, just as you wouldn’t dare silence a film detailing crimes committed against any other minority.

The backlash was immediate. Critics said the festival had effectively given Hamas, a designated terrorist group, veto power over how its crimes are shown to the world. The New York Post noted that TIFF pointed to copyright concerns over Hamas’ own footage, in which Hamas and Gazans self-filmed themselves committing acts of terrorist violence, victimizing, torturing, kidnapping and killing Israelis and foreign nationals. 

The rationale of the film festival claiming this horrendous footage should have a copyright claim by terrorists is not just absurd and bizarre, it is justification of terrorist acts. The Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation went further, warning that the move “effectively grants Hamas copyright protection over its own war crimes.”

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Hamas terrorists killed civilians, including women, children and the elderly, when they attacked Israel on Oct. 7.  (Israel Defense Forces via AP)

Within 24 hours, TIFF reversed course. CEO Cameron Bailey and Avrich issued a joint statement confirming the film will screen after all. Bailey admitted the festival’s communication was unclear but said “claims that the film was rejected due to censorship are unequivocally false,” although communication records show otherwise.

The reversal was welcome, but the episode still matters. For survivors and their families, the initial decision felt like a second silencing. The first came from the violence of Oct. 7. The second came from the erasure of their testimony in a cultural forum where it most needs to be heard.

This is about more than one documentary. It is a warning to every film festival and cultural institution: If fear of protests or legal loopholes is enough to keep Jewish or Israeli stories off the screen, the precedent is clear: those stories are expendable, and intimidation works.

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An Israeli soldier patrols near Kibbutz Beeri in southern Israel on October 12, 2023, close to the place where 270 revelers were killed by terrorists during the Supernova music festival on October 7.  (ARIS MESSINIS/AFP via Getty Images)

That warning is especially urgent right now. The Venice International Film Festival, Telluride, TIFF, and the Busan International Film Festival are all scheduled for the next few weeks. These festivals, and others around the world, will soon face their own choices about whether to protect difficult stories or retreat when controversy looms.

TIFF ultimately chose the right path due to pushback and criticism. But it should not take a global outcry for Jewish voices to be heard. Festivals must put policies in place to protect artistic freedom and ensure extremists do not decide what audiences get to see.

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“The Road Between Us” is more than a film. It is a record of survival and resilience in the face of terror. Festivals everywhere should take note: silencing the victims, even briefly, is not acceptable. The role of culture is to tell the truth, even when it is painful.