TIFF Cancels Then Uncancels October 7 Film

TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey.
Photo: Robert Okine/Getty Images

For the second year in a row, the Toronto International Film Festival has drawn ire over the programming of a controversial documentary that the organizers scheduled, canceled, and then decided to screen after all. Last year, the festival drew ire over the programming of Anastasia Trofimova’s documentary Russians at War, which drew criticism from Ukrainian diplomats as well concerns over the safety of the screening in light of the ongoing war. The programmers canceled then reinstated the screening of the film anyway with heavy security. This year, the festival decided to pull a political documentary, Barry Avrich’s The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue, according to an August 12 report. Avrich’s film tells the story of Noam Tibon, a retired Israeli general, who worked to save his family and rescue wounded music-festival attendees on October 7.

Sources close to the festival told Deadline conflicting information: There were concerns about protests regarding the documentary not unlike the ones surrounding Russians at War, but also the documentary was pulled in part due to the filmmakers’ lacking the rights to footage taken by Hamas fighters that is used in the film. Cameron Bailey, the CEO of TIFF, denied that the cancellation of the film had anything to do with censorship in a statement. As of August 14, however, the festival confirmed that it would show The Road Between Us as an official selection after all, now that an agreement addressing “important safety, legal, and programming concerns” was reached between Bailey and Avrich, the details of which are unknown. The decision — in both directions — has angered a number of critics and moviegoers over the festival’s clear lack of consistency and conviction.

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