TIFF braces for protests ahead of hot-button premieres

As Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) settles into its 50th anniversary edition, Screen has learned that the festival has designated protest zones for Friday’s world premiere of Annemarie Jacir’s Palestinian Oscar submission Palestine 36.

According to sources the TIFF security team will oversee zones outside Roy Thomson Hall for the 1pm screening and those areas will also be monitored by Toronto police.

The development comes amid frequent and ongoing demonstrations around the world over the war in Gaza. Last week a major protest took place at Venice Film Festival. 

TIFF security will be present on the carpet and monitor the crowd around the venue in David Pecaut Square, a short walk from the festival’s Lightbox headquarters on King Street West. A stretch of that road will be pedestrianised through September 7 in accordance with festival tradition over the past decade.

A TIFF spokesperson declined to comment on protocol specifics, and told Screen: “At TIFF the safety of our audiences, filmmakers, staff, volunteers, media, and participants has always been a top priority to us. We do not disclose specific details of the security measures in place across TIFF events.”

It is understood the festival’s in-cinema staff are trained to de-escalate any security issues that may arise, with the security team on hand should they be required. TIFF staff who introduce screenings typically allow protestors to have their say before continuing with the programme.

Palestine 36 takes place in the 1930s under the British Mandate for Palestine and stars Karim Daoud Anaya, Jeremy Irons, Hiam Abbass, Wardi Eilabouni and Saleh Bakri. mk2 films and Lucky Number represent international sales. The feature screens to press and industry earlier in the day, and a second public screening is scheduled for Sunday (September 7) and a second P&I slot on September 10. 

It was unclear whether there will be similar protest zones outside Roy Thomson Hall on September 10 when TIFF hosts the 2pm world premiere of Barry Avrich’s The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue, a documentary about a retired Israeli general’s mission to rescue family members during the October 7 2023 terror attacks by Hamas on Israel. That will be the sole presentation of the film and no P&I screenings are currently scheduled.

That film has already sparked controversy when it was not announced as part of the TIFF Docs line-up, sparking claims by the filmmakers that the festival withdrew the film and was self-censoring. CEO Cameron Bailey categorically denied the claims, while TIFF worked furiously behind the scenes to ensure it met “conditions that were requested”. The film was eventually reinstated in the line-up.

At last year’s TIFF pro-Palestinian protesters disrupted the opening night screening of Nutcrackers. Separately, the festival was forced to pull screenings of Anastasia Trofimova’s documentary Russians At War following protests amid the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict and “significant threats to festival operations and public safety”. TIFF programmed two screenings after the 2024 festival.

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