This year’s Toronto Arab Film Festival (TAFF) will take place in the city of Toronto and online across Canada, from June 1-11, 2023. TAFF is the first of its kind in Toronto, a non-profit festival focused on presenting and promoting films by Arab filmmakers across the world—for both Arab and non-Arab audiences alike.

The fourth edition of the festival will host in-person screenings and activities at the Revue Cinema, Innis College, 1411_D, and the Goethe Institute, with additional virtual screenings available through the Toronto Arab Film website.

This year’s programme spotlights a broad range of both feature-length and short films. They include fiction, documentary, animation, and experimental works by filmmakers from the Arab world and its diasporas. Films include opening night Palestinian film Mediterranean Fever, winner of the best screenplay award in Cannes' Un Certain Regard, an outdoor family friendly screening of the enchantingly animated Dounia et la princesse d'alep and closing the festival this year is A Gaza Weekend, by oscar-nominated filmmaker Basil Kahlil.

This year we are boasting an increased number of Arab-Canadian films including two feature documentaries: Desert Rocker by Sara Nacer, a profound portrait of the extraordinary Hasna El Becharia, a pioneer Gnawa artist, and the comedic saga of The Lebanese Burger Mafia by Albertan Omar Mouallem, following a successful run at Hot Docs earlier this month.