It is a project of the Puffin Foundation, a non-profit organization which promotes social change through creativity.
[1] The film festival was started in 2006 and has the recurring theme "Activism: Making Change".
TIFF features both American and international feature-length films, documentaries and shorts which highlight current social issues.
[2][3] The Star-Ledger, New Jersey's largest newspaper, called TIFF "the film festival with a social conscience".
Among the films that have won awards at the festival are Neshoba (2008), Stones in the Sun (2012), Bathtubs Over Broadway, (2018), and Mama Gloria (2020).