diff --git a/Lib/fontTools/__init__.py b/Lib/fontTools/__init__.py
index 82ea0bd..3d2f79c 100644
--- a/Lib/fontTools/__init__.py
+++ b/Lib/fontTools/__init__.py
@@ -5,6 +5,6 @@
 
 log = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 
-version = __version__ = "3.43.3.dev0"
+version = __version__ = "3.44.0"
 
 __all__ = ["version", "log", "configLogger"]
diff --git a/NEWS.rst b/NEWS.rst
index ab54e4b..2a00702 100644
--- a/NEWS.rst
+++ b/NEWS.rst
@@ -1,3 +1,6 @@
+3.44.0 (released 2019-08-02)
+----------------------------
+
 - NOTE: This is the last scheduled release to support Python 2.7. The upcoming fonttools
   v4.x series is going to require Python 3.6 or greater.
 - [varLib] Added new ``varLib.instancer`` module for partially instantiating variable
diff --git a/setup.cfg b/setup.cfg
index 4de4b9b..e8e6401 100644
--- a/setup.cfg
+++ b/setup.cfg
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 [bumpversion]
-current_version = 3.43.3.dev0
+current_version = 3.44.0
 commit = True
 tag = False
 tag_name = {new_version}
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index be091d3..c259cfd 100755
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -352,7 +352,7 @@
 
 setup(
 	name="fonttools",
-	version="3.43.3.dev0",
+	version="3.44.0",
 	description="Tools to manipulate font files",
 	author="Just van Rossum",
 	author_email="just@letterror.com",