Acclaimed US documentary filmmakerErrol Morris will be the guest of honour at the 2005 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival. Along with a retrospective of his work, the director of such films as Gates Of Heaven, The Thin Blue Line and the AcademyAward-winning Fog Of War will be presented with the event's annual Outstanding Achievement Award and participatein an on-stage interview.

In a statement the retrospective's curator Marc Glassman said Morris was a filmmaker 'in the tradition of the masters of documentary, the inheritor of the empirical approach of Fred Wiseman, Al Maysles and D A Pennebaker. Like them, he appreciates being on the outside looking in, at a society and culture in flux, that needs its truth-tellers and clear-sighted thinkers.'

The festival, which runs from Apr 22 to May 1 in Toronto, will also feature a sidebar focus devoted to the work of Canadian filmmaker Larry Weinstein, whose films focus on the art of making music. Hot Docs, along with the industry-related Toronto Documentary Forum (Apr 27-28), announces its complete line-up on Mar 30.