Canada’s Hot Docs documentary festival has wrapped its 31st edition in Toronto (May 5) and named Yintah the winner of its Rogers Audience Award for Best Canadian Documentary.
The award, whose winner is determined by an audience poll, comes with a cash prize of CAD 50,000 (USD 36,543).
Directed by Jennifer Wickham, Brenda Michell and Michael Toledano, Yintah is about the efforts of the Canadian First Nation Wet’suwet’en people to resist the construction of pipelines across their territory.
On Friday evening (May 3) Hot Docs announced the prize winners from its official competition line-up (full list below).
The festival’s Best Canadian Feature Documentary Award, which comes with a CAD 10,000 (USD 7,311) cash prize, went to The Soldier’s Lagoon, director Pablo Álvarez-Mesa’s film about the Paramo region of South America.
The Best International Feature Documentary Award, also with a CAD 10,000 (USD 7,311) cash prize, went to Farming The Revolution, an India-Norway production, directed by Nishta Jain, about a protest movement among Indian farmers.
The Emerging Canadian Filmmaker Award went to Laurence Lévesque, director of Okurimono, while the Emerging International Filmmaker Award went to Fan Wu, director of Taiwan-Philippines-South Korea documentary XiXi.
Also among the winners was British director Janet Harbord, whose Autism Plays Itself won the Best International Short Documentary Award.
At the close of the festival, it was determined that Yintah also placed first in the overall audience poll, winning the Hot Docs Audience Award. The top mid-length film in the audience poll was Fire Tower, and the top short film was Nothing Special.
The top 20 audience favourites are: Yintah, American Cats: The Good, The Bad, And The Cuddly; A Mother Apart; Black Box Diaries; Wilfred Buck; Luther: Never Too Much; The Ride Ahead; Echo Of You; Any Other: The Jackie Shane Story; Kelly – Someone Else’s Dream: My Dad’s Tapes; Secret Mall Apartment; Red Fever; A French Youth; Teaches Of Peaches; Devi; Singing Back The Buffalo; Porcelain War; Disco’s Revenge; and This Is Going To Be Big.
Earlier last week, the festival’s Hot Docs Forum concluded with the award of the first look Pitch Prizes. The first prize of CAD 20,000 (USD 14,615) went to Arrest The Midwife, from director Elaine Epstein.
This year’s Hot Docs, which ran from April 25 to May 5, included 168 films from 64 countries. The festival’s industry conference registered more than 1,400 delegates from 69 countries, according to organisers.
Festival president Marie Nelson commented: “Hot Docs stands tall as an essential nexus for documentary visionaries and the broader industry. It was an absolute joy to host our friends, new and old, in Toronto and to show them our warmth and support as they carve their path in our industry and shape their future creative endeavours.”
Festival programming director Heather Haynes added: “We would not be here without the incredible staff at Hot Docs who, each year, deliver this festival with full hearts, love and courage. This year’s festival embodied this very spirit, as our community came together to explore vital and urgent conversations. The outpour of support and encouragement from our community gave us strength and optimism as we look towards the future.”
Full list of official competition winners:
Best Canadian Feature Documentary Award
Pablo Álvarez-Mesa for The Soldier’s Lagoon (Can)
Earl A Glick Emerging Canadian Filmmaker Award
Laurence Lévesque for Okurimono (Can)
Best International Feature Documentary Award
Nishta Jain for Farming the Revolution (India-Nor)
Best Emerging International Filmmaker Award
Fan Wu for XiXi (Tai-Phil-SK)
Betty Youson Award for Best Canadian Short Documentary
Eisha Marjara for Am I the Skinniest Person You’ve Ever Seen? (Can)
Best International Short Documentary Award
Janet Harbord for Autism Plays Itself (UK)
Best Mid-Length Documentary Award
Kumjana Novakova for Silence of Reason (Mac-Bos/Herz)
The Scotiabank Docs for Schools Student Choice Award
JoeBill Muñoz, Lucas Guilkey for The Strike (US)
The Bill Nemtin Award for Best Social Impact Documentary
Erin Lau, Amber Espinosa-Jones, producers of Standing Above the Clouds (USA)
Land|Sky|Sea Award
Daphne Matziaraki, Peter Murimi for The Battle for Laikipia (Ken-USA-Gre)
The DGC Special Jury Prize – Canadian Feature Documentary
Michael Mabbott, Lucah Rosenberg-Lee for Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story (Ca)
The Special Jury Prize – International Feature Documentary
Patricia Bbaale Bandak for Death of a Saint (Den)
Lindalee Tracey Award
Meysam Motazedi
Don Haig Award
Alison Duke, producer of A Mother Apart (Can)
Outstanding Achievement Award (previously announced)
Raoul Peck.
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