UPDATE: In a shock move, 10 Hot Docs programmers are exiting the Canadian documentary festival en masse ahead of this year’s edition which is due to begin on April 25.
Later on Monday afternoon the festival confirmed the news and added that artistic director Hussain Currimbhoy departed on March 20 for “personal reasons”.
Samah Ali, Vivian Belik, Jesse Cumming, Angie Driscoll, Margaret Pereira, Gabor Pertic, Kaitlynn Tomaselli, Myrocia Watamaniuk, Mariam Zaidi, and Yiqian Zhang announced they were leaving on social media on Monday.
The 2024 edition of the largest documentary festival in North America runs in Toronto from April 25-May 5 and festival director Heather Haynes has been leading the programming department in preparations for this year’s edition. The line-up is scheduled to be announced on Tuesday.
Most of the departed programmers have been at Hot Docs for four years or less and in some cases just one year. However, Watamaniuk, senior international programmer, features, joined in 2001, and Driscoll, senior international programmer, features and shorts, arrived in 2003. Both leave the festival after more than 20 years of service.
Pertic, international programmer, features, has been at Hot Docs since 2010, and Zaidi, international programmer, shorts, and Canadian programmer, features and shorts, since 2016.
“I have made the heartbreaking choice to exit the 2024 Hot Docs Festival,” each wrote in a prepared statement. “I do so with 9 of my fellow colleagues, listed below. I will continue to fight for films and filmmakers – they are the bedrock of all film festivals, and the reason I do this job.”
Currimbhoy joined last November to lead the festival programming team, as well as Toronto’s Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema, and educational initiative Docs for Schools. Hot Docs said on Monday that Currimbhoy was ”fundamental” in programming this year’s festival.
He had previously served as a programmer at Sundance, Sheffield DocFest, Melbourne Film Festival, and the Red Sea Film Festival, among others, and launched Gåsebäck Film Festival in Sweden last year. The Canadian was a co-executive produer on the Taliban documentary and 2023 Venice premiere Hollywoodgate.
Earlier this year Hot Docs president Marie Nelson told Canadian outlets that 2024 could be the event’s last year unless more financial support is forthcoming from the government after losses sustained during the pandemic. The Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema closed for two years during Covid and the festival returned in 2023 after cancellations.
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