Toronto-based Hot Docs has announced its 2025 line-up of 113 films from 47 countries and will open on April 24 with the world premiere of Parade: Queer Acts Of Love & Resistance.
Canadian filmmaker Noam Gonick directed and Justine Pimlott produced for the National Film Board of Canada and the film explores the pivotal moments that sparked Canada’s 2SLGBTQ+ movement.
A roster of 35 world, 14 international, and 26 North American premieres includes Special Presentations selection The Nest, which gets its first public outing and centres on a personal reflection of memory, identity, and intergenerational storytelling by co-directors Chase Joynt and Julietta Singh.
International Spectrum Competition brings world premieres of Heritage, a family snapshot from Mir Mohammad Najafi in which two siblings alternate shifts caring for their elderly parents; I Dreamed His Name, in which Angela Carabali and her sister embark on a journey of discovery across Colombia’s painful history decades after their Afro-Colombian father’s forced disappearance; and I, Poppy from Vivek Chaudhary, in which a man fights against corrupt officials while his mother tends to their poppy farm in India.
The competitive Canadian Spectrum Competition brings the world premieres of #skoden, in which an iconic Indigenous meme sparks an exploration of the unhoused Albertan man behind the viral phenomenon; Casas Muertas from Rosana Matecki, a lyrical meditation on loss, strength and hope that follows the resilience of three generations of Venezuelans; and Shamed, following an online vigilante and self-described “Creeper Hunter” who ambushes potential sexual predators in videotaped confrontations.
Festival sections include World Showcase premiering the likes of Aisha’s Story from Elizabeth Vibert and Chen Wang, in which a Palestinian grain miller in a Jordanian refugee camp safeguards her culture and shares her people’s history through food; and Lena Macdonald’s Betrayal, which follows the brother-in-law of Liberian dictator Charles Taylor as he becomes a whistleblower against the dictator’s regime.
Programmes include the Made In showcase of documentaries from filmmakers and participants driven from their homelands by war, conflict or humanitarian crises; the Persister section, highlighting the voices of inspirational women; Artscapes, exploring creative minds, artistic pursuits and inventive filmmaking; the new Tipping Point programme, featuring hard-hitting accounts of contemporary issues; and Nightvision, showcasing potential cult classics.
The line-up includes the Big Ideas conversation series featuring guests such as director Maxim Derevianko and special guests of Ai Weiwei’s Turandot; James Jones and journalist Christo Grozev of Antidote; director Shoshannah Stern and actor Marlee Matlin of Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore; and director Violet Du Feng of The Dating Game. Hot Docs will present 18 Canadian and international shorts from 13 countries.
The festival will run from April 24 to May 4 and the programmers culled the film selections from 2,662 submissions. Hot Docs recently announced it had appointed industry veteran Diana Sanchez executive director.
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