Two years after suffering a financial and structural crisis that nearly sank the institution, Toronto’s Hot Docs Festival returns for its 33rd edition this month with a renewed sense of energy and purpose.
Hot Docs Festival to open with film on queer rock icon Carole Pope
With a new board of directors, a new strategic vision guided by executive director Diana Sanchez, and a more confident financial footing thanks to the sale and leaseback arrangement of its flagship Bloor Street West theatre, Hot Docs is aiming to shake off the past and embrace its future. While this year’s programming slate is smaller than the festival’s supersized era just a few years ago – 115 titles (80 features, 35 shorts) compared to 214 in 2023 – there are still more promising films on offer than any attendee would be able to watch over the course of 10 days.
To that end, here are the 10 best bets from this year’s Hot Docs lineup, gleaned from advance viewing, industry buzz, filmmaker pedigree and intriguing subject matter.
Carole Pope is aiming to 'reclaim her rightful place in music history' with a new documentary.Hotdocs/Supplied
Antidiva: The Carole Pope Confessions
After blazing a trail through Toronto’s music, art and fashion scene in the 1970s and 80s with her band Rough Trade, British-Canadian musician Carole Pope is, according to festival organizers, aiming to “reclaim her rightful place in music history” with this new doc. Directed by Canadian Michelle Mama (a Canadian Screen Award winner for her work on Canada’s Drag Race), the film’s world premiere will officially open this year’s festival with a healthy dash of local celebrity. And no matter how well the doc is ultimately assembled, there is one thing that audiences can count on: you will walk out with High School Confidential stuck in your head.
Songwriter Kenny Loggins is behind everything from Footloose to Danger Zone.Hotdocs/Supplied
Kenny Loggins: Conviction of the Heart
Pope won’t be the only musician getting the Hot Docs spotlight this edition, though it’s hard to imagine Kenny Loggins sharing any kind of stage with Rough Trade. The songwriter behind approximately 75 per cent of your memories of the 1980s – everything from Footloose to Danger Zone – Loggins gets the full life-and-legacy treatment here courtesy of Dori Berinstein, who has previously tackled such larger-than-showbiz subjects as Carol Channing and Marvin Hamlisch.
Kim Nguyen returns to his documentary days with a look at the family mystery surrounding Eddie Adams’s 'Saigon Execution' photograph.Noble Films and the National Film Board of Canada./Supplied
Saigon Story: Two Shootings in the Forest Kingdom
Montreal-based filmmaker Kim Nguyen has, in his feature narrative work, tackled everything from military surveillance (Eye on Juliet) to high-frequency trading (The Hummingbird Project) to civil war in sub-Saharan Africa (War Witch), the latter of which landed him an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film in 2013. Now, Nguyen returns to his documentary days with this look at the family mystery surrounding Eddie Adams’s “Saigon Execution” photograph, which changed the world’s perception of the Vietnam War. Will the doc be as headline-making as Netflix’s The Stringer, from this past fall, which tackled similar subject matter in its investigation over the origins of the famous “Napalm Girl” photograph?
Love Apptually explores how the internet has changed dating and sex.Hotdocs/Supplied
Love Apptually
After examining our modern digital hellscape with her documentaries on facial-recognition technology (2020’s Coded Bias) and social media (2022’s TikTok, Boom), director Shalini Kantayya dives deeper into our online lives with this look at how the internet has fundamentally changed the way we find love (or at least sex). And who knows, maybe you’ll find your future partner while in line for the world premiere.
Director Raha Shirazi examines women's rights in Iran.Hotdocs/Supplied
A War on Women
As the war in Iran rests in the centre of the world’s attention, director Raha Shirazi delivers the North American premiere of her film looking at the history of women’s rights inside the country. Pivoting on the 2022 death of activist Mahsa Amini, who died while in police custody after being arrested for refusing to cover her head in public, Shirazi’s film features interviews with activists, scholars and politicians as it traces a passionate campaign of resistance against a fearsome regime.
'Nekai Walks' is an up-close-and-personal look at the recovery of a 16-year-old boy after a shooting in Toronto.Hotdocs/Supplied
Nekai Walks
A Toronto-set story of courage following crisis, the world premiere of Nekai Walks has a solid chance of being the sleeper hit of the festival – or at least the one most likely to have audiences break down in tears. An up-close-and-personal look at the recovery of a 16-year-old boy after a shooting in his Jane and Finch community, director Rico King’s film traces the young Nekai as he rebuilds his life, relearning how to walk, talk, eat, everything. Bring Kleenex.
Barry Avrich returns with a look at Antoni Cimolino's career.Hotdocs/Supplied
This Above All: The Theatrical Life of Antoni Cimolino
After making international headlines this past fall with his Oct. 7 documentary The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue, the prolific Canadian filmmaker Barry Avrich returns with an altogether different project. Tracing the career of Antoni Cimolino, from his days as an actor to his tenure as artistic director of the Stratford Festival, the film aims to showcase both the evolution of a singular artist and the storied history of a Canadian cultural institution. And the timing couldn’t be better, as Cimolino prepares for his final Stratford season.
Canadian directors Simon Ennis and Brad Abrahams look at the pull conspiracy theories have on us.Hotdocs/Supplied
Gimme Truth
It’s not a theory: one of the most buzzed-about world premieres this year is this look at the unique pull that conspiracies have over contemporary culture. Do you know your false flags from your chemtrails? Your plandemics from your lab leaks? Whether you’re vaxxed or not, Canadian directors Simon Ennis and Brad Abrahams promise a wild ride through the current fake-news (or is it?) era.
The Sandbox tackles the surveillance state.Hotdocs/Supplied
The Sandbox
On the topic of paranoia, this debut feature by photographer, lawyer and filmmaker Kenya-Jade Pinto likely won’t ease the feeling some might have of being watched over by nefarious forces beyond your control. Tackling the surveillance state and the cutting-edge technology used to monitor what the filmmaker calls “the border industrial machine,” The Sandbox aims to balance concerns of privacy and freedom of movement with the current political climate that appears designed to curtail both. The doc also boasts some serious Canadian-cinema credentials, produced by Shasha Nakhai (the award-winning 2021 drama Scarborough) and executive produced by doc titan Jennifer Baichwal (Manufactured Landscapes, Anthropocene).
The CN Tower gets the documentary treatment as the landmark celebrates its 50th anniversary.Hotdocs/Supplied
The Tower that Built a City
This is turning out to be a banner year for the CN Tower. After its spotlight in the hit comedy Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie – not to mention being at the centre of one glorious visual gag in next week’s romcom Mile End Kicks – the one-time tallest free-standing structure in the world is getting the full-on biographical treatment courtesy of director Mark Myers. And just in time for the tower’s 50th anniversary.
The 2026 Hot Docs Festival runs April 23 through May 3 (hotdocs.ca).