Hot Docs hosted its 33rd edition in May, opening with the world premiere of Antidiva: The Carole Pope Confessions.Gabriel Li/The Canadian Press
It was fitting that this year’s edition of Hot Docs opened with the film-festival equivalent of rock concert – this was an organization in desperate need of a high-energy, leave-’em-wanting-more encore.
After a tumultuous two years during which North America’s pre-eminent documentary film festival endured severe financial and organizational stress, Hot Docs opened its 33rd edition the other week with the world premiere of Antidiva: The Carole Pope Confessions, which traces the life of the British-Canadian punk pioneer, followed by a raucous and jam-packed afterparty at Toronto’s famed El Mocambo Tavern.
It was the kind of foot-stomping, up-all-night, exceptionally sweaty evening that reminded everyone just how crucial the festival is for both audiences and the industry at large – and what can happen when that essential community hub is almost yanked from existence.
For Hot Docs, a new leader and new vision aim to steady a beleaguered film festival
“Everyone really came out. The audiences were incredible, the filmmakers were going to each other’s films, and it felt like there was a real community being built,” says Diana Sanchez, executive director for Hot Docs, a few days after the festival wrapped this past Sunday. “This was such a wonderful response.”
The early numbers coming out of the festival bear Sanchez’s enthusiasm. According to organizers, single-ticket revenue was up 14 per cent over last year’s edition, with the average attendance per screening up 3 per cent. Across 11 days, more than 40,000 moviegoers attended the event. And 35 per cent of the festival screenings went “rush” – meaning auditoriums were sold out and only capable of seating standby moviegoers in the case of ticketholders not showing up to claim their seats – a telling audience metric that was up 8 per cent from the year before.
One of this year’s biggest hits was director Rico King’s Nekai Walks, which traces the story of a 16-year-old boy who was shot while walking home in Toronto’s Jane and Finch neighbourhood, and his road to recovery against all medical odds. The film, which Sanchez watched alongside a group of local high-schoolers during its final festival screening, ended up winning the Hot Docs Rogers Audience Award for Best Documentary, which is determined by audience voting and comes with a prize of $50,000.
“Seeing that on closing night and then finding out from Rico that the film will be used as an educational tool by the Toronto Police, to see the real impact of how the films resonate beyond the festival, is incredible,” says Sanchez.
Diana Sanchez, executive director of Hot Docs, in March.Jennifer Roberts/The Globe and Mail
The Hot Docs leader also points to the fact that festival submissions were up this year 6 per cent from 2025 – more than 2,800 films were considered by programmers – suggesting that the organization has retained its prestige standing in the global documentary ecosystem. Still, it is that same ecosystem which is facing similar existential challenges that Hot Docs finds itself going up against: the collapse of the theatrical market for documentary cinema, a decreased appetite among big-league buyers for independent productions, and structural barriers in the current distribution landscape.
“It’s a really difficult time in the industry, but this might be the new normal, right? So how do we respond to that?” says Sanchez, who noted that more than 950 industry delegates from 47 countries participated in this year’s festival, including several full-house panels inside the Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema on Bloor West. “But documentary is also so relevant right now, too. I’m listening to Canadian Heritage talk about how important it is to combat misinformation, and what better way to do that than through documentary?”
To that end, Sanchez hopes to further rebuild the festival’s industry component in the coming years, after the organization had to slim its programming back owing to financial concerns. (The Hot Docs Forum, in which producers make their best pitch for international co-financing, returned after a year-long hiatus.) But Sanchez, a veteran of the Toronto International Film Festival who joined Hot Docs less than a month before the launch of its 2025 festival, says that any organizational growth will be measured and cautious.
Nekai Walks, film about Toronto shooting victim, among Hot Docs Awards winners
“These are the kinds of conversations that we’re having right now – how do we continue this, but keep the footprint that we have?” she says. “How do you grow without actually getting bigger? It’s about polishing and looking at the industry and finding more ways to support it through a robust conference and finding more ways to support filmmakers.”
For example: Fourteen of the films that were shown at this year’s festival, out of 115 titles screened, were developed by filmmakers who came through Hot Docs’ various development programs over the past several years, including the team behind the opening-night film, Antidiva.
Organizers inside Hot Docs won’t have much time to catch their breath, though. In addition to continuing fundraising and government-lobbying efforts, organizers are jumping right from the festival to concentrating on year-round programming inside the institution’s flagship cinema. Highlights include a four-week Curious Minds series hosted by Toronto journalist Eric Veillette called Toronto: Cinema City, which will explore the city’s history of movie theatres, as well as programming of queer-focused cinema timed to Pride Month in June.
“It’s funny because I was actually looking at the schedule myself, and we’re showing Stop Making Sense this weekend, so I’ll go to that just for myself, for fun,” says Sanchez. “It’s always nice to go and enjoy a film, to discover it in a new way.”