Elaine Epstein’s Arrest The Midwife won the top prize at 25th edition of Hot Docs Forum after decision-makers, funders and filmmakers considered 20 pitches in the two-day event in Toronto.
The project, which looks at how the arrest of three midwives serving Amish and Mennonite communities encourages an unlikely group of activists to join the fight for reproductive rights, won Cad 20,000.
In total Hot Docs said more than Cad 47,000 was handed out at the festival’s international co-financing market event, including Cad 35,000 in first look Pitch Prizes, and the Cad 10,000 Cmf-Hot Docs Forum Canadian Pitch Prize, presented in partnership with the Canada Media Fund.
The project, which looks at how the arrest of three midwives serving Amish and Mennonite communities encourages an unlikely group of activists to join the fight for reproductive rights, won Cad 20,000.
In total Hot Docs said more than Cad 47,000 was handed out at the festival’s international co-financing market event, including Cad 35,000 in first look Pitch Prizes, and the Cad 10,000 Cmf-Hot Docs Forum Canadian Pitch Prize, presented in partnership with the Canada Media Fund.
- 5/2/2024
- ScreenDaily
‘I of the Water,’ About Samoan Writer Sia Figiel’s Journey Toward Healing, Wins Hot Docs Forum Prize
“I of the Water,” one of 20 projects presented at Hot Docs’ marquee market event, the Forum, has won the First Look first prize of Can. $50,000, one of four pitch prizes announced Wednesday at the festival.
Kimberlee Bassford’s “I of the Water” focuses on acclaimed Samoan writer Sia Figiel. After a painful experience pushes Figiel into self-exile, she untangles her complicated past, revealing hidden trauma and initiating a journey toward healing. The film is produced by Bassford, Marilyn McFadyen, Vilsoni Hereniko, Leanne K. Ferrer, Cheryl Hirasa, and Linda Goldstein Knowlton.
The second First Look prize, worth Can. $15,000, was awarded to Kenya-Jade Pinto “The Sandbox,” a Canadian production with a vague tagline: “Your future is being written in the sand.” The doc is produced by Shasha Nakhai, Kenya-Jade Pinto, Jennifer Baichwal, and Rich Williamson.
First Look prizes are financed by members of Hot Docs First Look, a curated access program for...
Kimberlee Bassford’s “I of the Water” focuses on acclaimed Samoan writer Sia Figiel. After a painful experience pushes Figiel into self-exile, she untangles her complicated past, revealing hidden trauma and initiating a journey toward healing. The film is produced by Bassford, Marilyn McFadyen, Vilsoni Hereniko, Leanne K. Ferrer, Cheryl Hirasa, and Linda Goldstein Knowlton.
The second First Look prize, worth Can. $15,000, was awarded to Kenya-Jade Pinto “The Sandbox,” a Canadian production with a vague tagline: “Your future is being written in the sand.” The doc is produced by Shasha Nakhai, Kenya-Jade Pinto, Jennifer Baichwal, and Rich Williamson.
First Look prizes are financed by members of Hot Docs First Look, a curated access program for...
- 5/4/2023
- by Addie Morfoot
- Variety Film + TV
The breakdown of the Writers Guild of America’s contract negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers could benefit the documentary industry. Especially those documentary filmmakers with projects seeking distribution.
At least that’s the hope.
Like film and television scribes worried about the survival of screenwriting as a viable profession, hundreds of nonfiction filmmakers with independently made docus are grappling with the streamers’ new distribution landscape, which, for the most part, no longer includes acquiring titles that aren’t commissioned.
If the writers strike lasts for several months, the thought is that not only broadcast networks but also streaming companies will begin to face holes in their narrative content, which could, in turn, lead to the purchase of indie docus to fill the void.
At the Hot Docs film festival in Toronto, documentary producers, programmers and filmmakers are not only celebrating independently made fare but also...
At least that’s the hope.
Like film and television scribes worried about the survival of screenwriting as a viable profession, hundreds of nonfiction filmmakers with independently made docus are grappling with the streamers’ new distribution landscape, which, for the most part, no longer includes acquiring titles that aren’t commissioned.
If the writers strike lasts for several months, the thought is that not only broadcast networks but also streaming companies will begin to face holes in their narrative content, which could, in turn, lead to the purchase of indie docus to fill the void.
At the Hot Docs film festival in Toronto, documentary producers, programmers and filmmakers are not only celebrating independently made fare but also...
- 5/4/2023
- by Addie Morfoot
- Variety Film + TV
Hot Docs, North America’s largest documentary festival, has unveiled the projects it has selected for the 24th edition of the Hot Docs Forum, the financing event aimed at securing co-productions and funds for feature length documentaries.
The Forum returns in-person to Toronto’s Hart House on May 2 and 3 as part of festival, which runs April 27 to May 7. Nineteen projects representing 16 countries and featuring 23 filmmakers, 12 of whom are women and 11 of whom are black, indigenous and people of color, will pitch to international decision makers and members of the documentary community. An additional Wild Card pitch will be selected live at the Forum.
At The Forum projects are pitched live for co-production financing to a roundtable of leading commissioning editors, film fund representatives, financiers, programming executives and angel investors. Selected projects will also participate in Hot Docs Deal Maker, a curated one-on-one pitch meeting program, which includes an additional 35. The...
The Forum returns in-person to Toronto’s Hart House on May 2 and 3 as part of festival, which runs April 27 to May 7. Nineteen projects representing 16 countries and featuring 23 filmmakers, 12 of whom are women and 11 of whom are black, indigenous and people of color, will pitch to international decision makers and members of the documentary community. An additional Wild Card pitch will be selected live at the Forum.
At The Forum projects are pitched live for co-production financing to a roundtable of leading commissioning editors, film fund representatives, financiers, programming executives and angel investors. Selected projects will also participate in Hot Docs Deal Maker, a curated one-on-one pitch meeting program, which includes an additional 35. The...
- 3/15/2023
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: Greenwich Entertainment is going big on Loudmouth. The company has acquired North American rights to the documentary about the Rev. Al Sharpton, and plans a December 9 theatrical release for the film just as Oscar shortlist voting rolls around.
The film directed by Josh Alexander held its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in June, examining an activist, commentator and occasional political candidate who has been a major part of American life for almost 40 years.
“Sharpton has been a polarizing figure, inspiring both love and hate on local and national stages,” a release for the film stated. “Chronicling his work for social change from the streets of 1980s Brooklyn to 2020s Minneapolis, Loudmouth presents never-before-seen footage of the social justice titan on the frontlines, in the media as well as in the corridors of power, to paint an intimate and revealing portrait of a tireless warrior who has never...
The film directed by Josh Alexander held its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in June, examining an activist, commentator and occasional political candidate who has been a major part of American life for almost 40 years.
“Sharpton has been a polarizing figure, inspiring both love and hate on local and national stages,” a release for the film stated. “Chronicling his work for social change from the streets of 1980s Brooklyn to 2020s Minneapolis, Loudmouth presents never-before-seen footage of the social justice titan on the frontlines, in the media as well as in the corridors of power, to paint an intimate and revealing portrait of a tireless warrior who has never...
- 9/28/2022
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
“The Queendom,” one of 20 projects presented at Hot Docs’ marquee market event, the Forum, has won the First Look first prize of Can. 25,000 cash, one of three pitch prizes announced Thursday at the festival.
The documentary and science-fiction hybrid—about three Indigenous scientists, all women, who decide to partner with mushrooms to fight for their territories—is directed by Otilia Portillo and produced by Paula Arroio Sandoval for Mexico’s Oscura Producciones S.A. de C.V. Elena Fortes is executive producer.
Second prize and Can. 15,000 was awarded to “A Woman’s Path,” about a woman who is betrayed by her family and forced to leave her nomadic life with the Bakhtiari tribe. The documentary is directed by Marjan Khosravi; its producers are Milad Khosravi and Stephanie Von Lukowicz for Seven Spring Pictures (Iran) and Lukimedia (Spain).
Hot Docs’ First Look is a curated access program for philanthropic investors in...
The documentary and science-fiction hybrid—about three Indigenous scientists, all women, who decide to partner with mushrooms to fight for their territories—is directed by Otilia Portillo and produced by Paula Arroio Sandoval for Mexico’s Oscura Producciones S.A. de C.V. Elena Fortes is executive producer.
Second prize and Can. 15,000 was awarded to “A Woman’s Path,” about a woman who is betrayed by her family and forced to leave her nomadic life with the Bakhtiari tribe. The documentary is directed by Marjan Khosravi; its producers are Milad Khosravi and Stephanie Von Lukowicz for Seven Spring Pictures (Iran) and Lukimedia (Spain).
Hot Docs’ First Look is a curated access program for philanthropic investors in...
- 5/5/2022
- by Jennie Punter
- Variety Film + TV
Hot Docs’ market events remain online in 2022 to maximize interactions between feature-doc teams, financiers, and other decision-makers, but its three-day, in-person industry conference is mingling hot topics, first looks (works-in-progress screenings), and networking ops (lounges and lunches) to facilitate what the festival’s industry program director Elizabeth Radshaw calls “moments of serendipity.”
Hot Docs Industry Live unfolds April 30 to May 2 in the TIFF Bell Lightbox and nearby Art Gallery of Ontario, repositioning the industry hub in Toronto’s downtown business and entertainment district—familiar ground to many international industry reps—and allowing for deeper integration between Hot Docs’ public screening and industry components.
2022’s transitional, hybrid edition continues the market format of the past two years, online-only editions of the Forum—the festival’s marquee pitch event—and the one-on-one Dealmaker and Distribution Rendezvous meeting programs, which proved successful.
“We were able to bring in buyers that were too busy with Cannes to attend,...
Hot Docs Industry Live unfolds April 30 to May 2 in the TIFF Bell Lightbox and nearby Art Gallery of Ontario, repositioning the industry hub in Toronto’s downtown business and entertainment district—familiar ground to many international industry reps—and allowing for deeper integration between Hot Docs’ public screening and industry components.
2022’s transitional, hybrid edition continues the market format of the past two years, online-only editions of the Forum—the festival’s marquee pitch event—and the one-on-one Dealmaker and Distribution Rendezvous meeting programs, which proved successful.
“We were able to bring in buyers that were too busy with Cannes to attend,...
- 4/28/2022
- by Jennie Punter
- Variety Film + TV
Three years ago, the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival drew nearly 230,000 attendees to venues across Toronto. It was a record-breaking turnout, and a hopeful harbinger that even amid the growing disruption of streaming platforms, audiences were flocking more than ever before to North America’s largest documentary festival.
It has not returned to cinemas since.
After the coronavirus pandemic prompted a last-minute online pivot in 2020, Hot Docs was again forced to host a virtual fest last year. Now, as the curtain is set to rise on its 29th edition, the festival’s director of programming, Shane Smith, admits to a case of nerves after the long absence. “Some of us haven’t been on stage for a while,” he tells Variety. “But it’s going to be great to get back into the groove, get that muscle memory reactivated.”
This year’s edition will offer a reminder not only...
It has not returned to cinemas since.
After the coronavirus pandemic prompted a last-minute online pivot in 2020, Hot Docs was again forced to host a virtual fest last year. Now, as the curtain is set to rise on its 29th edition, the festival’s director of programming, Shane Smith, admits to a case of nerves after the long absence. “Some of us haven’t been on stage for a while,” he tells Variety. “But it’s going to be great to get back into the groove, get that muscle memory reactivated.”
This year’s edition will offer a reminder not only...
- 4/28/2022
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
Twenty projects from 19 countries have been selected for the 23rd edition of the Hot Docs Forum, the marquee feature financing event of the annual documentary festival, which runs in hybrid format from April 28 to May 8 in Toronto.
Of the projects’ 26 filmmakers, 14 are women, and 15 are Bipoc. Projects include stories around space rocks, solar power and crusading mushrooms, and process docs that follow characters in their homelands, schools and warzones over several years.
Over two days in advance of the festival, Forum project teams present their seven-minute pre-recorded pitches to a “round table” of decision-makers and financiers, from whom they then receive eight minutes of live feedback, which is also recorded.
The 2022 pitch presentations and decision-maker feedback are packaged and made available to registered delegates to stream on demand for the duration of the festival.
Hot Docs industry programs director Elizabeth Radshaw calls this year’s Forum projects “a celebration of...
Of the projects’ 26 filmmakers, 14 are women, and 15 are Bipoc. Projects include stories around space rocks, solar power and crusading mushrooms, and process docs that follow characters in their homelands, schools and warzones over several years.
Over two days in advance of the festival, Forum project teams present their seven-minute pre-recorded pitches to a “round table” of decision-makers and financiers, from whom they then receive eight minutes of live feedback, which is also recorded.
The 2022 pitch presentations and decision-maker feedback are packaged and made available to registered delegates to stream on demand for the duration of the festival.
Hot Docs industry programs director Elizabeth Radshaw calls this year’s Forum projects “a celebration of...
- 3/16/2022
- by Jennie Punter
- Variety Film + TV
With the help of a technical consultant and several dry runs, the online pitch day for the Tribeca Film Institute If/Then Short Documentary Program, originally set to be held at the Cleveland International Film Festival, went off without a hitch. Sure, there were elements that couldn’t be replaced — FaceTime can’t beat face time — but more than 300 people watched the pitches on April 16, and filmmakers James Christenson and Brennan Vance won a $25,000 grant for their project “To Be Reconciled.”
If/Then director Chloe Gbai said the turnout was higher than usual, including “a ton of industry — industry we wouldn’t have gotten otherwise. The way that Cleveland is positioned in the calendar, it’s a beloved festival, but it doesn’t get as much industry traffic as other festivals. There’s a lot of good that festivals and market do both for our industry and the economies where...
If/Then director Chloe Gbai said the turnout was higher than usual, including “a ton of industry — industry we wouldn’t have gotten otherwise. The way that Cleveland is positioned in the calendar, it’s a beloved festival, but it doesn’t get as much industry traffic as other festivals. There’s a lot of good that festivals and market do both for our industry and the economies where...
- 5/17/2020
- by Chris Lindahl
- Indiewire
The Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival has gone to plan B — a virtual market for film buyers and sellers — after the physical festival set to run April 30-May 10 in Toronto was canceled as a precaution against the coronavirus pandemic.
"Although it will never replace the powerful human connection of coming together in community, we're grateful to be able to host our industry activities virtually, allowing all of us to support outstanding and outspoken films getting made," Elizabeth Radshaw, industry programs director for Hot Docs, said Thursday in a statement.
The digital edition will ...
"Although it will never replace the powerful human connection of coming together in community, we're grateful to be able to host our industry activities virtually, allowing all of us to support outstanding and outspoken films getting made," Elizabeth Radshaw, industry programs director for Hot Docs, said Thursday in a statement.
The digital edition will ...
- 3/26/2020
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
The Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival has gone to plan B — a virtual market for film buyers and sellers — after the physical festival set to run April 30-May 10 in Toronto was canceled as a precaution against the coronavirus pandemic.
"Although it will never replace the powerful human connection of coming together in community, we're grateful to be able to host our industry activities virtually, allowing all of us to support outstanding and outspoken films getting made," Elizabeth Radshaw, industry programs director for Hot Docs, said Thursday in a statement.
The digital edition will ...
"Although it will never replace the powerful human connection of coming together in community, we're grateful to be able to host our industry activities virtually, allowing all of us to support outstanding and outspoken films getting made," Elizabeth Radshaw, industry programs director for Hot Docs, said Thursday in a statement.
The digital edition will ...
- 3/26/2020
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Hot Docs today unveiled the first two documentary projects to receive production support through Hot Docs Partners, its Can$2.6 million ($1.9 million) cofinancing initiative that was launched a year ago at the annual festival in Toronto.
The most recent addition to Hot Docs’ Can$9 million ($6.7 million) production fund portfolio, Partners matches a select group of doc-friendly, socially conscious investors with Canadian and international feature-length projects that have key financing already in place, and strong potential to impact audiences in meaningful ways.
Partners is providing cofinancing support to “Influence,” directed by Richard Poplak and Diana Neille, the journalists who exposed the reputation-management firm Bell Pottinger. An international co-production between South Africa’s StoryScope and Chronicle Productions, and Canada’s Eyesteelfilm, “Influence” explores the dark art of geopolitical spin-doctoring.
Partners joins Sodec and the Canadian Media Fund to support “We Are Here,” directed and written by Ariel Nasr and produced by Loaded Pictures...
The most recent addition to Hot Docs’ Can$9 million ($6.7 million) production fund portfolio, Partners matches a select group of doc-friendly, socially conscious investors with Canadian and international feature-length projects that have key financing already in place, and strong potential to impact audiences in meaningful ways.
Partners is providing cofinancing support to “Influence,” directed by Richard Poplak and Diana Neille, the journalists who exposed the reputation-management firm Bell Pottinger. An international co-production between South Africa’s StoryScope and Chronicle Productions, and Canada’s Eyesteelfilm, “Influence” explores the dark art of geopolitical spin-doctoring.
Partners joins Sodec and the Canadian Media Fund to support “We Are Here,” directed and written by Ariel Nasr and produced by Loaded Pictures...
- 5/2/2019
- by Jennie Punter
- Variety Film + TV
Last year, for the first time in its 25-year history, the Hot Docs film festival achieved gender parity in its slate, at a time when many other large cinema organizations were just signing – or still working towards – their versions of 50/50 by 2020, the influential gender equality model for film funding launched by the Swedish Film Institute in 2012.
This year, a whopping 54% of the 234 Hot Doc titles are female-led, from high-profile films like Rachel Lears’ “Knock Down the House,” Nanfu Wang and Jialing Zhang’s “One Child Nation,” and Petra Costa’s “The Edge of Democracy,” to provocative buzz docs such as Rama Rau’s “The Daughter Tree,” Maya Newell’s “In My Blood It Runs,” and Barbara Miller’s “#Female Pleasure.”
“Hot Docs’ audience is 67% female—we are representative of our community,” said director of programming Shane Smith. “Getting to gender parity wasn’t that difficult. When you are actually looking...
This year, a whopping 54% of the 234 Hot Doc titles are female-led, from high-profile films like Rachel Lears’ “Knock Down the House,” Nanfu Wang and Jialing Zhang’s “One Child Nation,” and Petra Costa’s “The Edge of Democracy,” to provocative buzz docs such as Rama Rau’s “The Daughter Tree,” Maya Newell’s “In My Blood It Runs,” and Barbara Miller’s “#Female Pleasure.”
“Hot Docs’ audience is 67% female—we are representative of our community,” said director of programming Shane Smith. “Getting to gender parity wasn’t that difficult. When you are actually looking...
- 4/29/2019
- by Jennie Punter
- Variety Film + TV
Celebrating its 20th anniversary in Toronto this week, the Hot Docs Forum will once again showcase some of the most anticipated films slated to hit the documentary world. Over the course of the two-day event, 20 pre-selected projects will be presented to a round table of industry insiders from around the globe, including leading commissioning editors, film fund representatives, public financiers, private investors, festival programmers, sales agents and distributors.
“Pitching in a forum such as Hot Docs is as much a promotional and market validation and marketing exercise as it is a financing one—to be able to establish an auteur, a visionary, a filmmaker, and have them in a really quick, seven-minute way present their work to the entire international documentary community in one place,” said Hot Docs industry program director Elizabeth Radshaw. “It’s as much about cultivating that individual project as it is about cultivating the production companies and the artists themselves.
“Pitching in a forum such as Hot Docs is as much a promotional and market validation and marketing exercise as it is a financing one—to be able to establish an auteur, a visionary, a filmmaker, and have them in a really quick, seven-minute way present their work to the entire international documentary community in one place,” said Hot Docs industry program director Elizabeth Radshaw. “It’s as much about cultivating that individual project as it is about cultivating the production companies and the artists themselves.
- 4/27/2019
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
Durban — With a global debate calling for greater diversity and representation onscreen, and growing demand for documentaries across borders and platforms, the organizers of the 9th Durban FilmMart (Dfm) made a concerted effort this year to add African voices to the conversation.
“For Africa, documentary filmmaking is such an important space, in terms of developing content and really understanding how to tell stories to audiences through cinema,” said Toni Monty, head of the Durban Film Office and the Dfm.
She added: “We really want to increase that focus and create a bigger space for documentaries in Durban. We inched forward on that this year, with the intention of really building that in the future.”
Eight documentaries were among the 16 African projects in development taking part in this year’s finance forum at the Dfm. Before pitching to an audience of leading broadcasters, financiers, funding bodies, and other potential investors, the...
“For Africa, documentary filmmaking is such an important space, in terms of developing content and really understanding how to tell stories to audiences through cinema,” said Toni Monty, head of the Durban Film Office and the Dfm.
She added: “We really want to increase that focus and create a bigger space for documentaries in Durban. We inched forward on that this year, with the intention of really building that in the future.”
Eight documentaries were among the 16 African projects in development taking part in this year’s finance forum at the Dfm. Before pitching to an audience of leading broadcasters, financiers, funding bodies, and other potential investors, the...
- 7/28/2018
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
‘Making documentaries is a challenging career and our filmmakers need all the help we can provide.’
Hot Docs has announced its Cad $2M financing initiative Hot Docs Partners, which will connect Canadian and international feature documentary projects with private investors over the next three years.
Toronto-based Blue Ice Docs is the lead investor and has committed to matching investments made by other investors. Hot Docs’ industry programmes director Elizabeth Radshaw made the announcement on Tuesday (May 1) at the launch of the Hot Docs Forum.
Hot Docs’ industry team, led by Radshaw, will evaluate and recommend projects to Hot Docs Partners...
Hot Docs has announced its Cad $2M financing initiative Hot Docs Partners, which will connect Canadian and international feature documentary projects with private investors over the next three years.
Toronto-based Blue Ice Docs is the lead investor and has committed to matching investments made by other investors. Hot Docs’ industry programmes director Elizabeth Radshaw made the announcement on Tuesday (May 1) at the launch of the Hot Docs Forum.
Hot Docs’ industry team, led by Radshaw, will evaluate and recommend projects to Hot Docs Partners...
- 5/1/2018
- by Jenn Sherman
- ScreenDaily
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