Hot Docs Audience Awards

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The Hot Docs Audience Awards are annual film awards, presented by the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival to the most popular films as voted by festival audiences. There are currently two awards presented: the Hot Docs Audience Award, presented since 2001 to the most popular film overall regardless of nationality, and the Rogers Audience Award, presented since 2017 to the most popular Canadian film. [1]

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The Rogers Audience Award comes with a CA$50,000 prize from the Rogers Group of Funds, and is considered the most important award at the festival. Although the festival releases a preview list of the Top 20 contenders in audience award voting while the festival is underway, the Canadian films in the list are identified only as a film that is eligible for the Rogers Award rather than by title, so as not to give away the Rogers Award contenders in advance of the final announcement. The festival concludes with a repeat screening of the Rogers Audience Award winner, following which the preview list is updated to reveal all of the hidden Canadian film titles.

If a Canadian film wins the overall award, then the Canadian award is not given to a different film in lieu, but instead the same film wins both awards. This practice was diverged from for the first time at the 2023 festival, where Philippe Falardeau's documentary television series Lac-Mégantic: This Is Not an Accident was the overall winner of the Audience Award; although a Canadian project, it comprised episodes of a television series rather than a feature film, and thus was not deemed eligible for the Rogers Award, which instead went to the film Someone Lives Here . [2]

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada, in both 2020 and 2021 the festival opted to split the Canadian award and its associated prize money among all of the five highest-ranked Canadian films of the year instead of singling out only the top-ranked Canadian film. [3] In 2022, the festival split the Canadian award among three films instead of five, and returned to naming a single winner in 2023. [2]

Hot Docs Audience Award

YearFilmDirector(s)Ref
2001 Southern Comfort Kate Davis [4]
2002 The Last Just Man Steven Silver [5]
2003 War Babies Raymonde Provencher [6]
2004 Death in Gaza James Miller [7]
2005 Street Fight Marshall Curry [8]
2006 A Lion in the House Steven Bognar, Julia Reichert [9]
2007 War/Dance Sean Fine, Andrea Nix Fine [10]
2008 Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai Lisa Merton, Alan Dater [11]
2009 The Cove Louie Psihoyos [12]
2010 Thunder Soul Mark Landsman [13]
2011 Somewhere Between Linda Goldstein Knowlton [14]
2012 Chasing Ice Jeff Orlowski [15]
2013 Muscle Shoals Greg "Freddy" Camalier [16]
2014 The Backward Class Madeleine Grant [17]
2015 Unbranded Phillip Baribeau [18]
2016 Angry Inuk Alethea Arnaquq-Baril [19]
2017 Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World Catherine Bainbridge, Alfonso Maiorana [20]
2018 Transformer Michael Del Monte [21]
2019 Maxima Claudia Sparrow [22]
2020 The Walrus and the Whistleblower Nathalie Bibeau [23]
2021 Dear Future Children Franz Böhm [24]
2022 Eternal Spring Jason Loftus [25]
2023 Lac-Mégantic: This Is Not an Accident Philippe Falardeau [2]
2024 Yintah Jennifer Wickham, Brenda Michell, Michael Toledano [26]

Rogers Audience Award

From 2020 through 2022, due to the COVID-19 pandemic the festival split the Rogers Audience Award and its associated prize money among all of the top five (2020, 2021) or three (2022) films instead of naming only the top film as in other years. For those years, the film that was the overall top Canadian film in audience voting is denoted in the table below with a †.

YearFilmDirector(s)Ref
2017 Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World Catherine Bainbridge, Alfonso Maiorana [20]
2018 Transformer Michael Del Monte [21]
2019 Prey Matt Gallagher [22]
2020 9/11 Kids Elizabeth St. Philip [23]
First We Eat Suzanne Crocker
The Forbidden Reel Ariel Nasr
There's No Place Like This Place, Anyplace Lulu Wei
The Walrus and the Whistleblower † Nathalie Bibeau
2021 Fanny: The Right to Rock † Bobbi Jo Hart [24]
Hell or Clean Water Cody Westman
Kímmapiiyipitssini: The Meaning of Empathy Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers
Someone Like Me Steve J. Adams, Sean Horlor
Still Max Katherine Knight
2022 Eternal Spring † Jason Loftus [25]
Okay!: The ASD Band Film Mark Bone
Unloved: Huronia's Forgotten Children Barri Cohen
2023 Someone Lives Here Zack Russell [2]
2024 Yintah Jennifer Wickham, Brenda Michell, Michael Toledano [27]

See also

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References

  1. ↑ "Hot Docs adds $50,000 Rogers Audience Award for best Canadian film". Canadian Press, March 7, 2017.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "‘Someone Lives Here’ takes home top prize at Hot Docs film festival". Toronto Star , May 8, 2023.
  3. ↑ Daniele Alcinii, "Hot Docs, Rogers to honor five Canadian filmmakers with 2020 Audience Award". RealScreen , May 12, 2020.
  4. ↑ Brenda Bouw, "My Left Breast wins gold award at Hot Docs festival". National Post , May 8, 2001.
  5. ↑ "Hurley's cavalcade of calamity continues". Toronto Star , May 7, 2002.
  6. ↑ "En bref: War Babies a été primé aux Hot Docs". Le Devoir , May 7, 2003.
  7. ↑ "Hot Docs announces audience favourites". The Globe and Mail , May 4, 2004.
  8. ↑ Laura Bracken, "Hogtown, Little Jesus lead pack at Hot Docs". Playback , May 9, 2005.
  9. ↑ "Hot Docs pulls record crowds with 13th fest". Toronto Star , May 9, 2006.
  10. ↑ Guy Dixon, "Hot Docs' attendance spikes by 33 per cent". The Globe and Mail , May 1, 2007.
  11. ↑ "Hot Docs film fest posts big gain in audience". The Globe and Mail , April 29, 2008.
  12. ↑ "'The Cove' wins audience award at Hot Docs film festival". Canadian Press, May 11, 2009.
  13. ↑ Nick Aveling, "Hot Docs festival posts record year". National Post , January 28, 2011.
  14. ↑ "Hot Docs flocks pick adoption tale". Toronto Star , May 10, 2011.
  15. ↑ Linda Barnard, "Record crowds pick Chasing Ice as top film". Toronto Star , May 8, 2012.
  16. ↑ "Hot Docs boasts record audience numbers". Windsor Star , May 8, 2013.
  17. ↑ Linda Barnard, "Canadian film an audience favourite: The Backward Class tops list as fest wraps with record numbers". Toronto Star , May 6, 2014.
  18. ↑ Linda Barnard, "Cowboy tale wrangles Hot Docs audience award: An estimated 200,500 people attended this year's festival, watching 210 films in 11 days". Toronto Star , May 5, 2015.
  19. ↑ "Hot Docs wraps with record attendance". Toronto Star , May 10, 2016.
  20. 1 2 Peter Howell, "Rumble takes two top prizes at Hot Docs 2017 film festival". Toronto Star , May 8, 2017.
  21. 1 2 Garnet Fraser, "Transformer wins Rogers Audience Award for Best Canadian Documentary at Hot Docs Festival". Toronto Star , May 7, 2018.
  22. 1 2 Pat Mullen, "‘Maxima’ Wins Hot Docs Audience Award, ‘Prey’ is Top Canadian Doc". Point of View , May 7, 2019.
  23. 1 2 Katie Scott, "Marineland documentary takes top prize at Hot Docs 2020". Global News, June 8, 2020.
  24. 1 2 Pat Mullen, "Dear Future Children Wins Audience Award at Hot Docs". Point of View , May 10, 2021.
  25. 1 2 Jennie Punter, "‘Eternal Spring’ Takes Rogers Audience and Hot Docs Audience Awards". Variety , May 9, 2022.
  26. ↑ Taimur Sikander Mirza, "Yintah wins 2024 Hot Docs audience award". Playback , May 6, 2024.
  27. ↑ Pat Mullen, "Yintah Wins Rogers Audience Award at Hot Docs". Point of View , May 5, 2024.
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