Franz Böhm’s Dear Future Children was handed the Hot Docs Audience Award May 10 as doors finally closed on this year’s festival. In the film, three young female activists in Hong Kong, Chile, and Uganda cope with the staggering personal impacts of their activism.
As winner, the film now qualifies for next year’s documentary category at the Academy Awards without requiring a standard theatrical release.
Dear Future Children pipped Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh’s Writing with Fire (India) and Bobbi Jo Hart’s FANNY: The Right to Rock into second third places in the audience poll.
Kris Bowers and Ben Proudfoot’s A Concerto Is a Conversation won the Audience Award for Best Short. The 13-minute film homes in on composer Bowers’ conversations with his grandfather about their personal and family history.
In Spirit To Soar, which was picked as Top Mid-length Film, we follow journalist Tanya Talaga as she connects with her roots in Thunder Bay while exploring the aftermath of the deaths of seven Indigenous youth.
Hot Docs was presented online from April 29 to May 9 to audiences across Canada. The 11-day event streamed 222 films from 66 countries.
Commented Alan Black, managing director of Hot Docs, in a festival statement: “By all accounts, this year’s Festival exceeded our wildest expectations. Audiences from every province and territory in Canada and a record number of industry professionals and filmmakers from across the globe came together online to celebrate the power of documentary to inform, entertain, engage and inspire.”
“We are so proud to have played a part in helping filmmakers find new audiences and opportunities, and overjoyed that audiences were so moved. Our sincerest thanks to our community and our partners who made this Festival possible. We can’t wait to meet again in person next year,” he added.
As previously reported, The Best International Feature Documentary Award ($10,000) was given to Ostrov – Lost Island(pictured) directed by Svetlana Rodina, Laurent Stoop, Switzerland), about the denizens of a once-vibrant fishing island in the Caspian Sea, whose elders await Russia’s return to greatness while the younger generation hopes for a new future.
The Special Jury Prize – International Feature Documentary ($5,000) was given to School of Hope (directed by Mohamed El Aboudi, Finland, France, Morocco), in which Morocco’s Oulad Boukais tribe, suffering from extended drought, sets up a school in a small clay building to ensure their children’s futures.
The Emerging International Filmmaker Award ($3,000, and given to a first or second-time international filmmaker with a feature film in the International Spectrum program) was presented to director Annabel Verbeke for Four Seasons in a Day (Belgium, Norway, Croatia), in which ferry passengers travelling between British-controlled Northern Ireland and EU member Ireland candidly express their opinions about Brexit and the border.
The award for Best Mid-Length Documentary ($5,000) was presented to Silent Voice directed by Reka Valerik (France, Belgium), about a young gay MMA fighter who, after fleeing his homophobic family in Chechnya, struggles to build a new identity in Brussels against the chilling backdrop of voicemails from home.
In the Best Mid-Length Documentary category, the jury also acknowledged Sunny by Keti (Georgia) with an honourable mention.
The Best International Short Documentary Award ($3,000) was presented to The Doll by Elahe Esmaili (Iran), about a 14-year-old girl whose future is being decided by her father, whose true intentions are revealed through a series of shockingly frank interviews.
The Best Canadian Feature Documentary Award ($10,000) was presented to zo reken by Emanuel Licha (Canada), in which humanitarian aid workers in Port-au-Prince share candid thoughts about the grim realities of colonialism, international aid and 11 years of unkept promises.
The Special Jury Prize – Canadian Feature Documentary ($5,000) was presented to One of Ours by Yasmine Mathurin (Canada), about a Haitian-born youth who wrestles with his sense of belonging in his Indigenous adoptive family after being racially profiled.
The Emerging Canadian Filmmaker Award ($3,000) for a first or second-time Canadian filmmaker with a feature film in the Canadian Spectrum program was presented to director Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers for Kímmapiiyipitssini: The Meaning of Empathy (Canada), which goes inside the Kainai First Nation in Alberta to show the community’s efforts to heal from the opioid crisis.
