Agatha’s Almanac and I, Poppy lead the award winners for this year’s Hot Docs documentary festival. The festival announced the winners today via a release. The docs scored the prizes for Hot Docs Best Canadian Feature Documentary and Hot Docs Best International Feature Documentary, respectively.
Agatha’s Almanac, directed and produced by Amalie Atkins, offers a loving portrait of the filmmaker’s 90-year-old aunt, Agatha Bock, as she relishes her days in her bountiful garden. The film receives a cash prize of $10,000, courtesy of Telefilm Canada. The jury, calling the film “poetic and playful, yet intensely political,” praised Agatha’s Almanac and Agatha herself, as “a rare and precious flower in the garden of contemporary cinema” and “a reminder that what might appear radically anti-conformist both as a way of life and of filmmaking may simply be the most authentic.” (Read more about the film in POV #123.)
The Hot Docs DGC Special Jury Prize-Canadian Feature Documentary, meanwhile, went to Paul, directed by Denis Côté and produced by Karine Bélanger and Hany Ouicho. Paul follows a Montrealer who treats his anxiety as a self-described “cleaning simp” and gets off/heals by tidying the abodes of dominant women. The film receives a $5,000 cash prize, courtesy of DGC National and DGC Ontario, with the award.
Also on the Canadian front, the jury honoured Damien Eagle Bear with the Hot Docs Earl A. Glick Emerging Canadian Filmmaker Award for his documentary #skoden. The film explores the life of an Indigenous man who gained online infamy when he put up his dukes and the photographed incident became a viral sensation. The prizes carries a purse of $3,000, courtesy of the Earl A. Glick Family.
Internationally, the jury gave the Hot Docs Best International Feature Documentary award to I, Poppy, directed by Vivek Chaudhary and produced by Chaudhary and Xavier Rocher. The film examines a family warding off corrupt officials while they sustain themselves with their poppy farm in India. The jury called the film a “thoughtfully crafted chronicle of a family navigating conflicts, contradictions and uncomfortable truths,” while awarding it the $10,000 prize. As the winner for Best International Feature, moreover, I, Poppy now qualifies in the Oscar race for Best Documentary Feature provided it meets all other necessary criteria.
Meanwhile, River of Grass, directed by Sasha Wortzel and produced by Wortzel and Danielle Varga, won Hot Docs Joan VanDuzer Special Jury Prize-International Feature Documentary for its lyrical portrait of the Florida Everglades. The film draws inspiration from Marjory Stoneman Douglas’s canonical book about the complexity of the Florida ecosystem. The prizes carries a purse of $5,000 from Hot Docs in honour of long time doc champion Joan VanDuzer. An honourable mention went to I Dreamed His Name, directed by Angela Carabalí, who produced the film with Sandra Tabares Duque.
Amilcar Infante and Sebastian Gonzalez Mendez won the Hot Docs Emerging International Filmmaker Award as the directors and producers of Unwelcomed. The film observes Venezuelan migrants who escape to Chile with hopes of a better future, but find a hostile reception in the upon arrival The honour gives the filmmakers a prize of $3,000 prize, courtesy of Donner Canadian Foundation.
On the shorts front, Delta Dawn by Asia Youngman and Alice, directed by Gabriel Novis, won the Hot Docs Betty Youson Award for Best Canadian Short Documentary and Hot Docs Best International Short Documentary. Both prizes award the filmmakers $3,000 and now qualify for the Academy Award for Best Short Documentary without the need for a theatrical run. Meanwhile, Climate in Therapy, directed by Nathan Grossman and produced by Cecilia Nessen, won Best Mid-Length Feature. The award, sponsored by MUBI, carries a prize of $3,000.
Other honours include Cornelia Principe with the previously announced distinction of the Don Haig Award. The award carries a prize of $5,000. Principe’s documentary Shamed, directed by Matt Gallagher, premiered at the festival this week. Regan Latimer was announced the winner of the Lindalee Tracey Award, named in honour of the late filmmaker. The award grants Latimer $5,000 from the Lindalee Tracey Fund, a $5,000 in kind voucher from Picture Shop for equipment rentals and services, and a hand-blown glass sculpture by Andrew Kuntz.
On the industry side, three films received the Hot Docs first look Awards for Works-In-Progress: The Blue Sweater with a Yellow Hole, directed produced by Tetiana Khodakivska and produced by Elena Saulich with Josh Penn, Kevin Macdonald, and Maxym Asadchyi as executive producers; Land of No Pain, directed and produced by Émilie Martel; and Untying the Knot, directed and produced by Chona Mangalindan with Maxime Spinga as producer and Félicie Roblin as executive producer. Each project receives $5,000.
Finally, the Hot Docs Bill Nemtin Award for Best Social Impact Documentary went to Khartoum, directed by Phil Cox, Ibrahim Ahmed, Anas Saeed, Timeea Ahmed, and Rawia Alhag and produced by Talal Afifi and Giovanna Stopponi. The film about migrants escaping the crisis in Sudan screened in the festival’s popular Made in Exile series. An honourable mention went to Writing Hawa, directed by Najiba Noori and co-directed by Rasul Noori and produced by Christian Popp, Hasse van Nunen, and Renko Douze. Writing Hawa also won the Docs for Schools Award.
Hot Docs concludes on Sunday, May 4 with the announcement of the Rogers Audience Award. The prize grants $50,000 to the top Canadian feature doc as voted by the audience with an encore screening at 7:00pm at Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema. The overall audience award winner will be announced upon the completion of the festival. Ryan White’s Come See Me in the Good Light currently leads while holding the top spot for six consecutive days.
