American Doctor has been revealed as the winner of the 2026 Hot Docs Audience Award. The documentary directed by Poh Si Teng scored the best overall rating as voted by Hot Docs audiences. The film follows three doctors as they volunteer their services towards aiding Palestinians amid the ongoing genocide and as they become unlikely spokespeople raising awareness about the plight of people in Gaza and the war crimes committed by Israel. The film debuted at the number one spot following its Canadian premiere, and returned to the top following the most dynamic audience award rankings that Hot Docs has seen in recent years.
On the Canadian side, Nekai Walks won the Rogers Audience Award as the highest-rated Canadian feature. The film directed by Rico King received a $50,000 cash prize, courtesy of Rogers, on Sunday night when it was revealed as the winner ahead of a free encore screening. Nekai Walks tells the story of Toronto’s Nekai Foster, who survived a random shooting at age 16 and sets his eye on rehabilitation. The Audience Award winner for best short was Sanyi the Rooster, directed by Lotte Salomons. The film chronicles the story of a community brought together and then divided by a rooster that served as a beacon of hope.
“The conversations our entire team have had with Festival attendees over the past 11 days have made it abundantly clear that Hot Docs is back,” said Hot Docs executive director Diana Sanchez in a statement from the festival. “We close out the 2026 edition of Hot Docs feeling incredibly proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish this year, and privileged to be able to present such a powerful lineup of films and to host close to 1000 filmmakers, delegates and industry professionals, as well as tens of thousands of audience members in cinemas for a shared film-going experience. Together, our community came out to enthusiastically support documentary filmmaking and global storytelling in a meaningful way, engaging in deep discussion and gaining a greater understanding of the world we share together.”
Hot Docs previously announced its juried prize winners and Forum winners, with Saigon Story and House of Hope leading the former with the awards for Best Canadian Feature and Best International Feature, respectively.
The 20 documentaries in the audience poll are:
- American Doctor (D: Poh Si Teng | P: Poh Si Teng, Kirstine Barfod, Reem Haddad | USA, Palestine, Denmark, Malaysia, Qatar | 2026 | 93 min)
- Steal This Story, Please! (D: Carl Deal, Tia Lessin | P: Carl Deal, Tia Lessin, Karen Ranucci, Diana Cohn, Caren Spruch | USA | 2026 | 102 min)
- A Fox Under a Pink Moon (D: Mehrdad Oskouei, Soraya Akhalaghi | P: Mehrdad Oskouei | Iran, Denmark, France | 2026 | 77 min)
- 32 Meters (D: Morteza Atabaki | P: Morteza Atabaki, Murat Ones | Turkey, Iran, Qatar | 2025 | 83 min)
- Nekai Walks (D: Rico King | P: David Mcilvride | Canada | 2026 | 90 min)
- Antidiva: The Carole Pope Confessions (D: Michelle Mama | P: Allison Grace, Bill Taylor | Canada | 2025 | 89 min)
- Black Zombie (D: Maya Annik Bedward | P: Maya Annik Bedward, Kate Fraser, Hannah Donegan | Canada | 2026 | 90 min)
- The Ballad of Judas Priest (D: Tom Morello, Sam Dunn | P: Sam Dunn, Scot McFadyen | USA | 2026 | 98 min)
- The Seoul Guardians (D: Chul Young Cho, Shin Wan Kim, Jong Woo Kim | P: Sona Jo, Shin Wan Kim | South Korea | 2026 | 71 min)
- When a Witness Recants (D: Dawn Porter | P: Dawn Porter, Jennifer Oko, Miriam Weintraub | 2026 | USA | 117 min)
- Traces (D: Alisa Kovalenko, Marysia Nikitiuk | P: Olha Bregman, Natalia Libet, Violetta Kamińska, Izabela Wójcik, Dariusz Jabłoński | Ukraine, Poland | 2026 | 82 min)
- Sanyi the Rooster (D: Lotte Salomons | P: Kes Raven, Raphael Hogers, Nova Nagel | Netherlands | 2025 | 20 min)
- təm kʷaθ nan Namesake (D: Evan Adams, Eileen Francis | P: Peg Campbell | Canada | 2026 | 76 min)
- Code of Misconduct (D: Sébastien Trahan | P: Annie Bourdeau | Canada | 2026 | 88 min)
- Aanikoobijigan [ancestor/great-grandparent/great-grandchild] (D: Adam Khalil, Zachary Khalil | P: Steve Holmgren, Grace Remington, Jacque Clark | USA, Denmark | 2026 | 81 min)
- Ceremony (D: Banchi Hanuse | P: Banchi Hanuse | Canada | 2026 | 84 min)
- Birds of War (D: Janay Boulos, Abd Alkader Habak | P: Sonja Henrici, Janay Boulos, Abd Alkader Habak | UK, Syria, Lebanon | 2026 | 85 min)
- Baby Jackfruit Baby Guava (D: Nhật Quang Nông | P: Trang Đào Thị Minh, Sarah Kang, Heejung Oh | Vietnam, South Korea, Switzerland | 2026 | 105 min)
- To Hold a Mountain (D: Biljana Tutorov, Petar Glomazić | P: Biljana Tutorov, Petar Glomazić, Quentin Laurent, Rok Biček | Serbia, France, Slovenia, Montenegro, Croatia | 2026 | 105 min)
- Stories for Sandro (D: Giacomo Boeri | P: Giacomo Boeri, Domenico Procacci | Italy | 2025 | 81 min)
