Another day, another leader! Eternal Spring makes its appearance atop the list of Hot Docs Audience Award rankings in today’s update. The film directed by Jason Loftus is an animated exploration of a 2002 hijacking of a Chinese television station. Eternal Spring draws upon the animation of Chinese artist Daxiong, who participated in the event with fellow practitioners of Falun Gong. The film’s debut in number one marks the fifth consecutive time that a Canadian film and contender for the Rogers Audience Award took the top spot.
Yesterday’s leader, Beautiful Scars, dropped to ninth place in the update. Curiously, every film has fallen to exactly ninth after losing the top spot. Previous leader Okay! (The ASD Band Film) held at eighth following its encore theatrical screening yesterday, while Batata dropped from ninth to eighteenth. New films on the list include the Icelandic music doc Band, which debuted in the runner-up spot, Kids in the Hall: Comedy Punks, which made its appearance in third place, and Unloved, directed by POV’s own Barri Cohen, debuting in sixth overall and in third for the Rogers Audience Award. Unloved had its world premiere yesterday at Hot Docs in an emotional event that featured many survivors of the Huronia Regional Care centre present to speak to the abuse they faced at the institution. Former Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne was also in attendance, having made the province’s official apology for the harm committed by the institution.
The Hot Docs Audience Award ratings as of May 4 are as follows:
- Eternal Spring
- Band
- The Kids in the Hall: Comedy Punks
- Silent Beauty
- Who We Will Have Been
- Unloved: Huronia’s Forgotten Children
- Atomic Hope – Inside the Pro-Nuclear Movement
- Okay! (The ASD Band Film)
- Beautiful Scars
- Hunting in Packs
- Category: Woman
- Quiet Epidemic
- Navalny
- Alis
- The Unsolved Murder of Beverly Lynn Smith
- Smell of Money
- How Saba Kept Singing
- Batata
- Returning Home
- Sam Now
