Excoded leads the winners of this year’s Hot Docs Forum. The festival’s live pitch event returned after a one-year hiatus and proved itself back in business with $48,000 in prizes awarded to the top projects, two of which are by Canadian teams.
Directed by Javier Lovera and produced by Hannah Donegan and Marc Serpa Francoeur and executive produced by Ina Fichman, Excoded won first place in the first look Pitch Prizes. The award carries a purse of $15,000 financed by participants in Hot Docs’ curated philanthropic first look programme. Excoded investigates “the steady creep of facial recognition technology into policing, immigration and even schools, and how people harmed by AI—aka the ‘excoded’—are taking on a system that’s rapidly rewriting the rules of public life.”
The second first look Pitch Prize went to What You Remember. The film directed by Pauline Blanchet, who serves as producer with Ljubomir Stefanov, won $10,000. A North Macedonia/UK co-production, What You Remember tells the story of a man who seeks to rebuild a capital on remains of an unfinished city, which complicates the collective cultural and historical significance of Skopje, the capital of North Macedonia and the nation’s largest city.
Receiving $8,000 as the third place first look Pitch Prize was The Forever Chorus. The project, which was this year’s wild card pick and a late entry to the Forum with the team having only 24 hours to prepare, is directed by Ree Wright and Meaghan Wright and produced by Melanie Wood. The team also has the doc The Last Days of April in this year’s festival. The Forever Chorus observes “a non-traditional queer chorus in Nova Scotia who must confront personal change and societal resistance in order to find their collective voice.” Both Excoded and The Forever Chorus brought wins to Canadian teams. Both docs won additional prizes.
Excoded also won the CMF-Hot Docs Forum Canadian Pitch Prize, presented in partnership with the Canada Media Fund, as the top Canadian pitch. The win carries a $10,000 cash prize. The Forever Chorus also won the Hot Docs–Chicken & Egg Films Special Pitch Forum Prize, presented in partnership with Chicken & Egg Films. Carrying $5,000, the prize goes to the top pitch made by women and/or gender-diverse filmmakers.
“Today we close out a successful two-day Hot Docs Forum event with the awarding of $48,000 to some exceptional projects that pitched live on stage at our cinema as part of the return of this vital Hot Docs industry event,” said Hot Docs Executive Director Diana Sanchez, in a statement from the festival. “I’m thrilled that we’ve been able to bring back the Hot Docs Forum this year and am grateful to the 16 projects that have taken part, as well as the Canadian and international decision makers that participated. The marketplace for documentary is challenging and ever-changing and I am endlessly grateful to our prize funders for making a financial impact on these projects to help them move forward with increased stability.”
Previous winners of the Hot Docs Forum prizes have gone on to win major slots at top festivals, including Fire of Love, which received an Oscar nomination, and Union, which landed on the Oscar shortlist. Previous Forum pitches screening at this year’s Hot Docs include The Sandbox and Jaripeo.
