The Soldier’s Lagoon and Farming the Revolution topped the winners at this year’s Hot Docs festival. The films won the prizes for Best Canadian Feature Documentary and Best International Documentary, respectively. The Soldier’s Lagoon, directed by Pablo Álvarez-Mesa, offers a poetic essay about the land and memory in Colombia. Farming the Revolution, directed by Nishta Jain, chronicles a year-long farmers’ strike in India. Both films received cash prizes of $10,000 with the former sponsored by Telefilm Canada and the latter by Hot Docs. Additionally, as winner for Best International Feature, Farming the Revolution is eligible for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature provided it meets all other qualifications.
Also qualifying for Oscars thanks to their Hot Docs wins are Am I the Skinniest Person You’ve Ever Seen? and Autism Plays Itself. The former is from director Eisha Marjar and won the Betty Youson Award for Best Canadian Short Documentary, while the latter scored Best International Short Documentary for Janet Harbord.
Overall, the festival handed out over $75,000 in cash prizes in the awards ceremony hosted by Garvia Bailey. The winner of the $50,000 Rogers Audience Award as the favourite Canadian feature will be named on Sunday with the overall festival favourite named after Hot Docs ends.
The full list of winners is as follows:
Best Canadian Feature Documentary: The Soldier’s Lagoon – Pablo Álvarez-Mesa
DGC Special Jury Prize – Canadian Feature Documentary: Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story – Michael Mabbott, Lucah Rosenberg-Lee, Amanda Burt, Sam Dunn, Scot McFayden, Justine Pimlott
Best International Feature Documentary Award: Farming the Revolution – Nishta Jain, Valérie Montmartin
Special Jury Prize – International Feature Documentary: Death of a Saint – Patricia Bbaale Bandak, Victor Rocha da Cunh
Land | Sea | Sky Award: The Battle for Laikipia – Daphne Matziaraki, Peter Murimi, Toni Kamau
Special mention: Yintah – Jennifer Wickham, Brenda Michell, Michael Toledano, Bob Moore
Earl A. Glick Emerging Canadian Filmmaker Award: Laurence Lévesque – Okurimono
Emerging International Filmmaker Award: Fan Wu – XiXi
Special mention: The Weavers’ Song – Ismael Vásquez Bernabé
Bill Nemtin Award for Best Social Impact Documentary: Standing Above the Clouds – Jalena Keane-Lee, Erin Lau, Amber Espinosa-Jones
Special mention: Devi – Subina Shrestha, Ashmita Chaudhary Khadka, Rosie Garthwaite, Heejung Oh
The Betty Youson Award for Best Canadian Short Documentary: Am I the Skinniest Person You’ve Ever Seen? – Eisha Marjar
Special mention: The Sparkle – Isabelle Grignon-Francke
Best International Short Documentary: Autism Plays Itself – Janet Harbord
Special mention: Christmas, Every Day – Faye Tsakas
Best Mid-Length Documentary: Silence of Reason – Kumjana Novakova
Special mention: The New Man – Carlos Yuri Ceuninck
Scotiabank Docs for Schools Student Choice Award: The Strike – JoeBill Muñoz, Lucas Guilkey
Outstanding Achievement Award: Raoul Peck
Don Haig Award: Alison Duke
Lindalee Tracey Award: Meysam Motazedi
