Amy Goodman Headlines Hot Docs’ Big Ideas Series

Four more documentaries join the line-up for this year’s Hot Docs. The festival announced today the selections for its Big Ideas series, which offers audiences extended conversations after the film and invites them to engage with the filmmakers and participants involved with some of the season’s hottest titles. This year’s Big Ideas series will bring independent journalist Amy Goodman to Toronto for the Canadian premiere of her documentary Steal this Story, Please! The doc chronicles Goodman’s career-long determination to get to the heart of a story, no matter how unpopular her quest for truth makes her with the establishment. The Democracy Now! host will join one of the film’s directors, Oscar nominee Tia Lessin (Trouble the Water), in a conversation after the film.

“Big Ideas events are one of the ways Hot Docs brings documentary storytelling directly into conversation with the world around us,” said Diana Sanchez, Executive Director of Hot Docs, in a statement from the festival. “These screenings invite audiences to experience the film and then continue the conversation live – with filmmakers, journalists and experts – about the issues shaping our world today. We’re honoured to welcome Amy Goodman and these filmmakers for what will be a thoughtful and engaging discussion.”

Hot Docs’ Big Ideas series includes two world premieres. Director Shalini Kantayya (TikTok Boom) continues to explore the world of social media with Love, Apptually. The documentary goes inside the world of online dating to consider the ways in which the algorithm shapes the language of love in the digital age. The director will join the festival after the screening with hopes that audiences swipe right.

Also tapping into audience 2.0 is Myspace, directed by Tommy Avallone (The Bill Murray Stories). The documentary invites audiences to revisit the storied history of the OG social media network and the ways in which it shaped human behaviour for better and for worse.

Rounding out the Big Ideas series is the North American premiere of A War on Women. Director Raha Shirazi looks at the history of women’s rights campaigns in her native Iran leading up to the Women, Life, Freedom movement that took social media, and the world, by storm.

Previous guests in the Big Ideas series include Marlee Matlin (Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore), Daniel Roher (Navalny), Lucy Lawless (Never Look Away), and Brian Eno (Eno). Hot Docs announced the first dozen Special Presentations titles last week including the world premieres of docs about the CN Tower and Kenny Loggins. It will announce the full slate next week before the festival kicks off April 23.

 

The films screening in the Big Ideas series are:

 

Love Apptually
D: Shalini Kantayya | P: Elizabeth Woodward | USA, Australia | 2026 | 81 min | World Premiere
Tired of swiping without results? Follow one journalist’s quest to unpack the dating app algorithms shaping modern romance as she reveals how, in an already lonely world, technology, bias and profit are increasingly influencing who we meet and why.

Filmmaker and Hot Docs alum Shalini Kantayya (Coded Bias; TikTok, Boom) discusses her latest deep dive into the world of technology, this time focusing on Tinder. Love Apptually explores the unknown structures behind big tech and the algorithms that both lift and restrict the users attempting to find love in the digital age.

                        

Myspace
D: Tommy Avallone | P: Van Toffler, Trent Johnson | USA | 2025 | 96 min | World Premiere
What is the legacy of Myspace? Pulling at the heartstrings of millennials and curious newcomers alike, this nostalgic portrait traces how this pioneering social networking platform shaped the digital world we now inhabit, from online fame to social media overload.

Join director Tommy Avallone for a conversation about Myspace, the pioneering social media site that became a cultural phenomenon for casual users and upcoming artists alike, and how it set the stage for the social media landscape that we know today.

 

Steal this Story, Please!
D: Carl Deal, Tia Lessin | P: Carl Deal, Tia Lessin, Karen Ranucci, Diana Cohn, Caren Spruch | USA | 2026 | 102 min | Canadian Premiere
Fiercely independent journalist Amy Goodman has spent three decades holding the powerful to account, reporting from conflict zones and the Democracy Now! newsroom as an essential voice highlighting global issues and pursuing truth in an era of “alternative” facts.

Journalist Amy Goodman (Democracy Now!) joins Oscar-nominated filmmaker Tia Lessin for a conversation about the importance of independent journalism in a world where media representatives can often be stifled and how those still fighting shine a spotlight on the stories that need to be told.

 

A War on Women
D: Raha Shirazi | P: Marco Serrecchia, Marica Stocchi, Beatrice Bordone Bulgari, Gianluca Curti, Daniele Occhipinti, Luca Bradamante | Italy | 2026 | 102 min | North American Premiere
Long before the world chanted “Woman, Life, Freedom,” Iranian women have been rising up. Intimate interviews and archival footage trace 40 years of feminist resistance against the Islamic Republic, culminating in a revolution led by the very women the regime tried to silence.

Join director Raha Shirazi for an exploration of women’s rights in Iran, from decades of resistance and activism to the recent rally cry of “Woman, Life, Freedom,” and how A War on Women spotlights well-known members of the community to reframe the global conversation around how these women are changing history.

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