Hot Docs Announces First Titles for 2026 Festival

Thirteen documentaries mark the first titles announced for this year's Hot Docs. Toronto's documentary festival unveiled its early Special Presentations selections for the 2026 event. Docs on the ticket include the world premiere of The Tower that Built a City, director Mark Myers' portrait of the CN Tower and its role in shaping Toronto's iconic skyline. The doc marks the 50^th anniversary of the public opening of the CN Tower.

Also having its world premiere at Hot Docs is Kenny Loggins: Conviction of the Heart. The film is directed by Dori Berinstein, a six-time Tony Award winning Broadway producer (including 2001's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest revival), and profiles the "King of the Movie Soundtrack" best known for his Oscar-nominated theme from Footloose.

Hot Docs will also host the Canadian premieres of several Sundance favourites. Among the titles coming to Toronto after debuting in Park City is this year's Grand Jury Prize winner for World Cinema Documentary, To Hold a Mountain. The film directed by Biljana Tutorov and Petar Glomazić observes a Montenegro family whose traditional homestead in the mountains becomes uprooted by the arrival of a military training camp. Also screening is Time and Water, the latest film from Fire of Love Oscar nominee Sara Dosa. Time and Water follows the work of Icelandic writer Andri Snær Magnason as he considers the life of glaciers and the histories that endure within layers of ice.

Other Canadian premieres include When a Witness Recants from Dawn Porter, American Doctor by Poh Si Teng about three physicians saving lives in Gaza, and Sentient by Tony Jones offering a provocative study of animal testing.

Other festival circuit hits include IDFA's winner for Best Film, A Fox Under a Pink Moon, directed by Mehrdad Oskouei and Soraya Akhalaghi. Canadian filmmaker Sam Dunn teams up with Tom Morello for The Ballad of Judas Priest. Maya Annik Bedward's Black Zombie, fresh off its debut at SXSW, also has its Canadian premiere.

Hot Docs will announce the full line-up on March 24. This year's festival runs April 23 to May 3.

The first Special Presentations titles for Hot Docs 2026:

• American Doctor — D: Poh Si Teng | USA, Palestine, Denmark, Malaysia, Qatar | 2026 | 93 min | Canadian Premiere
• The Ballad of Judas Priest — D: Tom Morello, Sam Dunn | USA | 2026 | 98 min | Canadian Premiere
• Black Zombie — D: Maya Annik Bedward | Canada | 2026 | 90 min | Canadian Premiere
• A Fox Under Pink Moon — D: Mehrdad Oskouei, Soraya Akhalaghi | Iran, Denmark, France | 2026 | 77 min | North American Premiere
• It's Dorothy! — D: Jeffrey McHale | USA | 2025 | 97 min | Canadian Premiere
• Kenny Loggins: Convictions of the Heart — D: Dori Berinstein | USA | 2025 | 96 min | World Premiere
• Sentient — D: Tony Jones | Australia | 2026 | 105 min | Canadian Premiere
• Time and Water — D: Sara Dosa | USA, Iceland | 2026 | 90 min | Canadian Premiere
• To Hold a Mountain — D: Biljana Tutorov, Petar Glomazić | Serbia, France, Slovenia | 2026 | 105 min | Canadian Premiere
• The Tower that Built a City — D: Mark Myers | Canada | 2026 | 92 min | World Premiere
• When a Witness Recants — D: Dawn Porter | USA | 2026 | 117 min | Canadian Premiere