Hot Docs Announces Forum and Deal Maker Titles for Industry Sessions

Fifteen projects representing nine countries will compete at this year’s Hot Docs Forum. The live pitching event, which serves as the centrepiece of the festival’s industry side, returns after a one-year hiatus. Hot Docs “paused” the Forum for the 2025 edition and announced plans to “reimagine” the event.

The Forum will still follow the popular format in which the selected teams pitch their projects to a room full of industry leaders and peers from the documentary space, including representatives from distributors, funders, charities, and other fields that facilitate production. An additional wild card project will be selected for the Forum when it runs April 28 and April 29. New this year, the event will move to Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema with 10-minute pitches delivered on stage.

Three cash prizes return to the Forum: the first look prize, financed by members of Hot Docs’ curated access program for philanthropic supporters of and investors in documentary film; the $10,000 CMF-Hot Docs Forum Canadian Pitch Prize, presented in partnership with the Canada Media Fund, which awards the best Canadian pitch; and the  $5,000 Hot Docs–Chicken & Egg Special Pitch Forum Prize, presented in partnership with Chicken & Egg, which goes to the best for a project directed by a woman or gender-expansive filmmaker.

Hot Docs also announced 16 projects that will participate in the Deal Maker sessions. This aspect of the Industry programming puts film teams in one-on-one sessions with funders and decision makers.

This year Hot Docs advertisers a “more focused, tailored boutique approach to Hot Docs Forum and Deal Maker, designed to facilitate meaningful connections that build relationships and open doors to collaboration, funding and distribution opportunities for these 31 projects.”

“The Forum has long been central to how Hot Docs supports documentary filmmakers while providing a space for the industry to convene, and bringing it back was a priority for us,” said Diana Sanchez, Executive Director of Hot Docs, in a statement from the festival. “This year, we’ve taken a more curated approach, with a focused group of projects and an emphasis on meaningful connections. The goal is to create an environment where conversations can translate into real opportunities for projects to move forward.”

Several projects pitched at the Hot Docs Forum have gone on to great success. Prior winners include Fire of Love, which went on to open the Sundance Film Festival and score an Oscar nomination, while 2019 winners Midwives and Twice Colonized both screened at Sundance and Hot Docs with the latter opening the 2023 edition of Hot Docs and going on to win the Canadian Screen Award for best documentary, and Brett Story and Stephen Maing’s 2022 winner Union was a 2024 festival circuit favourite and landed on the Oscar shortlist. Meanwhile, The Sandbox won a first look pitch prize and the Cuban Hat audience vote at the 2023 Forum and is set to premiere at CPH:DOX this week.

The full list of Hot Docs Forum and Deal Maker Projects is as follows. Producer credits, titles, and order of listing appear as they were received, as do synopses.

2026 Hot Docs Forum Projects

ExCoded
Director: Javier Lovera
Producers: Hannah Donegan (Producer), Marc Serpa Francoeur (Producer), Ina Fichman (Executive Producer),
Production companies: Airplane Mode Productions Inc. (Canada), Better Together Films Inc. (Canada)

Amidst the steady creep of facial recognition technology into policing, immigration and even schools, people harmed by AI—aka the “excoded”—are taking on a system that’s rapidly rewriting the rules of public life.

Hiding in My Cells
Director: Ali Naqi
Producers: Christina Saliba (Producer), Ali Naqi (Producer), Ariel Nasr (Executive Producer), Sergeo Kirby (Executive Producer)
Production companies: Misfit Films (Canada), Spicy Alii Inc. (Canada)

In rural Belgaum, India, a sanctuary shelters HIV-positive children abandoned by their families. Led by Kasturi, also HIV positive, it defies stigma and teaches India’s most vulnerable the meaning of family.

The Instrument
Director: Zac Manuel
Producers: Darcy McKinnon (Producer), Holly Stanton (Executive Producer), Carlos Lopez Estrada (Executive Producer)
Production companies: Gusto Moving Pictures (USA), Antigravity Academy (USA)

As a celebrated jazz singer confronts the decline of his voice, his filmmaker son attempts to resurrect their late patriarch through artificial intelligence—unfolding a story that bridges the birth of recorded sound, the erasure of Black voices, and the precarious frontier of technological resurrection.

Izhichigewin
Director: Darlene Naponse, Sage Petahtegoose
Producers: Darlene Naponse (Producer), Jennifer Weiss (Producer)
Production companies: Baswewe Films Inc. (Canada)

An elevated intimate connection, Izhichigewin is recalling, creating and imagining a life well lived through Anishnawbek Traditional Knowledge & Food Sustainability.

Mid Wif
Director: Mia Harvey
Producers: Natasha Dack Ojumu (Producer), Mia Harvey (Producer)
Production companies: Tigerlily Productions (UK), Past Life Films (UK)

In Atlanta, two Black midwives work underground to provide safe homebirths. Mid Wif explores the rich legacy of Black midwifery in the US, whilst following an urgent political fight to legalize a profession rooted in ancestral care.

North Korea’s Joy Division
Director: Noa Im
Producers: Ann Shin (Producer / Executive Producer), Sally Blake (Producer / Executive Producer), Erica Leendertse (Producer)
Production companies: Fathom Film Group Ltd. (Canada), Films á Cinq (France)

Four women break decades of silence to expose North Korea’s secret pleasure squad, “Joy Division,” revealing how sex and performance were weaponized to serve three generations of dictatorship.

The Ruin of the Earth
Director: Yannick Jamey
Producers: Ophelia Spinosa (Producer)
Production companies: Stella Maris Films (Canada)

On a remote island off the coast of Ireland, 80-year-old Peadar Mór is the last inhabitant to hold on to a forgotten worldview on the edge of extinction.

Tallawah
Director: Laurie Townshend
Producers: Amar Lohana (Producer), Habiba Nosheen (Executive Producer)
Production companies: Akelo Media Corp (Canada)

On a weathered court in Kingston, Jamaica, three young women chase improbable hoop dreams, daring to reimagine their futures in women’s basketball and beyond.

The Thermocene
Director: Giorgio Ferrero
Producers: Giovanni Pompili (Lead Producer), Rodolfo Mongitore (Producer)
Production companies: Kino Produzioni s.r.l. (Italy), Mybosswas s.r.l. (Italy)

While visionary minds imagine new ways of inhabiting the planet, two composers, isolated in the Alps, compose a symphony recording human traces in the air, revealing that zero impact doesn’t exist.

Unlocked
Director: Luke Terrell
Producers: Lauren “Lo” Heimer (Producer), Alex Schmider (Producer), Annie Marr (Producer), Alexander Mok (Consulting Producer), Lilly Wachowski (Executive Producer), Lawrence Mattis (Executive Producer), John Leguizamo (Executive Producer)
Production companies: Restless Productions (USA), Hello Friend Media (USA), Anarchists United (USA), Kartemquin Films (USA)

Best friends in Missouri’s death row prison build a tech company on the inside. When they’re unexpectedly released after 25 years, they find that freedom could destabilize everything they’ve built.

Vuka (Rise Up)
Director: Matthew Robinson
Producers: Rehad Desai (Lead Producer), Shannon Walsh (Executive Producer), Matthew Robinson (Producer)
Production companies: Trevendy Films (Pty) Ltd (South Africa), Uhuru Productions (Pty) Ltd (South Africa)

Amidst the challenges of township life on the outskirts of Cape Town, an inspirational choir conductor uses the language of music to help students find purpose and harmony in an unforgiving world.

Widows of Living Husbands
Director: Diego Kelmann, Jussara Costa do Macuco (co-director)
Producers: Diego Kelmann (Lead Producer), Clelia Bessa (Lead Producer), Renata Lobo (Executive Producer), Jussara Costa do Macuco (Associate Producer)
Production companies: UZ Produções, Eventos & Criação Ltda, UZ Z CORP (USA), Raccord Produções Artísticas e Cinematográficas Ltda (Brazil), Aquilombei Produções (Brazil)

In Brazil’s rural Jequitinhonha Valley, parents spend 11months working far away, leaving a single month with their family. Generations of forced migration have etched lasting scars into the community.

With Time 
Director: Brit Fryer and Noah Schamus
Producers: Jesse Miller (Producer), Jess Devaney (Executive Producer), Carrie Lozano (Executive Producer), Jun Stinson Yamagishi (Supervising Producer), Jess Zeidman (Executive Producer)
Production companies: In Time Productions LLC (Producer, USA), Multitude Films (USA), ITVS (USA), Alina Pictures (USA)

With Time follows a group of trans people over 50 as they gather in a storytelling workshop, bringing to life moments of euphoria, connection and mutual recognition.

What You Remember
Director: Pauline Blanchet
Producers: Ljubomir Stefanov (Producer), Pauline Blanchet (Producer)
Production companies: Apolo Creative Solutions (North Macedonia), Aral Sea Productions LTD. (UK)

How do we remember the past when our history has been faked? One man’s idea to rebuild a capital erased collective memory, casting a dark shadow over Skopje’s future identity.

Untitled Mexican Project
Title: [Undisclosed]
Director: [Undisclosed]
Producers: Santiago Esteinou (Producer)
Production companies: [Undisclosed]

Following the eruption of violence in her community’s sacred forest, a filmmaker returns home to honour the victims and document her people’s struggle to protect the land that sustains and defines them.

 

2026 Hot Docs Deal Maker Projects

Be Free
Director: Silvana Costa
Producers: Federico Schiavi (Producer)
Production companies: Nacne srl (Italy)

Before the Sun Sets
Director: [Undisclosed]
Producers: Javiera Quintana (Lead Producer), Stuart Henderson (Executive Producer), Fabrice Esteve (Producer)
Production companies: 90th Parallel Productions Ltd (Canada), Yuzu Productions (France)

Feminist City
Director: Alison Duke
Producers: Alison Duke (Producer / Executive Producer), Ngardy Conteh George (Producer / Executive Producer), Nina Beveridge (Development Producer), Sally Browning (Producer), Keaton Stewart (Producer), Monica O’Brien (Executive Producer)
Production companies: Oya Media Group Inc. (Canada), Emerald Films Pty Ltd. (Australia), Stewart Brothers Pty Ltd

The Food Barons
Director: Sara Manisera
Producers: Fabio Saitto (Producer), Marine Vaillant (Co-Producer)
Production companies: Point Nemo SRL (Italy), Special Touch Studios SAS (France)

New Spring – Nûbihar
Director: Benedetta Argentieri
Producers: Eleonora Savi (Executive producer), Domenico Procacci (Producer), Laura Paolucci (Producer), Benedetta Argentieri (Producer)
Production companies: Fandango SPA (Italy), Possibile Film (Italy)

Never Move Backwards
Director: Alexandra Tahereh Kaucher
Producers: Michael LaPointe (Producer), James Jenkins (Producer), Jonathan Olson (Producer)
Production companies: Never Move Backwards Film LLC (USA), Hiss.tv, LLC. (USA), Pointe Media, LLC. (USA), Yesteryear, Inc. (USA)

NOW: No Ordinary World
Co-directors: Anna Kuelken, Patrick Lundeen
Producers: Patrick Lundeen (Producer), Edmon Rotea (Executive Producer)
Production companies: Twisted Timber Productions (Canada)

Pure Madness
Director: Inès Arsi
Producers: Sarra Ben Hassen (Producer), Kaouthar Hadidi (Producer)
Production companies: Instinct Bleu (Tunisia), 3ème Genre Production (France)

The Scientist’s Guide
Director: Caitlin Durlak, Sean Stiller, Emilie Martel
Producers: Bryn Hughes (Producer), Nicholas de Pencier (Producer), Kevin Feiyang Li (Showrunner / Producer), Jonathan Qu (Showrunner / Producer)
Production companies: Curiosity Films (Canada), Frequent Flyer Films (Canada)

The Simulation / La Simulation
Director: Justine Harbonnier
Producers: Line Sander Egede (Producer), Carine Chichkowsky (Co-Producer)
Production companies: TAK films Inc. (Canada), Survivance (France)

Ski the Wong Way
Director: Danny Berish
Producers: Leah Mallen (Executive Producer / Producer), Ryan Mah (Producer), Joanna Wong (Producer)
Production companies: Black Rhino Creative Inc. (Canada)

Solas
Director: Lila Penagos
Producers: Lila Penagos (Producer), Juliana Khalifé (Creative Producer)
Production companies: Killa Producciones S.A.S (Ecuador), Lunar producción y comunicación audiovisual S.A.S (Ecuador)

Sons of the River
Director: Katyayani Kumar
Producers: Eric Cook (Producer), Sanjay Sharma (Executive Producer), Milan Chakraborty (Executive Producer)
Production companies: Shastra Productions (USA), Eric B Cook Productions LLC (USA), Marginal MediaWorks, Inc. (USA)

Sugo!
Director: Alfio Foti
Producers: Emilija Davidovic (Producer)
Production companies: Faustalgia Pictures (Canada)

Up in the Clouds, Down in the Valley
Director: Carmen Pollard
Producers: Jenny Rustemeyer (Producer), Carmen Pollard (Producer), Sarah Jane Flynn (Executive Producer for Knowledge Network)
Production companies: Diving Bell Films Inc. (Canada), Silvapark Films Inc. (Canada)

Weathering Architect
Director: Sunhyeon Kwon
Producers: Duhyun Ko (Producer)
Production companies: Keumyoil Film (South Korea)

 

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