Hot Docs Audience Award Rankings Shake-Up Heading into Last Weekend

The Hot Docs Audience Award race has some movement! Come See Me in the Good Light continues to hold atop the Audience Award rankings, now stretching into its sixth day at number one, but Deaf President Now! debuts in the runner-up spot following its Canadian premiere Thursday night. The doc by Nyle DiMarco and Oscar winner Davis Guggenheim chronicles the 1988 events at Gallaudet University where the Deaf student body stood up and refused to be governed again by a hearing president.

The doc makes for a competitive final weekend as Come See Me in the Good Light, Ryan White’s life-affirming portrait of poet Andrea Gibson’s strength in the face of a cancer diagnosis, goes head to head with encore screenings. Yesterday’s runner-up, 9-Month Contract, fell out of the top 20 entirely following its encore screening.

Also jumping into the race is Selena y Los Dinos, Isabel Castro’s archival portrait of late singer Selena Quintanilla. Notably, Selena, Deaf President Now!, and Come See Me in the Good Light join fellow Sundance alumni Coexistence My Ass!, 2000 Meters to Andriivka, and Mr. Nobody Against Putin in the top ten. Of all the non-Canadian films leading the race, only one, Antidote, didn’t debut at Park City.

Canadian titles have been redacted following the completion of their runs in order to maintain an element of surprise before the winner of the Rogers Audience Award is revealed Sunday at 7:00pm. The winner receives a cash prize of $50,000 and a free encore screening for Hot Docs audiences. The festival’s juried prizes will be announced tonight.

 

The Hot Docs Audience Award rankings for May 2 are:

1. Come See Me in the Good Light
2. Deaf President Now!
3. [Canadian feature in competition for Rogers Audience Award]
4. Antidote
5. Selena y Los Dinos
6. Coexistence, My Ass!
7. [Canadian feature in competition for Rogers Audience Award]
8. 2000 Meters to Andriivka
9. Mr. Nobody Against Putin
10. [Canadian feature in competition for Rogers Audience Award]
11. [Canadian feature in competition for Rogers Audience Award]
12. Holloway
13. The Last Ambassador
14. [Canadian feature in competition for Rogers Audience Award]
15. Facing War
16. I, Poppy
17. [Canadian feature in competition for Rogers Audience Award]
18. Aisha’s Story
19. Widow Champion
20. Writing Hawa