Hot Docs Festival
Hot Docs presented the first hybrid edition of the Festival from April 28 to May 8.
The 2022 Festival showcased 225 films from 63 countries, along with 223 live filmmaker Q&As to audiences in Toronto cinemas. Further building on national audiences cultivated during the past two online editions, all Festival selections also streamed across Canada, along with recorded filmmaker Q&As.
Big Ideas presented by Scotia Wealth Management offered five engaging live discussions with Festival filmmakers and subjects, including filmmaker and activist Abigail E. Disney, World Central Kitchen founder José Andrés and comedy legends The Kids in the Hall. Topics ranged from America's profound inequality crisis to the social impact of TikTok to political corruption in Russia.
Additional special programming at Hot Docs Festival included two Curious Minds webinars that paired films with panel discussions featuring subject experts and three free World Records sessions that presented audiences with new perspectives on documentary. Hot Docs partnered with UNHCR: The UN Refugee Agency to showcase films in a Diaspora collection, and as part of Nordic Bridges, a national cultural exchange program, to showcase Nordic films and offer a free related Curious Minds webinar.
The Rogers Audience Award celebrated excellence in Canadian documentary filmmaking with $50,000 in cash prizes for the top three Canadian Festival features as determined by audience ballot. An additional $65,000 in prizes for Festival films and filmmakers was announced at the Hot Docs Awards Presentation.
Prior to the Festival, Hot Docs partnered with Weengushk Film Institute, an Indigenous-led non-profit, artist-focused film and television training centre on Manitoulin Island, to launch the Hot Docs-Weengushk Film Institute Fund. All donations collected through the Fund will benefit the Institute's important work.
