Hot Docs Award for Best International Feature Documentary
The Hot Docs Award for Best International Feature Documentary is an annual Canadian film award, presented by the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival to the film selected by jury members as the year's best international feature film in the festival program. The award was presented for the first time in 1998; prior to that year, awards were presented in various genre categories, but no special distinction between Canadian and international films was presented.
The award jury also presents a Special Jury Prize to a second film besides the primary winner.
The award is an Academy Award qualifying prize, meaning that a winner of the award is automatically eligible to be submitted for Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film consideration.[1]
Winners
Best International Documentary Feature
Year | Film | Filmmaker(s) | Ref |
---|---|---|---|
1998 | In My Father's House | Fatima Jebli Ouzzani | [2] |
Wasteland (Auf Der Kippe) | Andre Schwartz | ||
1999 | A Murder in Abidjan (Un crime à Abidjan) | Mosco Boucoult | [3] |
2000 | Godard on TV (Godard à la télé) | Michel Royer | [4] |
Long Night's Journey Into Day | Deborah Hoffmann, Frances Reid | ||
2001 | Southern Comfort ![]() | Kate Davis | [5] |
100 Per Cent White ![]() | Leo Regan | ||
2002 | All About My Father (Alt om min far) | Even Benestad | [6] |
2003 | Power Trip | Paul Devlin | [7] |
2004 | Checkpoint (Machssomim) | Yoav Shamir | [8] |
2005 | Street Fight | Marshall Curry | [9] |
2006 | 37 Uses for a Dead Sheep | Ben Hopkins | [10] |
2007 | Losers and Winners | Ulrike Franke, Michael Loeken | [11] |
2008 | The English Surgeon | Geoffrey Smith | [12] |
2009 | One Man Village | Simon El Habre | [13] |
2010 | A Film Unfinished (Shtikat haArkhion) | Yael Hersonski | [14] |
2011 | Dragonslayer | Tristan Patterson | [15] |
2012 | Call Me Kuchu | Malika Zouhali-Worrall, Katherine Fairfax Wright | [16] |
2013 | Dragon Girls (Drachenmädchen) | Inigo Westmeier | [17] |
2014 | Waiting for August | Teodora Ana Mihai | [18] |
2015 | The Closer We Get | Karen Guthrie | [19] |
2016 | Brothers (Brødre) | Aslaug Holm | [20] |
2017 | The Other Side of the Wall | Pau Ortiz | [21] |
2018 | We Could Be Heroes | Hind Bensari | [22] |
2019 | Hope Frozen | Pailin Wedel | [23] |
2020 | Stray | Elizabeth Lo | [24] |
2021 | Ostrov: Lost Island | Svetlana Rodina, Laurent Stoop | [25] |
2022 | Blue Island | Chan Tze-woon | [26] |
2023 | The Mountains (Bjergene) | Christian Einshøj | [27] |
2024 | Farming the Revolution | Nishta Jain | [28] |
2025 | I, Poppy | Vivek Chaudhary | [1] |
Special Jury Prize
Year | Film | Filmmaker(s) | Ref |
---|---|---|---|
2005 | The Swenkas | Jeppe Rønde | [9] |
2006 | My Grandmother's House (La casa de mi abuela) | Adán Aliaga | [10] |
2007 | Without the King | Michael Skolnik | [11] |
2008 | To See If I'm Smiling | Tamar Yarom | [12] |
2009 | Cooking History | Peter Kerekes | [13] |
2010 | The Oath | Laura Poitras | [14] |
2011 | The Castle (Il Castello) | Massimo D'Anolfi, Martina Parenti | [15] |
2012 | The Law in These Parts (Shilton Ha Chok) | Ra'anan Alexandrowicz | [16] |
2013 | Cloudy Mountain | Zhu Yu | [17] |
2014 | Walking Under Water | Eliza Kubarska | [18] |
2015 | The Living Fire (Жива ватра) | Ostap Kostyuk | [19] |
2016 | God Knows Where I Am | Jedd Wider, Todd Wider | [20] |
2017 | A Cambodian Spring | Christopher Kelly | [21] |
2018 | Whispering Truth to Power | Shameela Seedat | [22] |
Wind of Swabia | Corrado Punzi | ||
2019 | For Sama | Waad Al-Kateab, Edward Watts | [23] |
2020 | 499 | Rodrigo Reyes | [24] |
2021 | School of Hope | Mohamed El Aboudi | [25] |
2022 | The Wind Blows the Border | Laura Faerman, Marina Weis | [26] |
2023 | Name Me Lawand | Edward Lovelace | [27] |
2024 | Death of a Saint | Patricia Bbaale Bandak | [28] |
2025 | River of Grass | Sasha Wortzel | [1] |
References
- ^ a b c Matthew Carey, "Hot Docs Announces Prizes: Awards Go To ‘I, Poppy,’ ‘River Of Grass,’ ‘Paul,’ ‘Khartoum’ And More". Deadline Hollywood, May 2, 2025.
- ^ "World's best documentaries honoured Filmmaker Allan King given first lifetime achievement award at fifth annual Hot Docs!". The Globe and Mail, March 23, 1998.
- ^ Tamsen Tillson, "Canuck hot docs picked". Variety, May 11, 1999.
- ^ "Hot Docs presents awards at seventh annual festival: Zyklon Portrait takes best short, editing, humanitarian prizes". National Post, May 8, 2000.
- ^ Brenda Bouw, "My Left Breast wins gold award at Hot Docs festival". National Post, May 8, 2001.
- ^ "Hot Docs prize goes to Montreal director". The Globe and Mail, May 7, 2002.
- ^ "Hot Docs festival hands out 12 awards". The Globe and Mail, May 6, 2003.
- ^ "Hot Docs announces its picks of the year". The Globe and Mail, May 3, 2004.
- ^ a b "Hogtown muckraker digs up prize at Hot Docs". National Post, May 2, 2005.
- ^ a b "Hot Docs pulls record crowds with 13th fest". Toronto Star, May 9, 2006.
- ^ a b "Hot Docs film festival breaks attendance record with 68,000 taking in films". Canadian Press, April 30, 2007.
- ^ a b "Prizes dished out at 15th annual Hot Docs festival". Alaska Highway News, April 30, 2008.
- ^ a b James Bradshaw, "Davis's Invisible City wins $15,000 Hot Docs prize". The Globe and Mail, May 9, 2009.
- ^ a b "Propaganda tale wins Hot Docs prize movies; Bin Laden bodyguard film also a winner". Toronto Star, May 9, 2010.
- ^ a b Guy Dixon, "Julia Ivanovna film wins $15,000 Hot Docs prize". The Globe and Mail, May 6, 2011.
- ^ a b "‘The World Before Her' wins best Canadian feature at Hot Docs". The Globe and Mail, May 4, 2012.
- ^ a b Adam Benzine, "Hot Docs 2013: When I Walk, Dragon Girls, scoop prizes". Playback, May 6, 2013.
- ^ a b Paula Bernstein, "Hot Docs 2014 Winners Announced: ‘Out of Mind, Out of Sight’ Wins Best Canadian Feature Documentary". IndieWire, May 3, 2014.
- ^ a b Jennie Punter, "‘The Closer We Get’ Takes Top Award at Hot Docs". Variety, May 1, 2015.
- ^ a b Etan Vlessing, "Hot Docs: Norway’s ‘Brothers’ Doc Diary Takes Top Jury Prize". The Hollywood Reporter, May 6, 2016.
- ^ a b Jordan Pinto, "Rezolution’s Rumble wins Hot Docs audience award". Playback, May 8, 2017.
- ^ a b Norman Wilner, "Hot Docs 2018: A Little Wisdom, Transformer among award winners". Now, May 5, 2018.
- ^ a b Jennie Punter, "‘We Will Stand Up,’ ‘Hope Frozen’ Take Top Prizes at Hot Docs". Variety, May 4, 2019.
- ^ a b Norman Wilner, "Prayer For A Lost Mitten, Stray win top awards at Hot Docs 2020". Now, May 19, 2020.
- ^ a b Kevin Ritchie, "Hot Docs 2021: Zo Reken, One Of Ours claim top prizes". Now, May 7, 2021.
- ^ a b Sadaf Ahsan, "Jacquelyn Mills’ ‘Geographies of Solitude’ wins Hot Docs’ best Canadian film award". Toronto Star, May 7, 2022.
- ^ a b Etan Vlessing, "Hot Docs Awards: Christian Einshoj’s ‘The Mountains’ Takes Top Jury Prize". The Hollywood Reporter, May 6, 2023.
- ^ a b John Hazelton, "Hot Docs 2024 wraps, Rogers Audience Award for best Canadian doc goes to ‘Yintah’". Screen Daily, May 5, 2024.