Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival returns to Toronto for its 33rd edition from April 23 to May 3, 2026, presenting 115 documentaries from 51 countries.
The 2026 Hot Docs Festival will open with the world premiere of Antidiva: The Carole Pope Confessions, directed by Canadian filmmaker Michelle Mama. The Canadian film spotlights queer rock icon Carole Pope as she reclaims her rightful place in music history and received funding in 2023 from the Hot Docs-Slaight Family Fund to support the project in its development stage.
The Special Presentations program, showcasing high-profile films, includes the world premieres of director Shalini Kantayya’s Love Apptually, about a journalist’s exploration of dating app algorithms; director Dori Berinstein’s Kenny Loggins: Conviction of the Heart, which traces the life and career of the multi-award-winning singer-songwriter who soundtracked some of Hollywood’s most unforgettable movie moments; director Tommy Avallone’s Myspace, a portrait of the pioneering social networking platform; director Mark Myers’s The Tower That Built a City, celebrating the 50th anniversary of Toronto’s skyline-defining CN Tower; and director Raha Shirazi’s A War on Women, which traces 40 years of feminist resistance by Iranian women against the Islamic Republic.
2026 Hot Docs Festival Film Lineup
OPENING NIGHT FILM
ANTIDIVA: THE CAROLE POPE CONFESSIONS
D: Michelle Mama | P: Bill Taylor | Canada | 2025 | 89 min | World Premiere
Singer-songwriter Carole Pope shattered taboos with raw, unapologetic music and defiant sexuality. Antidiva tells the story of a queer rock icon reclaiming her rightful place in music history, with insights from k.d. lang, Peaches, Jann Arden, Rufus Wainwright and Jeanne Beker. Also screening as part of
Special Presentations
CANADIAN SPECTRUM COMPETITION
Sponsored by DGC National and DGC Ontario
A competitive program of compelling Canadian stories and perspectives
CEREMONY
D: Banchi Hanuse | P: Banchi Hanuse | Canada | 2026 | 84 min | Canadian Premiere
At Nuxalk Radio, a ramshackled station on the edge of the world, an inquiry into the vanished ooligan fish uncovers a chilling history rooted in the attempted erasure of the Nuxalk people and their enduring resilience.
CODE OF MISCONDUCT
D: Sébastien Trahan | P: Annie Bourdeau | Canada | 2026 | 88 min | World Premiere
An investigative journalist’s duty to follow the facts leads to the trial of five Canadian professional hockey players charged with sexual assault, unravelling our national pastime and questioning the institutions that hold the sport accountable.
CONCRETE TURNED TO SAND
D: Ryan Ermacora, Jessica Johnson | P: Jessica Johnson, Ryan Ermacora | Canada | 2026 | 73 min |
World Premiere
“To see a World in a Grain of Sand / And a Heaven in a Wild Flower” William Blake’s poetry comes to life in Cortes Island, B.C., as local oyster farmers ply their trade amidst a rapidly changing environment in this spellbinding photo essay.
A FIRE THERE
D: Marlene Edoyan | P: Dominique Dussault | Canada | 2026 | 95 min | North American Premiere
In a remote Georgian village bordering Armenia, three friends struggle with the tension between inherited destiny and the desire to forge one’s own path, torn between obligation and desire, tradition and change, the world they know and the one they dream of.
KINDERGARTEN
D: Jean-François Caissy | P: Jean-François Caissy | Canada | 2025 | 84 min | Ontario Premiere
Enter a world of adorable toddlers, where the wee ones are forming their first social relationships outside their homes, with this charming and honest slice-of-life look at daycare through the eyes of children.
THE LAST DAYS OF APRIL
D: Ree Wright, Meaghan Wright | P: Ree Wright, Meaghan Wright, Melani Wood | Canada | 2026 | 75
min | World Premiere
The courageous journey of a determined disabled advocate living with a tethered spinal cord and chronic pain, while balancing love, legacy and the fight for bodily autonomy as she chooses how she wants to leave the world: on her own terms.
NEKAI WALKS
D: Rico King | P: David Mcilvride | Canada | 2026 | 90 min | World Premiere
At 16, Nekai Foster was shot while walking home in Toronto’s Jane and Finch neighbourhood. His journey of survival and recovery—defying all medical odds as he relearns to walk—exposes how gun violence shapes bodies, families and communities.
SAIGON STORY: TWO SHOOTINGS IN THE FOREST KINGDOM
D: Kim Nguyen | P: Nabil Mehchi, Robert Vroom, Ariel Nasr | Canada | 2026 | 91 min | World Premiere
Oscar-nominated director Kim Nguyen reveals the elusive connection between two families and photojournalist Eddie Adams’s iconic photo, Saigon Execution, confronting family secrets left in the wake of the Vietnam War, exposing the resilience of survivors and blurred legacy of wartime memory.
TƏM KʷAΘ NAN NAMESAKE
D: Evan Adams, Eileen Francis | P: Peg Campbell | Canada | 2026 | 76 min | World Premiere
When the Tla’amin Nation requests a name change for the city of Powell River, B.C.—named for Israel Wood Powell, a key figure in the creation of the Indian residential school system—it ignites a heated debate about whose history is told and respected.
INTERNATIONAL SPECTRUM COMPETITION
Supported by the Donner Canadian Foundation
A curated competition of world and international premieres from around the globe
THE 49TH YEAR
D: Heidrun Holzfeind | P: Heidrun Holzfeind | Austria, Germany, Japan | 2026 | 88 min | World
Premiere
Through thoughtful letters from prison, an anarchist incarcerated since 1980 reflects on his radical past. This meditative portrait pairs humane narration with contemporary Japanese landscapes, exploring the quiet tensions between aging, political militancy and time itself.
BABY JACKFRUIT BABY GUAVA
D: Nhật Quang Nông | P: Trang Đào Thị Minh, Sarah Kang, Heejung Oh | Vietnam, South Korea,
Switzerland | 2026 | 105 min | International Premiere
A queer filmmaker creates an intimate time capsule for his unborn nephew as his sister, who lives with schizophrenia, unexpectedly becomes pregnant. Spanning five years of home archives, the film documents a Vietnamese family’s journey to overcome traditional expectations and heal old wounds.
A DISTANT CALL
D: Andrea Suwito | P: Finbar Somers, Xavier Rocher, Mandy Marahimin | Indonesia, UK, France | 2026
| 99 min | World Premiere
In a remote Indonesian community with ancient traditions, a former spiritual leader faces a difficult choice between their unique gender identity and changing tides in the modern world. This vivid film captures a rare, meditative struggle between local tradition and modern faith.
HOUSE OF HOPE
D: Marjolein Busstra | P: Ruby Deelen, Olivia Sophie van Leeuwen, May Jabareen, Ossama Bawardi |
Netherlands, Palestine | 2025 | 91 min | International Premiere
In the West Bank lies an elementary school organized and run by a couple set on teaching their young Palestinian students non-violent resistance, offering a refuge from the escalating uncertainty that surrounds them.
LANDSTONE
D: Faraz Fadaian | P: Farshad Fadaian, Elaheh Nobakht, Saeed Sheidi Tekmedash | Iran, Switzerland |
2026 | 64 min | World Premiere
In the Iranian desert, an elderly man and his wife face mortality and fading bonds. Seeking solace in a handmade cave, the man struggles to reconnect with his past in this lyrical and visually striking study of a vanishing way of life.
PAIKAR
D: Dawood Hilmandi | P: Frank Hoeve, Katja Draaijer | Netherlands | 2025 | 97 min | International
Premiere
From exile in Amsterdam, filmmaker Dawood Hilmandi reflects on his family nickname, Paikar, the Persian word for warrior. Returning to Iran to reconcile with his authoritarian father, their journey to Afghanistan during a pandemic transforms a lifetime of displacement into a story of survival.
PARASISI
D: Zaïde Bil, Sébastien Segers | P: Sébastien Segers, Zaïde Bil | Belgium | 2025 | 61 min | World
Premiere
Along the Lawa River, Wayana families live with the quiet aftershocks of intrusion. In luminous blackand-white, this lyrical film traces how mining, missionaries and medicine ripple through daily life, revealing colonial histories etched into lands and bodies.
STORIES FOR SANDRO
D: Giacomo Boeri | P: Giacomo Boeri, Domenico Procacci | Italy | 2025 | 81 min | World Premiere
After being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, Sandro begins writing down his memories—incredible tales previously unknown to his family. His son, the filmmaker, delves deeper, bringing to life colourful and carefully crafted episodes filled with irony, drama and comedy.
VANISHING TRACKS
D: Hamed Zolfaghari | P: Hamed Zolfaghari, Valérianne Boué, Verona Meier, Wonil Lee | Iran, France,
Norway, South Korea, Qatar | 2026 | 93 min | World Premiere
In Iran’s remote nomadic landscape, a family navigates their traditional existence in a modern world. When their sheep vanish overnight, tensions rise between the three sons and their parents. Surreal and dreamlike, this richly textured portrait captures a disappearing way of life.
VEGAPOLIS
D: Micha Barban Dangerfield | P: Romain Rampillon, Benjamin Costes | France | 2025 | 71 min | World
Premiere
Laser lights, thumping bass and blades on ice. Inside a Montpellier rink, teens gather each week, forging friendships, dissecting crushes and dreaming. With big life changes on the horizon, this kaleidoscopic coming-of-age portrait captures the joy, intensity and fragile magic of youth.
WORLD SHOWCASE
A popular global selection of the year’s finest docs
32 METERS
D: Morteza Atabaki | P: Morteza Atabaki, Murat Ones | Turkey, Iran, Qatar | 2025 | 83 min | North
American Premiere
Growing up in rural Turkey, Halime is a woman who has always defied tradition. Now, she rallies friends to stage a women’s shooting competition, igniting lively debates and unexpected alliances in this funny and quietly subversive film about claiming space on your own terms.
BETTER GO MAD IN THE WILD
D: Miro Remo | P: Miro Remo, Tomáš Hrubý | Czech Republic, Slovakia | 2025 | 83 min | Canadian
Premiere
A talking cow narrates the lives of twin brothers living alone on a remote Czech farm. Surreal, cinematic and darkly funny, this wildly original film presents a portrait of unconventional familial love inside a world that feels half real, half dream.
BIRDS OF WAR
D: Janay Boulos, Abd Alkader Habak | P: Sonja Henrici, Janay Boulos, Abd Alkader Habak | UK, Syria,
Lebanon | 2026 | 85 min | Canadian Premiere
A love story blossoms between a London-based Lebanese journalist and her on-the-ground contact, a Syrian-based cameraman, through 13 years of war, revolutions and exile. But can two people from such disparate worlds make a life together?
GIMME TRUTH
D: Simon Ennis, Brad Abrahams | P: Aeschylus Poulos, John Galway | Canada | 2026 | 89 min | World
Premiere
Evil aliens. False flags. Fake pandemics. Chemtrails. For a number of truth seekers, the pull of conspiracies has given them purpose and validated their skepticism of the systems that have let them down. But what is the cost when the search for truth becomes your identity?
IN TYEE COUNTRY
D: Jevan Crittenden, Nate Slaco | P: Nate Slaco, Jevan Crittenden | Canada | 2025 | 71 min | World
Premiere
A century-old fishing club on Canada’s west coast faces an existential crisis as salmon populations dwindle and members wrestle with their legacy, realizing that their biggest catches might be a thing of the past.
JARIPEO
D: Efraín Mojica, Rebecca Zweig | P: Sarah Strunin | Mexico, USA, France | 2026 | 71 min | Canadian
Premiere
Against the immersive backdrop of the annual Christmas jaripeo—a Mexican rodeo-style festival—the notion of cowboys and hypermasculinity is put under a lens, revealing intimate memories and desires in a celebration of queer self-expression and belonging.
LES HABITANTS
D: Maureen Fazendeiro | P: Filipa Reis, Valentina Novati | Portugal, France | 2025 | 42 min | Canadian
Premiere
On the outskirts of Paris, a collective of women assists a travelling group of Roma against the wishes of their neighbours. A beautifully contemplative film that considers the day-to-day lives of migrants without a safe place to live.
LET OUR MOUNTAINS LIVE
D: Håvard Bustnes | P: Håvard Bustnes, Johannes Vang | Norway, Finland | 2026 | 100 min | North
American Premiere
Should renewable energy come at the cost of Indigenous rights? In Norway’s mountainous Fosen region, Sámi reindeer herders and youth activists win a Supreme Court victory against a large wind farm but face a bigger battle when economic interests stall political action.
MY BENJAMIN
D: Victoria Clay Mendoza | P: Marion d’Ornano, Victoria Clay Mendoza | Mexico, France | 2025 | 75 min
| International Premiere As a danseur étoile at the Paris Opera Ballet, Benjamin Pech has built his life around dance. But a hip injury and mandatory retirement age of 42 mean coming to terms with the end of an illustrious career.
MY FATHER AND QADDAFI
D: Jihan K | P: Jihan K, Valentina Castellani-Quinn | Libya, USA | 2025 | 88 min | Canadian Premiere
A daughter traces the disappearance of her beloved father—Libyan Foreign Minister and peaceful opposition leader to dictator Muammar Gaddafi—intimately exploring how authoritarian power has reverberated through her family and country amidst a two-decade long search.
ON MY OWN TERMS
D: Tadeusz Chudy | P: Marta Wierzbicka, Dominika Palka | Poland | 2025 | 67 min | International
Premiere
In an orphanage, two half-siblings dream of living on their own after one achieves success as a boxer and the other inherits her own apartment. But the road to adulthood grows thorny as the teenagers quickly learn the price of independence.
PUBLIC ACCESS
D: David Shadrack Smith | P: Anne-Marcelle Ngabirano, Sara Crow | USA | 2025 | 108 min |
International Premiere
The revolutionary rise of a New York City public-access station, featuring provocative shows and early performances from musicians like Debbie Harry and Bob Marley, reveals how boundary-pushing programming reshaped free expression long before the internet.
SCARLET GIRLS
D: Paula Cury | P: Samuel Didonato | Dominican Republic, Germany, Mexico | 2026 | 70 min | Canadian
Premiere
What does it mean to exist as a woman in a country where abortion is illegal without exception? Through intimate narration and evocative cinematography, women across the Dominican Republic reflect on their experiences with forced motherhood and clandestine abortion.
SEARCHING FOR DRUG PEACE
D: Alisher Balfanbayev | P: Max Joelson, Alisher Balfanbayev | Canada | 2026 | 89 min | World
Premiere
Amidst a deadly overdose crisis in Vancouver, a daring activist funds a non-profit drug testing centre by operating the illicit Coca Leaf Café and Medicinal Mushroom Dispensary, risking everything to provide life-saving harm reduction and advocate for drug reform.
THE SEOUL GUARDIANS
D: Chul Young Cho, Shin Wan Kim, Jong Woo Kim | P: Sona Jo, Shin Wan Kim | South Korea | 2026 | 71
min | North American Premiere
When martial law was shockingly declared in 2024, the people of Seoul took to the streets to protect their democracy. Driven by memories of past dictatorships, this urgent reportage-style film captures a night of chaos and powerful, collective citizen resistance.
SILENT FLOOD
D: Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk | P: Karina Kostyna, Eugene Rachkovsky, Tanja Georgieva-Waldhauer |
Ukraine, Germany | 2025 | 90 min | North American Premiere
Along the Dniester River, a pacifist farming community maintains a centuries-old way of life. As the Russian invasion nears, these traditional isolationists must find their own way to support the front, bridging the gap between their peaceful faith and a nation at war.
TRACES
D: Alisa Kovalenko, Marysia Nikitiuk | P: Olha Bregman, Natalia Libet, Violetta Kamińska, Izabela Wójcik,
Dariusz Jabłoński | Ukraine, Poland | 2026 | 82 min | North American Premiere
Activist Iryna Dovhan documents the testimonies of Ukrainian women who survived conflict-related violence following the Russian invasion. By gathering survivors into a “circle of courage,” the film portrays a defiant collective, transforming their shared trauma into a powerful force for truth and justice.
WHAT COMES FROM SITTING IN SILENCE?
D: Sophie Schrago | P: Pauline Tran Van Lieu, Lucie Rego, Heejung Oh, Sarah Kang | France, South Korea
| 2026 | 76 min | Canadian Premiere
From a cramped Mumbai storefront, Khatoon leads Mumbai’s first women-led Islamic court. Amidst heated arguments and raw testimony, these female judges settle cases of domestic conflict, reclaiming religious law from male dominance to offer a new path toward grassroots justice.
WHISPERS IN MAY
D: Dongnan Chen | P: Jia Zhoa, Kay Xu | Hong Kong, Netherlands, Sweden, South Korea | 2026 | 95 min
| Canadian Premiere
In the rural Liangshan Mountains, 14-year-old Qihuo and her friends embark on a road trip to find a skirt for her traditional menarche rite of passage. This poetic film blends documentary and fiction to capture a fleeting, final moment of childhood innocence.
WHO IS STILL ALIVE
D: Nicolas Wadimoff | P: Nadia Turincev | Switzerland, France, Palestine | 2025 | 115 min | Toronto
Premiere
Nine Palestinians revisit the events that forced them to flee Gaza in 2024. With white chalk on a black stage, they map towns, camps and neighbourhoods, while recounting the painful losses of war and powerful memories of their lives before.
MADE IN BRAZIL
Recent documentaries from Brazil
APOLO
D: Tainá Müller, Isis Broken | P: Bianca Villar, Eduardo Capuri, Karen Castanho, Tainá Müller, Henrique
Sauer, Fernando Fraiha, Thiago Mascarenhas | Brazil | 2025 | 77 min | Canadian Premiere
In Brazil, a trans couple go on an emotional pregnancy journey after conceiving naturally. Intimate moments and dreamlike sequences reveal a relationship sustained by tenderness, care and trust, despite institutions around them challenging their right to respectful medical care.
DONA ONETE – THIS TINY PIECE OF MY HEART
D: Mini Kerti | P: Renata Brandão, Luísa Barbosa | Brazil | 2025 | 90 min | International Premiere
Emerging as Brazil’s “Queen of Carimbó” in her seventies, singer and composer Dona Onete brings humour, sensuality and contagious joy to every performance. A colour-filled and spirit-lifting portrait of an artist whose music carries a lifetime of lived culture, inspiring a new generation.
MY FOREIGN LAND
D: Lakapoy Collective, Louise Botkay, João Moreira Salles | P: Maria Carlota Bruno, João Moreira Salles |
Brazil | 2025 | 99 min | Canadian Premiere
In the lead up to Brazil’s pivotal 2022 election, an Indigenous tribal leader runs for office while his activist daughter fights from beyond their rainforest territory. This collaborative, multi-perspective film reveals the hope and heartbreak of a family navigating politics, legacy and the future of their homeland.
SOLAR SHADOW
D: Hugo Haddad, Isadora Canela | P: Victoria Mazzia | Brazil | 2026 | 75 min | World Premiere
How do we read the sky—and who taught us? This beautiful exploration of ancestral Indigenous astronomy in Brazil weaves lectures, conversations and community memory into a poetic meditation on knowledge, loss and the many ways humans understand the cosmos.
PERSISTER
Films about women speaking up and being heard
THE DELIVERY LINE
D: Nance Ackerman | P: Sergeo Kirby, Nance Ackerman | Canada | 2026 | 87 min | World Premiere
In all corners of the world, on the front lines of war, amidst climate catastrophes and on perilous migratory journeys, women are still giving birth. As fearless midwives risk everything to help mothers in dangerous circumstances, the gravity of their extraordinary and lifesaving work comes into sharp focus.
FATNA, A WOMAN NAMED RACHID
D: Hélène Harder | P: Ilham Raouf, Nadège Labé, Delphine Duez, Jean-David Lefebvre, Valentin Leblanc |
Morocco, France, Belgium | 2025 | 93 min | International Premiere
Forcibly disappeared as a student in 1970s Morocco, activist Fatna El Bouih examines her life thus far, the work still left to do and her dream of change.
INDIVISUM: LEGACIES ADRIFT
D: Katia Café-Fébrissy | P: Katia Café-Fébrissy | Canada | 2026 | 75 min | World Premiere
In a brave effort to reconnect with her family, a Canadian filmmaker returns to her ancestral home of Guadeloupe to discover families torn apart over land inheritance—a relic of French colonial legacy that continues to fracture Guadeloupean families today.
THE SECRET READING CLUB OF KABUL
D: Shakiba Adil, Elina Hirvonen | P: Pauliina Piipponen, Johanna Raita | Finland, Norway | 2026 | 90 min
| North American Premiere
When the Taliban bars girls from secondary school, a group of friends form a secret book club. Inspired by the story of Anne Frank, they film their hidden lives, tracing a path of resistance that leads from Kabul to exile in Tehran and Germany.
TRUCK MAMA
D: Zippy Nyaruri | P: Zippy Nyaruri, Portia Cele, | Kenya, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Netherlands | 2025
| 85 min | North American Premiere
Wildly charismatic and determined to seize her own economic independence, Kenyan truck driver Eva drives long-haul routes across East Africa—even through pregnancy and early single motherhood. This moving road story follows a life lived between border crossings and phone calls home, mile after mile.
WHERE THE WAVES TOOK HER
D: Jana Stallein | P: Charlotte Peters, Levin Hübner | Germany | 2025 | 83 min | International Premiere
Interspersed with recollections of multiple migrant women, this chronicle of a humanitarian crisis is told through the journey of a remarkable German midwife, who joins a rescue ship to provide care to women and children fleeing to Europe across the Mediterranean.
THE WOMAN WHO POKED THE LEOPARD
D: Patience Nitumwesiga | P: Rosie Motene, Patience Nitumwesiga, Phil Wilmot, Natalia Imaz, Menzi
Mhlongo | Uganda, South Africa, Germany, USA | 2025 | 108 min | North American Premiere
Outspoken and unapologetic, Ugandan dissident Stella Nyanzi confronts authority using insults, nudity and fearless protest. Beyond her activism, this intimate portrait explores the emotional toll of resistance, revealing a complex woman negotiating public struggles alongside the expectations of family life.
DIGITAL WITNESSES
How our relationships with and through tech are defining our lives.
WHILEBLACK
D: Sidney Fussell, Jennifer Holness | P: Ann Shin, Mariam Bastani, Sidney Fussell | USA, Canada | 2026
| 80 min | Canadian Premiere
How are acts of witnessing transformed in the digital age when memory, justice and spectacle collide? Centred on Darnella Frazier, who filmed George Floyd’s murder, and many others, this urgent examination exposes the cost of going viral while Black.
GHOST IN THE MACHINE
D: Valerie Veatch | P: Valerie Veatch | USA | 2025 | 110 min | International Premiere
This is not a film about machines. It is a film about power. An interrogation of who builds AI, who benefits from it and who bears the cost of a technology that continues to surround us, shaping the way we see the world.
REPLICA
D: Chouwa Liang | P: Andy Huang, Christilla Huillard-Kann | Australia, France | 2026 | 92 min | North
American Premiere
Love in the modern world can be tricky. For three Chinese women, AI companions bring the comfort and love they need, but are these artificial relationships preventing them from connecting in the real world?
THE SANDBOX
D: Kenya-Jade Pinto | P: Shasha Nakhai, Kenya-Jade Pinto | Canada | 2026 | 90 min | North American
Premiere
A rare and cinematic investigation into the global black box of migration surveillance, control and the caretakers fighting to keep these worlds in check.
VIRTUAL GIRLFRIENDS
D: Barbora Chalupová | P: Pavla Klimešová, Monika Lošťáková, Tonislav Hristov | Czech Republic,
Bulgaria, Slovakia | 2025 | 90 min | International Premiere
As three women navigate careers as sexual-content creators on OnlyFans, they reveal the tantalizing, transactional and ultimately fragile dynamics of digital intimacy. Raw and unflinching, this fly-on-thewall film investigates self-worth, validation and the human cost of the gig economy.
ARTSCAPES
Supported by the Kololian Family
Art on film, featuring creative minds, artistic pursuits and inventive filmmaking
AANIKOOBIJIGAN [ANCESTOR/GREAT-GRANDPARENT/GREAT-GRANDCHILD]
D: Adam Khalil, Zachary Khalil | P: Steve Holmgren, Grace Remington, Jacque Clark | USA, Denmark |
2026 | 81 min | Ontario Premiere
Ancestors trapped in museum archives demand a reckoning, and it’s time we listen. Guided by defiant Indigenous voices—past, present and future—and shaped with a bold artistic vision, this urgent film confronts entrenched practices and calls for the rightful return of Indigenous human remains to their community.
BARBARA FOREVER
D: Brydie O’Connor | P: Elijah Stevens, Brydie O’Connor, Claire Edelman | USA | 2026 | 102 min |
Canadian Premiere
With unprecedented access to pioneering feminist experimental filmmaker Barbara Hammer and her extraordinary archive, this powerfully crafted portrait lets Hammer claim authorship of her own legacy, honouring and celebrating her as a trailblazer who transformed lesbian cinema.
ELEPHANTS & SQUIRRELS
D: Gregor Brändli | P: Frank Matter | Switzerland | 2025 | 114 min | Ontario Premiere
When Sri Lankan artist Deneth Piumakshi Veda Arachchige discovers her ancestors’ stolen remains tucked away in Swiss museum cabinets, she investigates the dark legacy of colonial explorers. With the aid of Indigenous leaders, she demands the return of these sacred artifacts, challenging the ethics of modern collections.
GEALTRA
D: Brendan Canty | P: Maire Dineen | Ireland | 2025 | 70 min | International Premiere
The Kabin Studio on the north side of Cork gives teenagers the mic and the confidence to use it. Writing and performing infectious Irish-language rap, they grow from shy beginners into viral sensations—their lyrics pulsing with pride, heritage and the joy of being heard.
HEX
D: Maja Holand | P: Mari Nilsen Neira | Norway | 2026 | 93 min | North American Premiere
In the heart of Norway’s black metal music scene, a new force emerges. Three young women enter a pact to start screaming, devoting their entire lives to awakening the world, each other and themselves as witches.
MAINTENANCE ARTIST
D: Toby Perl Freilich | P: Toby Perl Freilich, Judith Mizrachy | USA | 2025 | 95 min | Canadian Premiere
Meet Mierle Laderman Ukeles—an artist whose name should be better known. Her groundbreaking performance art and manifesto on maintenance art led her to become NYC’s Department of Sanitation’s first artist-in-residence. Through exclusive access and rare archival materials, celebrate her radical artistic vision that brings attention to the invisible.
THIS ABOVE ALL: THE THEATRICAL LIFE OF ANTONI CIMOLINO
D: Barry Avrich | P: Mark Selby, Barry Avrich | Canada | 2026 | 78 min | World Premiere
As his final season approaches, the longest serving Artistic Director of the iconic Stratford Festival, Antoni Cimolino, prepares for his exit while reflecting on the 40 years he’s devoted to the theatrical repertory company.
BIG IDEAS
Hear from notable subjects and experts on the issues featured in thought-provoking documentaries
LOVE APPTUALLY
D: Shalini Kantayya | P: Elizabeth Woodward | USA, Australia | 2026 | 81 min | World Premiere
Tired of swiping without results? Follow one journalist’s quest to unpack the dating app algorithms shaping modern romance as she reveals how, in an already lonely world, technology, bias and profit are increasingly influencing who we meet and why. Also screening as part of Digital Witnesses
MYSPACE
D: Tommy Avallone | P: Van Toffler, Trent Johnson | USA | 2025 | 96 min | World Premiere
What is the legacy of Myspace? Pulling at the heartstrings of millennials and curious newcomers alike, this nostalgic portrait traces how this pioneering social networking platform shaped the digital world we now inhabit, from online fame to social media overload. Also screening as part of Special Presentations
STEAL THIS STORY, PLEASE!
D: Carl Deal, Tia Lessin | P: Carl Deal, Tia Lessin, Karen Ranucci, Diana Cohn, Caren Spruch | USA | 2026
| 102 min | Canadian Premiere
Fiercely independent journalist Amy Goodman has spent three decades holding the powerful to account, reporting from conflict zones and the Democracy Now! newsroom as an essential voice highlighting global issues and pursuing truth in an era of “alternative” facts. Also screening as part of Special Presentations
A WAR ON WOMEN
D: Raha Shirazi | P: Marco Serrecchia, Marica Stocchi, Beatrice Bordone Bulgari, Gianluca Curti, Daniele
Occhipinti, Luca Bradamante | Italy | 2026 | 102 min | North American Premiere
Long before the world chanted “Woman, Life, Freedom,” Iranian women have been rising up. Intimate interviews and archival footage trace 40 years of feminist resistance against the Islamic Republic, culminating in a revolution led by the very women the regime tried to silence. Also screening as part of Special Presentations
SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS
Award-winning films, celebrated filmmakers, high-profile subjects and special screenings
AMERICAN DOCTOR
D: Poh Si Teng | P: Poh Si Teng, Kirstine Barfod, Reem Haddad | USA, Palestine, Denmark, Malaysia,
Qatar | 2026 | 93 min | Canadian Premiere
Three American physicians—Palestinian, Jewish and Zoroastrian—risk everything to save lives in besieged Gaza and expose political truths while navigating a collapsing medical infrastructure and global indifference.
THE BALLAD OF JUDAS PRIEST
D: Tom Morello, Sam Dunn | P: Sam Dunn, Scot McFadyen | USA | 2026 | 98 min | Canadian Premiere
From working-class origins in Birmingham to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, the genre-defining heavy metal band’s five-decade journey is chronicled through exclusive interviews with Judas Priest, previously unpublished personal archives and appearances by Ozzy Osbourne, Jack Black, Metallica and more.
BLACK ZOMBIE
D: Maya Annik Bedward | P: Maya Annik Bedward, Kate Fraser, Hannah Donegan | Canada | 2026 | 90
min | Canadian Premiere
From colonial Haiti’s haunted cane fields to the flickering screens of Hollywood horror, the living dead’s buried origins are unearthed and reclaimed as a symbol of survival and spiritual resistance.
A FOX UNDER A PINK MOON
D: Mehrdad Oskouei, Soraya Akhalaghi | P: Mehrdad Oskouei | Iran, Denmark, France | 2026 | 77 min |
Canadian Premiere
Filmed entirely on her phone over five years, 16-year-old Soraya documents her harrowing attempts to flee Iran for Austria. Through surreal animations and sculptures, the young Afghan artist transforms her experiences of domestic violence and displacement into a powerful, self-narrated testament to survival.
IT’S DOROTHY!
D: Jeffrey McHale | P: Ariana Garfinkel, Zel McCarthy, Suzanne Zionts | USA | 2025 | 97 min | Canadian
Premiere
Dorothy’s journey to Oz continues to inspire audiences united by their search for belonging. This vibrant, imaginative portrait celebrates her cultural legacy and the diverse communities who claim her as their own, reminding us that no matter how hard things get, we must never stop looking over the rainbow.
KENNY LOGGINS: CONVICTION OF THE HEART
D: Dori Berinstein | P: Dori Berinstein | USA | 2025 | 96 min | World Premiere
Everybody cut footloose! From chart-topping anthems to movie soundtracks, multi-award-winning singer songwriter Kenny Loggins reflects on a career that defined a generation, tracing his life on and off stage across decades of reinvention.
THE OLDEST PERSON IN THE WORLD
D: Sam Green | P: Alison Byrne Fields, Josh Penn | USA | 2026 | 87 min | Canadian Premiere
For over a decade, filmmaker Sam Green has chronicled the ever-changing Guinness World Record holder of “Oldest Person in the World.” Weaving together his personal experiences of fatherhood, ageing and loss, Green offers a poignant meditation on family, mortality and the meaning of life.
SENTIENT
D: Tony Jones | P: Ivan O’Mahoney | Australia | 2026 | 105 min | Canadian Premiere
This investigative look at the highly controversial practice of animal testing—centred on the story of primate scientist turned animal rights activist Dr. Lisa Jones-Engel—questions if the harm to animals and the human scientists who care for them is justified by the pursuit of scientific advancement.
TCB – THE TONI CADE BAMBARA SCHOOL OF ORGANIZING
D: Louis Massiah, Monica Henriquez | P: Louis Massiah | USA, UK, Canada, France, Senegal | 2025 | 105
min | International Premiere
This dynamic portrait of Toni Cade Bambara, the visionary Black feminist writer, filmmaker and activist, celebrates her life with power and urgency. Through rare archives and intimate reflections from those she inspired, we learn lessons in agency, community resilience and the transformative impact of cultural organizing.
TIME AND WATER
D: Sara Dosa | P: Shane Boris, Elijah Stevens, Jameka Autry, Sara Dosa | USA, Iceland | 2026 | 90 min
| Canadian Premiere
Following the loss of his beloved grandparents and facing the death of his country’s glaciers, renowned Icelandic writer Andri Snær Magnason constructs a cinematic time capsule in this beautifully crafted meditation on family, memory and epochal change from Academy Award nominee Sara Dosa (Fire of Love).
TO HOLD A MOUNTAIN
D: Biljana Tutorov, Petar Glomazić | P: Biljana Tutorov, Petar Glomazić, Quentin Laurent, Rok Biček |
Serbia, France, Slovenia, Montenegro, Croatia | 2026 | 105 min | Canadian Premiere
In the quiet mountain lands of Montenegro, a mother and daughter strive to protect their ancestral home from the threat of becoming a NATO military training facility, awakening memories of the violence that shattered their family.
THE TOWER THAT BUILT A CITY
D: Mark Myers | P: Mark Myers, Luke Myers | Canada | 2026 | 92 min | World Premiere
Toronto’s skyline-defining CN Tower launched a five-decade transformation of the Big Smoke into the 6ix. Celebrate its 50th anniversary as it continues to symbolize a city that’s become a world-class cultural force in sports, music and global identity.
WHEN A WITNESS RECANTS
D: Dawn Porter | P: Dawn Porter, Jennifer Oko, Miriam Weintraub | 2026 | USA | 117 min | Canadian
Premiere
Author, journalist and activist Ta-Nehisi Coates investigates the case of a young student who was murdered in Baltimore, uncovering layers of false accusations, wrongful convictions and how the justice system can fail those caught in the crossfire.
SHORT FILMS
0004NGEL
D: Eli Jean Tahchi | P: Vincent Champagne, Simon Bertrand, Yannick Chapdelaine | Canada | 2025 | 12 min | Ontario Premiere
4937 KILOWATTS A YEAR
D: Ellie Delvaux, Madeleine Faburel-Dumail | P: Manon Ledune | Belgium, Morocco | 2025 | 23 min | World Premiere
AEROBIC CORRIDOR
D: Jennifer Law-Smith | P: Mick Robertson, Evan Dubinsky | Canada | 2025 | 20 min | World Premiere
AIMÉE & SAMIR
D: Catherine van Campen | P: Floor Krooi, Elbe Stevens | Netherlands | 2025 | 30 min | World Premiere
ANOTHER DAY SHALL COME
D: Aida Kaadan | P: Carol Mezher | Palestine, Qatar, Lebanon, France | 2026 | 20 min | World Premiere
AT THE STAGE WHEN
D: Hao Zhou | P: Hao Zhou, Tyler Hill | USA, China | 2026 | 16 min | International Premiere
BAEA
D: Terra Long | P: Mike Paterson, Heidi Fleisher | USA | 2025 | 18 min | Canadian Premiere
THE BAKER’S HOTLINE
D: Emily Schuman, David Schuman | P: Emily Schuman | USA | 2025 | 13 min | Canadian Premiere
THE BIRDS ARE SILENT
D: Leo Dzhyshyashvili | P: Luisa Nöllke | Germany, Ukraine | 2025 | 8 min | North American Premiere
THE CONTINUOUS MACHINE
D: Ruben Gagliardini | P: Mattia Fiumani | Italy | 2025 | 20 min | International Premiere
CONSTANT BATTLES
D: Mackenzie Stannard | P: Sina Nazarian, Mackenzie Stannard, Sepideh Yadegar, Sepehr Samimi | Canada | 2025 | 38 min | World Premiere
ELEPHANT FAMILIES
D: Elena Escalante | P: Elena Escalante, Maurice Banerjee Palmer, Emiliana Ammirata | UK, Spain | 2025 | 15 min | North American Premiere
FLETCHER STREET
D: Jannat Gargi, David Darg | P: Jannat Gargi | USA | 2025 | 35 min | World Premiere
THE GLACIER WEDDING
D: Amin Muhammad, Thomas Sawano | P: Thomas Sawano, Amin Muhammad, Thomas Sawano | USA | 2025 | 26 min | World Premiere
I SEE MYSELF IN YOU
D: Amreen Kullar | P: | Canada | 2025 | 9 min | Toronto Premiere
IN THE MORNING SUN
D: Serville Poblete | P: Nicole Dane, Serville Poblete | Canada | 2025 | 21 min | Canadian Premiere
L’MINA
D: Randa Maroufi | P: Randa Maroufi, Oumayma Zekri Ajarrai | Morocco, France, Italy, Qatar | 2025 | 26 min | Ontario Premiere
MANDZARSOA
D: Germain Le Carpentier | P: Murielle Thierrin, Orana Larthomas | France, Mayotte | 2025 | 15 min | North American Premiere
MY BODY GOES TO WORK
D: Fernanda Molina | P: Daria Lavrova, Fernanda Molina | Canada | 2025 | 12 min | World Premiere
MÚSICAS
D: Lila Áviles | P: Nicolas Celis | Mexico | 2025 | 33 min | Canadian Premiere
OH WHALE
D: Winslow Crane-Murdoch | P: Luke Terrell, Cecilia Brown, Rachel Gardell | USA | 2025 | 26 min | International Premiere
PAPER HOUSES AND HORSES
D: An Chu | P: An Chu, Tzu-Yuan Wang | Taiwan | 2025 | 19 min | North American Premiere
THE PARK (DANCING ON THE RUBBLE OF EMPIRE)
D: Arwa Aburawa, Turab Shah | P: Turab Shah, Arwa Aburawa | UK | 2025 | 34 min | International Premiere
A QUIET STORM
D: Benjamin Nicolas | P: Benjamin Nicolas, Janie Chartier, Xavier Terra | Japan, Canada | 2025 | 29 min | Ontario Premiere
REPLIKKA
D: Piratá Waurá, Heloisa Passos | P: Mark Slagle, Heloisa Passos, Yula Rocha | Brazil, USA, UK | 2025 | 16 min | North American Premiere
SANYI THE ROOSTER
D: Lotte Salomons | P: Kes Raven, Raphael Hogers, Nova Nagel | Netherlands | 2025 | 20 min | North American Premiere
SCENES FROM THE DIVIDE
D: Alison Klayman | P: Courtney Powell, Alison Klayman, Courtney Powell | USA | 2026 | 32 min | International Premiere
SOME KIND OF REFUGE
D: Alexandra Kern | P: Colin Cadarette | USA | 2026 | 16 min | International Premiere
STILL PLAYING
D: Mohamed Mesbah | P: Yannick Beauquis, Quentin Brayer | France | 2025 | 37 min | Canadian Premiere
THAT NIGHT
D: Hoda Sobhani | P: Elle Toussi, Hoda Sobhani | USA | 2025 | 11 min | Canadian Premiere
THE THIRD CHILD
D: Serna Amini | P: Serna Amini | Iran | 2025 | 25 min | Canadian Premiere
THIS IS YOUR CAPTAIN SPEAKING
D: Nienke Deutz, Digna Van der Put | P: Brecht van Elslande, Koert Davidse, Marc Thelosen | Netherlands, Belgium | 2026 | 15 min | Canadian Premiere
TIME OF PLENTY
D: Robin Jensen | P: Lise Fearnley, Tonje Skar Reiersen | Norway | 2026 | 19 min | World Premiere
TUKTUIT : CARIBOU
D: Lindsay McIntyre | P: Lindsay McIntyre | Canada | 2025 | 15 min | Toronto Premiere
A WOLF IN THE SUBURBS
D: Amélie Hardy | P: Rosalie Chicoine Perreault | Canada | 2026 | 18 min | Ontario Premiere
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