The 2026 Hot Docs announced the winning documentaries, with Nekai Walks directed by Rico King, taking the Hot Docs Rogers Audience Award for Best Canadian Documentary.
The film, which also won the Schools Student Choice Award, profiles Nekai Foster, who at 16 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.
The Audience Award went to American Doctor, directed by Poh Si Teng, and the top short film, winning the Audience Award for Short Documentary, was Sanyi the Rooster directed by Lotte Salomons.
The Best Canadian Feature Documentary went to Saigon Story: Two Shootings in the Forest Kingdom, directed by Kim Nguyen. 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 the blurred legacy of wartime memory.
House of Hope, directed by Marjolein Busstra, was awarded the prize for Hot Docs Best International Feature Documentary. 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.
Hot Docs is an Academy Awards-qualifying festival for feature documentaries. The winner of Hot Docs Best International Feature Documentary, House of Hope, will qualify for consideration in the Best Documentary Feature category of the annual Academy Awards without the standard theatrical run, provided the film complies with Academy rules.
The Best Canadian Short Documentary went to My Body Goes to Work, directed by Fernanda Molina; and Replikka, directed by Piratá Waurá and Heloisa Passos, won Best International Short Documentary
Hot Docs is an Academy Awards qualifying festival for short documentaries, and, as winners of the 2026 Best International Short Documentary and the Best Canadian Short Documentary, respectively, Replikka and My Body Goes to Work will qualify for consideration in the Documentary Short Subject category of the annual Academy Awards without the standard theatrical run, provided they comply with Academy rules.
Canadian producer Jennifer Holness received the Hot Docs Don Haig Award, given to an outstanding independent Canadian producer with a film in the festival, and the Lindalee Tracey Award, which honours an emerging Canadian filmmaker with a passionate point of view, a strong sense of social justice, and a sense of humour, was presented to Özgün Gündüz.
The Bill Nemtin Award for Best Social Impact Documentary went to directors Chul Young Cho, Shin Wan Kim, Jong Woo Kim, and producers Sona Jo and Shin Wan Kim of The Seoul Guardians. 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.
Sébastien Trahan, the director of Code of Misconduct, received the Earl A. Glick Emerging Canadian Filmmaker Award, and the Emerging International Filmmaker Award, which went to Dawood Hilmandi, director of Paikar.
The DGC Special Jury Prize-Canadian Feature Documentary was presented to Ceremony, directed by Banchi Hanuse, and the Joan VanDuzer Special Jury Prize-International Feature Documentary, in memory of long-time Hot Docs supporter Joan VanDuzer, was given to The 49th Year, directed by Heidrun Holzfeind.
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