Toronto's Hot Docs Film Festival Celebrates 30th Anniversary with 2023 Lineup

214 films from 72 countries screen in Toronto this spring

BY Exclaim! StaffPublished Mar 29, 2023

Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival — North America's largest documentary festival, conference and market — is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, and organizers have detailed the 2023 festival program with which they'll mark the milestone.

Running from April 27 to May 7 in Toronto, this year's Hot Docs delivers a slate of 214 films from 72 countries in 13 programs (with 70 world and 33 international premieres), curated from 2848 film submissions.

Opening the massive slate of programming for 2023 is Twice Colonized from Danish director Lin Alluna, which captures Greenlandic Inuit lawyer and activist Aaju Peter, as she fights for the human rights of Indigenous people of the Arctic by working to bring Danish and Canadian colonizers of her ancestral lands to justice.

The festival's Big Ideas Series, returning for its 10th year of sparking engaging conversations, has lined up notable guests, including director and film subject Ella Glendining (Is There Anybody Out There?), Indigo Girls musician Emily Saliers and director Alexandria Bombach (It's Only Life After All), Canada's first female Jewish Supreme Court judge Rosalie Abella with director Barry Avrich and more.

The Special Presentations program, meanwhile, packs in high-profile films, festival circuit heavy hitters, and renowned subjects. These include world premieres of celebrated Canadian journalist Michelle Shephard's The Man Who Stole Einstein's Brain; We Are Guardians, the story of the Indigenous guardians of the Brazilian Amazon, struggling to protect their territories from the ravages of extractive industries, deforestation, corrupt politicians and profit-hungry global corporations; and Who's Afraid of Nathan Law?, a chronicle of dissident Hong Kong politician and activist Nathan Law's fight for democracy.

Hot Docs' Canadian Spectrum program showcases bold new works by Canadian directors, while its International Spectrum program will screen stories from around the globe. The Artscapes program showcases creative minds, artistic pursuits and inventive filmmaking, while the popular Nightvision program returns to feature future cult classics.

For the aurally inclined, Hot Docs 2023 will feature a slate of live podcasts as part of the festival's first-ever non-fiction audio-storytelling program, including WNYC Studios' Peabody Award-winning Radiolab, Wondery's hit series Scamfluencers, The Story I Never Thought I Would Tell with a slate of CBC Podcasts hosts, On With Kara Swisher with Lilly Singh and The Happiness Lab.

A second series of Citizen Minutes will see the festival premiere seven original, commissioned short documentaries from Canadian filmmakers, highlighting ordinary citizens doing extraordinary things in their communities. An educational component will see Hot Docs organize community screenings, and develop complementary resources for educators to use the films as teaching tools.

Hot Docs will also take things to the streets with a free outdoor film event from Hamburg-based collective A Wall Is a Screen. Audiences will follow a projection team for literal wall-to-wall viewing of family-friendly programming, beginning at Toronto's historic Ontario Place. All subsequent films and viewing locations are a surprise.

​"2023 marks 30 years of Hot Docs in Toronto, and we couldn't be more excited to celebrate this milestone with our audiences, supporters, and talented filmmakers," festival artistic director Shane Smith shared in a statement. "As Hot Docs has grown and evolved over the last 30 years, so too has the inventiveness, impact and craft of documentary filmmaking. Filmmakers continue to thrill us with unexpected approaches, unforgettable subjects and exceptional storytelling, and their outspoken, outstanding films continue to inspire and inform Hot Docs' passionate audiences. We're truly honoured to present a showcase of the finest documentary films from Canada and over 70 countries around the world at this year's Festival."

Watch a trailer for Hot Docs 2023 below. Complete festival and programming information can be found via the event's official website

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