Festival coverage sponsored by IndiePix.
Geoffrey Smith's THE ENGLISH SURGEON, which debuted last year at the Sheffield DocFest, took the top international prize at Hot Docs in Toronto on Friday night, winning the award for Best International Feature. Tamar Yarom's TO SEE IF I'M SMILING, which previously has received awards at IDFA and Sarasota, received the Special Jury Prize. Smith's film has been the talk of Hot Docs this year and its win Friday was enthusiastically received by the packed audience at the Isabel Bader Theatre.
In the Canadian Spectrum, the top prize went to Isabelle Lavigne and Stephane Thibault's JUNIOR, a look at a struggling hockey team in small town Quebec. In accepting their award, Lavigne and Thibault brought down the house with their description of the filmmaking process in their remote location.
"It was so hard," said Thibault. "It was like THE SHINING but I never found the axe to kill Isabelle."
A lengthy standing ovation greeted Hot Docs Achievement Award winner Richard Leacock, who told the audience that new filmmaking technologies - smaller video cameras and home editing systems - are the realization of a lifelong desire. "Everything I dreamt of has come true," he said.
Here's a list of the winners at the 15th edition of Hot Docs:
Best International Feature
THE ENGLISH SURGEON
Directed by Geoffrey Smith
International Special Jury Prize
TO SEE IF I'M SMILING
Directed by Tamar Yarom
International Runners-Up
VICTOIRE TERMINUS
Directed by Renaud Barret and Florent de la Tullaye
and
VIRTUAL JFK: VIETNAM IF KENNEDY HAVE LIVED
Directed by Koji Masutani
Best Canadian Feature
JUNIOR
Directed by Isabelle Lavigne and Stephane Thibault
Canadian Special Jury Prize
FLICKER
Directed by Nik Sheehan
Candian Runners-Up
AS SLOW AS POSSIBLE
Directed by Scott Smith
and
CUBAN SONG
Directed by Fernand Belanger, Louise Degal and Yves Angrignon
Emerging Artist Award
CORRIDOR #8
Directed by Boris Despodov
Best Mid-Length Documentary
IT'S ALWAYS LATE FOR FREEDOM
Directed by Mehrdad Oskouei
Mid-Length Documentary Runners-Up
PARADISE
Directed by Jerzy Sladowski
SEARCHING 4 SANDEEP
Directed by Poppy Stockwell
and
SUMMERCHILD
Directed by Iris Olsson
Best Short Documentary
THE APOLOGY LINE
Directed by James Lees
Short Documentary Runners-Up
52 PERCENT
Directed by Rafal Skalski
and
MURPHY'S LAW
Directed by Chris Murphy
Much more from Hot Docs, including photos from Friday's awards ceremony in the coming days.
Comments