Carole Pope, Judas Priest, and Oscar Bait: Hot Docs Festival Unveils Eclectic 33rd Edition

By Liz Braun

Here’s filmmaker Michelle Mama summing up why Hot Docs is her favourite film festival of them all: “All killer, no filler.”

Mama spoke at a press conference Tuesday (March 24) announcing the 33rd annual Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, which returns to Toronto April 23 to May 3.

Her film AntiDiva: The Carole Pope Confessions is the highly anticipated opening night movie at the festival; it spotlights Rough Trade rock goddess Carole Pope.

A scene from AntiDiva

For 2026, North America’s leading documentary festival has announced a pared-down but stellar lineup of 115 documentaries — 80 features and 35 shorts — from 51 countries. There are 52 world and international premieres; 30 Canadian films will screen as official selections.

For this edition, films were chosen from more than 2,800 submissions from around the world.

The popular Special Presentations Program, which features the heavy hitter films/future Oscar nominees of the doc world, will have multiple world premieres. These include director Dori Berinstein’s biopic, Kenny Loggins: Conviction of the Heart.

Also premiering: Mark Myers’ The Tower That Built a City, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the CN Tower, skyline-defining symbol of Toronto; Shalini Kantayya’s Love Apptually, in which a journalist fascinated by Tinder investigates dating app algorithms; Tommy Avallone’s Myspace, which looks at the pioneering social networking platform; and director Raha Shirazi’s A War on Women, covering 40 years of resistance by Iranian women against the Islamic Republic.

Other highlights in the Special Presentations program include TCB – The Toni Cade Bambara School of Organizing, directed by Louis Massiah and Monica Henriquez, about visionary Black feminist writer, filmmaker and activist Toni Cade Bambara.

As well, there is The Ballad of Judas Priest from directors Sam Dunn (Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story) and Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine, concerning 50 years of heavy metal madness; Biljana Tutorov and Petar Glomazić’s To Hold A Mountain (winner of the Sundance World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Documentary) in which a mother and daughter try to save their Montenegro ancestral home from becoming a NATO military training facility.

Then there’s American Doctor, from Poh Si Teng, featuring three American doctors — Palestinian, Jewish and Zoroastrian— who risk everything to save lives in Gaza; Maya Annik Bedward’s Black Zombie, a film about the origins of the living dead; Tony Jones’ Sentient, which concerns animal testing and features primate scientist turned animal rights activist Dr. Lisa Jones-Engel.

There is also When a Witness Recants, the newest film from director Dawn Porter, whose Luther: Never Too Much, was the opening night Hot Docs film in 2024. When A Witness Recants features author/activist Ta-Nehisi Coates and her investigation into the murder of a Baltimore student — and a failed justice system.

The Big Ideas series will once again present insightful conversations with notable guests, including Love Apptually director Shalini Kantayya, Myspace director Tommy Avallone, A War on Women director Raha Shirazi, and Steal This Story, Please! director Tia Lessin in conversation with the film’s subject, fearless journalist Amy Goodman.

The Canadian Spectrum Competition is a competitive program that showcases important new work by Canadian directors.

These include the world premieres of director Sébastien Trahan’s Code of Misconduct, about the trial of five Canadian professional hockey players charged with sexual assault and Ree Wright and Meaghan Wright’s The Last Days of April, the courageous journey of a determined disabled advocate living with chronic pain.

There is also director Rico King’s Nekai Walks, in which Nekai Foster defies all the odds and learns to walk again after being shot walking home in Toronto’s Jane and Finch neighbourhood. And Banchi Hanuse’s Ceremony, a film that explores a buried history of Indigenous erasure and the quiet revolution of a Nation that refuses to disappear. Ceremony just won Audience Award at SXSW.

This year, the International Spectrum Competition boasts seven world premieres and the World Showcase has three, including Simon Ennis and Brad Abrahams’s Gimme Truth, an investigation into conspiracy culture.

New for 2026, the Digital Witnesses program focuses on films about tech and surveillance. Highlights include Ghost in the Machine by director Valerie Veatch, a look at who builds AI, who benefits from it and who pays for it, and Virtual Girlfriends from Barbora Chalupová, in which three women who work as sexual-content creators on OnlyFans reveal the dynamics of digital intimacy.

A scene from This Above All: The Theatrical Life of Antoni Cimolino.

The Artscapes program features creative minds, artistic pursuits and inventive filmmaking, and includes the world premiere of This Above All: The Theatrical Life of Antoni Cimolino from Barry Avrich, a film about the longest serving Artistic Director of the iconic Stratford Festival as he prepares for his final season after 40 years with the theatrical repertory company.

As of March 24, Festival ticket package holders can use their ticket packages, and Hot Docs Members can purchase single tickets. Starting Tuesday, March 31, single tickets will be available to the public.

Visit the Hot Docs website for all program info and ticketing.