Hot Docs 2026: Documentary Festival Offers 115 Reasons to Cheer, Pt. 2
By Thom Ernst, Kim Hughes, John Kirk, Chris Knight, Liam Lacey, Bonnie Laufer, and Jim Slotek
In anticipation of the 33rd annual Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, happening in Toronto today (April 23) through May 3, Original-Cin writers have previewed multiple films and created capsule reviews to help moviegoers make informed choices.
With 115 documentaries — 80 features and 35 shorts — from 51 countries on offer, there is a lot to see. For 2026, the festival boasts 52 world and international premieres; 30 Canadian films will screen as official selections chosen from more than 2,800 submissions from around the world.
As always, don’t be afraid to take a chance on something that sounds interesting or weird or cool. And be sure to see our equally expansive roundup from yesterday.
A scene from Better Go Mad in the Wild
Canada, 9 minutes
Sat, Apr. 5, 11:15 am, TIFF Lightbox 4.
The opening shot of Eli Jean Tahchi’s 0004NGEL — Angel sprawled naked on his stomach, caught between sleep and performance — immediately recalls Joe Dallesandro drifting through Paul Morrissey’s Flesh (1968), that same uneasy blend of vulnerability and transaction. But here, the gaze multiplies. Behind Angel is not just the filmmaker’s camera, but a livestream, where mostly male viewers send tokens to coax him further — more skin, more access, more illusion. Top spenders get private shows; everyone else watches from the cheap seats. Screening as part of the Birds of a Feather short film program, the film follows Angel between digital intimacy and live performance — dancing for women at night, sending money home to Mexico by day — his work defined by proximity without contact. And, of course, we’re all serious filmgoers here, far above anything so base as curiosity about the naked body… but yes, there’s a lot of nudity. TE
Czech Republic, Slovakia, 83 minutes
Sat, Apr. 25, 2:30 pm, TIFF Lightbox 3; Sun, Apr. 26, 1 pm, TIFF Lightbox 3.
Every summer Toronto plays host to the Jazz Fest, with a lot of jazz-adjacent offerings. Better Go Mad in the Wild feels similarly doc-adjacent, thanks to director Miro Remo’s addition of narration from a talking cow (don’t get too attached to the cows) and some performative shenanigans from his subjects, two sixty-something twin brothers living a hermitic life together in southern Czechia. They sing, nap together, have hay fights, recite poetry, and argue vociferously about tolerance. One has dreams of flying akin to those old film reels of failed aeroplanes. Is it a doc? I’m not certain, but it’s certainly amusing. CK
UK, Syria, Lebanon, 85 minutes
Wed, Apr. 29, 5:30 pm, TIFF Lightbox 1; Thu, Apr. 30, 2:30 pm, TIFF Lightbox 1.
Lebanese-born Janay Boulous first met Syrian activist and cameraman Abd Alkader Habak when he was working as one the anonymous journalist stringers for the BBC covering the Syrian war. The film they created together covers 13 years of their correspondence, including devastating on-the-ground footage from Syria and Boulous’ television broadcasts, but also their personal exchanges, which developed into friendship and, remotely, a love affair where they took to calling each other “my bird.” When video of Habak rescuing a child from an attack in 2017 went viral, he became a target of the Syrian government. He was forced to flee to Turkey, where the couple first met in person. Boulous and Habak co-directed the film, emphasizing their ownership of their story. But Birds of War is also a moving take of love, intimacy, and tenderness born in the crucible of war’s horrors. LL
Canada, 90 minutes
Fri, Apr. 24, 9:15 pm Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema; Sat, Apr. 25, 11 am, TIFF Lightbox 1.
For horror fans, a little social awareness to add to your appreciation of the walking dead. Jamaican Canadian director Maya Annik Bedward walks us through the history of Vodou, Haiti’s most famous and misunderstood religion, and the persecution that led to the creation of the zombie myth. She also follows its Hollywood evolution, from Golden Age films like White Zombie that engendered fear of Black people and their power over white women to the fear of hordes of “the other” embodied by the modern-day flesh-eating variety. A nicely done mix of provocative clips and illuminative history. JS
Canada, 84 minutes
Thu, Apr. 30, 5:30 pm, TIFF Lightbox 1; Fri, May 1, 11:30 am TIFF Lightbox 2.
Banchi Hanuse’s documentary about the Indigenous Nuxalk people, based around Bella Coola on the Pacific Northwest coast, begins with a small fish. Ooligan are a particularly oily species of smelt that used to be plentiful in British Columbia’s rivers. The spring ooligan run was a traditional time of community celebration though in the last couple of decades, ooligan populations dropped off dramatically, attributed to habitat damage, ocean changes, and shrimp trawling. This small fish becomes a metaphor for the threatened erasure of Indigenous people and culture, tracing back to settlers’ introduction of smallpox, possibly as a form of biological warfare in the 1860s, on through decades of land appropriation and deforestation. The history is grim but Hanuse’s film is a positive, forward-looking multistrand affair, frequently returning to the home base of a community radio station as a source of cultural information, using animation to tell traditional stories, and touching base with fisheries steward Megan Moody and her brother Jason as they seek to monitor and revive the ooligan run, while other community members rebuild on ancestral village sites and revive the traditional ooligan spring ceremony. LL
Canada, 73 minutes
Tue, Apr. 28, 4:15 pm, TIFF Lightbox 2; Wed, Apr. 29, 1:45 pm, TIFF Lightbox 2.
Not your average environmental film, Jessica Johnson and Ryan Ermacora’s collaboration observes the great oyster “mortality events” on Canada’s west coast over the last decade, centred on oyster farming co-op on Cortez Island, off the British Columbia coast. The film is a collage of shifting perspectives, as labour, image-making, and science in time scales that challenge comprehension. The darkly luminous images range from the abstract night and underwater scenes to the mundane business of oyster farming, hauling chains of the stony-shelled sea creatures into boats. Off-screen narration from nine different subjects ranges from personal anecdotes to a scientist’s discussion of “this perturbation that we’re forcing on to the system.” Refreshingly free of off-screen music, the film is a collage of natural sound and images that convey a sense of beauty and temporality. LL
A scene from The Delivery Line
The Delivery Line: Midwives on the Frontlines
Canada, 87 minutes
Thu, Apr. 30, 5:45 pm, TIFF Lightbox 4; Fri, May 1, 11:45 am, TIFF Lightbox 3.
In even the worst circumstances, wherever you find huge numbers of people finding ways to survive, there will be babies born, and midwives often risking their lives to birth them. Director Nance Ackerman seamlessly jumps from place to place — the North and South borders of Mexico where refugees congregate, Nigeria, Afghanistan, Colombia and even the streets of Toronto where the homeless hit bottom — following five women who often use makeshift methods to bring life into a world surrounded by death. It’s a moving portrait of bravery and determination. JS
USA, 110 minutes
Thu, Apr. 30, 9 pm, Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema; Fri, May 1, 1:30 pm, TIFF Lightbox 1.
AI is evil. Half of humanity will tell you that, while the other half argue it will usher in a new golden age, and a few say both. So perhaps we don’t need a doc that leans so heavily to one side, trotting out a grab-bag of racists, misogynists, eugenicists, phrenologists and Nazis and positing a direct line from them to ChatGPT. Even less necessary is its habit of repeating phrases uttered by these people, slowed down, to sound eviler. I agreed with most of the film’s points and was still frustrated with its style. Those who don’t won’t be swayed. CK
Canada, 75 minutes
Thu, Apr. 30, 4:45 pm, TIFF Lightbox 2; Fri, May 1, 5:30 pm, TIFF Lightbox 2.
Set in Canadian writer-director-cinematographer Katia Café-Fébrissy’s lush ancestral homeland of Guadeloupe — and featuring her as our guide — this impressionistic film explores themes of inheritance, disinheritance, feuds and the lasting impacts of colonialism, with the filmmaker spotlighting myriad abandoned and decaying houses stuck in claims battles while real-life subjects, several disguised, recount tales of “indivision” or conflicts over the disbursement of family assets. Visually lovely and conceptually interesting if a bit slow in pacing. KH
USA, 97 minutes
Sat, Apr. 25, 4:45 pm, TIFF Lightbox 1; Mon, Apr. 27, TIFF Lightbox 1.
The timeless, universal appeal of The Wizard of Oz's Dorothy is the focal point of this moving study. The legacy of Judy Garland's perfect portrayal is the template for other representations. Garland's struggles intertwined her with the character, enhancing her relatability to everyone searching for their own identity: the gay community, African Americans, even kids. Anyone can follow the yellow brick road and find their way home, or some other place of safety. JK
Norway, Finland, 100 minutes
Fri, Apr. 24, 3 pm, TIFF Lightbox 4; Sat, Apr. 25, 8:15 pm TIFF Lightbox 4.
With plenty of personal portraits, Håvard Bustnes documents the years-long fight between the Indigenous Sami people (with a Supreme Court decision in their pocket), a giant windfarm company, and the Norwegian government. At stake: the fate of their livelihood, reindeer herding. And it opens with a bang, a mountain being dynamited to rubble. But on a geopolitical level, it raises a frightening question, relevant to events far closer to us. What happens when a Supreme Court decision is ignored by powerful people because they can? Proof that sophistry thrives in Norwegian as well as English, a rep for the windfarm company insists that if a human rights violation occurred, it wasn’t committed by the innocent windfarm company, but by the State that allowed the windfarm. JS
A scene from Love Apptually
USA, Australia, 81 minutes
Sat, Apr. 25, 6 pm, Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema; Sun, Apr. 26. 10:45 am, Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema.
Anyone questioning the efficacy of dating apps will have all suspicions confirmed in director Shalini Kantayya’s thoroughly engaging and rather damning exploration of the modern romance tool, which creates “the most shallow version of yourself that is just making snap judgments… over and over,” in the words of one pundit. With an estimated 380 million people using dating apps globally, and profits reaching $10 billion in 2025, Match Group — the grandaddy of the realm operating over 35 services, including Tinder, Hinge, Match.com, OkCupid, and Plenty of Fish — has abundant reason to want singletons, gay and straight, to not find their true loves too quickly. But perhaps more intriguing is why so many pay for the privilege of being seduced by algorithms and reduced to judging books by their proverbial covers. KH
USA, 96 minutes
Mon, Apr. 27, 6:30 pm, Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema; Tue, Apr. 28, 9:45 pm, Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema.
MySpace explores the rise, influence, and legacy of one of the earliest and most influential social media platforms in internet history. Directed by Tommy Avallone, the doc looks at how founders Tom Anderson and Chris DeWolfe built MySpace in 2003, creating what became the world’s biggest social network before Facebook took over and its cultural impact in shaping music discovery, online identity, and social media culture. The documentary is a nostalgic, reflective look at how MySpace revolutionized digital connection and shaped the social internet as we know it today. BL
Australia, France, 92 minutes
Fri, May 1, 4:45 pm, TIFF Lightbox 4; Sun, May 3, 2:45 pm, TIFF Lightbox 3.
Director Chouwa Liang expands her earlier short about several women in China who have fallen in love with AI avatars. One is already married. All are lonely and awkward, which is to say human. But can a digital being on your cellphone provide romantic contact? And what if the app malfunctions, crashes, or just shuts down? Things get really weird when we meet a woman who cosplays as one of the avatars, providing a real (though still physically limited) connection. I wasn’t sure whether to be moved or creeped out, but I was never bored by this fascinating story and its shades of a Blade Runner future. CK
This Above All: The Theatrical Life of Antoni Cimolino
Canada, 78 minutes
Mon, Apr. 27, 7:45 pm, TIFF Lightbox 1; Tue, Apr. 28, 11:15 am, TIFF Lightbox 1.
Barry Avrich, one of Canada’s most celebrated documentarians, is back at it. His new film is a gem for anyone who appreciates live theatre, and particularly the world-renowned Stratford Festival. It follows Antoni Cimolino from a budding young actor to his final preparations as artistic director of the Stratford Festival after almost 40 years with the company. So many amazing productions, so many memories. Stratford Festival-goers owe Cimolino a standing ovation. BL
Canada, 98 minutes
Fri, May 1, 8:30 pm, Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema; Sun, May 3, 4 pm, Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema.
I simply cannot believe Toronto’s CN Tower is 50 years old! I remember going there for the first time as a teen and thinking it was the coolest place in the world. The Tower That Built the City celebrates that 50th anniversary. The film explores the construction of the landmark and the specific moment when Toronto established itself as a major player on the world stage. It features a combination of archival footage and new interviews with the tower’s engineers and various Toronto notables to connect the structure to many of the city's defining moments over the past half-century. BL
Czech Republic, 90 minutes
Sat, May 2, 8:30 pm, TIFF Lightbox 1; Sun, May 3, 8:15 pm, TIFF Lightbox 2.
Barbora Chalupová’s Virtual Girlfriends goes well beyond the expected take on exploitation, digging into how these women actually see themselves in a world built on attention, desire, and performance. Following three young women working through OnlyFans, the film touches on the usual pressures — money, exposure, double lives — but keeps pushing into something more personal. It’s not just about the workers, it’s about the clients too, and the strange, fragile idea of love-over-the-ethers. One man, fully invested, plays out a romance that feels real, at least to him. For some, that’s unsettling. For others, maybe it’s just where we’re at now, a concept Spike Jonze played with in Her. Chalupová doesn’t judge. She just watches, letting it unfold, as intimacy drifts further from anything resembling actual human contact. TE