Death In Gaza, the documentary about life in Palestine whose director, James Miller,was killed during its making, won the 2004 Audience Award at the 11thHot Docs Canadian Documentary Film Festival in Toronto. Miller was in Gaza inMay 2003 documenting the lives of Palestinian children when he shot and killedby the Israeli army.

Second among the audience favourites was Ali Kazimi's Continuous Journey, which also won aSpecial Jury Prize in the Best Direction in the Canadian Spectrum Programme(feature length) category. Third was Arna'sChildren by the Netherland's Juliano Mer Khamis and Danniel Danniel, whichalso won the FIPRESCI Jury Prize for Best First Documentary Feature.

Sarah Goodman's Army Of Onenetted the Best Canadian Feature Documentary prize for while The Origins Of AIDS by filmmakers PeterChappell and Catherine Peix won prize for Best Direction in the CanadianSpectrum Programme (Feature Length).

Israeli filmmaker YoavShamir won the Best International Documentary (Feature) prize for his film Checkpointwhile Special Jury Prizes were presented to Tintin And I by Denmark'sAnders Hogsbro Ostergaard and No. 17 by Israel's David Ofek and RonRotem.

Canadian filmmaker Nettie Wild,whose work was the subject of a retrospective at the festival, won the GenieAward for Best Documentary on Saturday for her film Fix: Story Of An Addicted City

After a troubled outing last year when the SARS threat kept manyattendees away from the city, Hot Docs 2004 enjoyed a 300% increase in advanceticket sales and boasted an audience in excess of 40,000, solidifying its claimof being North America's largest documentary festival.

Hot Docs Canadian Documentary Film Festival prize-winners:

Best Canadian Documentary (Feature Length)
Army of One DirSarah Goodman

Best Direction in the Canadian Spectrum Programme (Feature Length)
The Origins Of AIDS Dir. Peter Chappell, Catherine Peix

Special Jury Prize
Continuous Journey Dir. Ali Kazimi

Best Canadian Documentary (Short to Mid-Length)
La Cueca Sola Dir. Marilu Mallet

Best International Documentary (Feature)
Checkpoint Dir. Yoav Shamir

Special Jury Prizes
Tintin and I Dir. Anders Hogsbro Ostergaard
AND
No. 17 Dirs. David Ofek, Ron Rotem

Best International Documentary (Short to Mid-Length)
Wellspring Dir. Sha Qing

HonourableMention:
War Feels Like War Dir. Esteban Uyarra

FIPRESCI Best First Documentary (Feature)
Arna's Children Dirs. Juliano Mer Khamis, Danniel Danniel

Best Direction in the Canadian Spectrum Programme (Short to Mid-Length)
La Cueca Sola Dir. Marilu Mallet

HonourableMention:
Short Infinity Dir. KunChang

Best Documentary in the National Spotlight on the Netherlands
Putin's Mama Dir. Ineke Smits

The OMNI BEST THIRD LANGUAGE OR ETHNO-CULTURAL PITCH AT RENDEZVOUS
One Of The Last - Pitcher: EdKucerak

The KODAK AWARD FOR BEST PITCH AT RENDEZVOUS
Pitcher: Corrine VanEgeraat

Outstanding Achievement Award and Retrospective
Michael Maclear