Hot Docs top brass have unveiled the 27 projects that will be presented at this year’s Hot Docs Forum, set to run in Toronto from May 4-5 during the 2011 Hot Docs festival.

This year’s projects were selected from 193 submissions and represent 14 different countries. More than 500 industry professionals are expected to attend the pitching session to international commissioning editors and an observers gallery comprising producers, distributors, sales agents, financiers and other buyers. Participating buyers include TVOntario, BBC, Channel 4, HBO, NHK, eOne and Sundance Channel.

For the third consecutive year the Shaw Media-Hot Docs Forum Pitch Prize (formerly the Canwest-Hot Docs Funds TDF Pitch Prize) will be awarded to the best Canadian pitch at the 2011 event. The winner will receive a $40,000 cash prize to be used towards production and completion on their project.

The Cuban Hat Award will return to the 2011 Hot Docs Forum and the money raised over the two-day event will go to the Observers’ favourite pitch.

The Hot Docs Forum projects are: I Am A Girl (Australia); Miss Nikki And The Tiger Girls, (Australia); Doc Pomus, A Man And His Music (Canada); Gaza Doctor (Canada); Pyongyang Express: Escape On The Underground Railroad (Canada); Under The City (Canada); Waiting Room (Canada); Within Every Woman (Canada); Seven Days, Seven Nights (Colombia-Spain-Venezuela); Finding Vivian Maier (Denmark-USA); Buffalo Bill And The Conquest Of The East (France-Germany); World According To Irving (Germany); and The Garden Of Eden (Israel).

Rounding out the selection are: When Two Worlds Collide, (Peru); TPB AFK: The Pirate Bay Away From Keyboard (Sweden); Light In Her Eyes (Syria); A Whole Lott More (UK); The Dark Matter Of Love (UK); Driven (UK); On The Edge (UK); A Fierce Green Fire, (USA); Gideon’s Army (USA); How To Survive A Plague (Aka Brightness Falls) (USA); Informant (USA); Pride (USA); Unstable Elements (USA), and Uranium Drive-In (USA).

The Hot Docs festival is scheduled to run from Apr 28-May 8.