Hot Docs Forum has presented three pitch teams with just over USD $35,000 (CAD $48,000) in prizes as the two-day capsule within the Toronto documentary festival (April 23-May 3) wrapped.
The USD $10,964 (CAD $15,000) first prize in the first look Pitch Prizes went to ExCoded director Javier Lovera and producers Hannah Donegan and Marc Serpa Francoeur, and executive producer Ina Fichman. The project from Airplane Mode Productions and Better Together Films examines how people harmed by the creep of facial recognition technology into policing, immigration and schools are taking on the system.
Second place and USD $7,309 (CAD $10,000) went to What You Remember from director Pauline Blanchet and producers Ljubomir Stefanov and Pauline Blanchet, which looks at how one man’s dream of rebuilding the Macedonian capital Skopje on the foundations of an unfinished city erased a collective memory. Production companies are North Macedonia’s Apolo Creative Solutions and the UK’s Aral Sea Productions.
Third prize of USD $5,848 (CAD $8,000) went to Wild Card pitch The Forever Chorus from co-director Ree Wright, director Meaghan Wright, and producer Melanie Wood. The Mirror Image Media production focuses on a non-traditional queer chorus in Nova Scotia who confront personal change and societal resistance in order to find their collective voice. The project was selected during the Forum as the final pitch of the event and the filmmaking team had less than 24 hours to prepare and present on Wednesday morning (April 29).
The USD $7,309 (CAD $10,000) CMF-Hot Docs Forum Canadian Pitch Prize presented in partnership with Canada Media Fund went to ExCoded, while the Hot Docs–Chicken & Egg Films Special Pitch Forum Prize went to The Forever Chorus. The USD $ (CAD $5,000) cash prize is awarded to a pitch representing an “outstanding documentary project directed by a woman or gender-expansive filmmaker”.
“The marketplace for documentary is challenging and ever-changing and I am endlessly grateful to our prize funders for making a financial impact on these projects to help them move forward with increased stability,” said Hot Docs executive director Diana Sanchez.
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