Argentina’s Compañia de Cine Swoops on Hot Docs Title ‘Wild Gleaming Space,’ Helmed by Mauro Colombo, Produced by Oscar-Shortlisted Abner Benaim (EXCLUSIVE)

Addie Morfoot Contributor Elaine Epstein says that winning Hot Docs Forum’s top First Look prize of Can $20,000 cash for her film “Arrest the Midwife” is a “game changer.” The project, which has been on a close to year-long hiatus, will now finally be able to resume due to the award. “The last money we raised was 10 months ago,” Epstein said. “So it’s been a while.

Jennie Punter Nishta Jain’s “Farming the Revolution” has won Hot Docs’ Best International Feature Documentary Award, it was announced Friday at the festival’s awards ceremony, held in Toronto at the Centre for Social Innovation–Annex. Produced by Jain (Raintree Films) and Valérie Montmartin (Little Big Story) and co-directed by cinematographer Akash Basumatari, the film follows the massive year-long gathering of Indian farmers protesting unjust new farm laws that they felt would impact their markets. The jury said, “‘Farming the Revolution’ spotlights the power of ordinary people with an enduring cinematic sophistication and an indomitable lyrical presence.” The award comes with a Cnd.

Kristen Stewart and Oscar Isaac are set to star in thriller Flesh of the Gods from director Panos Cosmatos (Mandy).

Jennie Punter Spain’s push to position itself as a premier player in the world’s film and TV industries extends to the documentary zone, as both audiences and industry delegates discovered in the impressive display of the country’s finished and work-in-progress films and co-production know-how at Toronto’s Hot Docs Festival this week. According to the European Audiovisual Observatory’s Yearbook 2023/2024, Spain is the European leader in documentary production, with 153 films in 2022 (Italy was second with 137, Switzerland third with 83)—a sign that Spain’s €1.6 billion public investment in the strategic sector, intended to spur production growth for the 2021-2025 period, has taken root in the doc space.

Addie Morfoot Contributor The Hot Docs Forum, the festival’s industry centerpiece, wrapped Wednesday with its most lively awards announcements in recent memory—complete with flamenco guitar, song and dance courtesy of Spain, this year’s country in focus—as hundreds of industry delegates assembled under the sun in the courtyard of Toronto’s Hart House. Elaine Epstein’s “Arrest the Midwife”—one of 20 projects presented to key funders and decision-makers as well as filmmakers, producers and other observers at the two-day Forum pitch event—won the First Look first prize of Can $20,000 cash.

Addie Morfoot Contributor Producer Ina Fichman, Oscar nominated for “Fire of Love,” was at the 25th edition of Hot Docs Forum on Tuesday to pitch her latest project “Ba’s Book.” Directed by Canadian filmmaker Ashley Da-Le Duong, the hybrid docu focuses on Duong’s father and his experiences living through both the Vietnam War and the Iranian Revolution. “Let me take you somewhere for a moment,” Duong told the Forum audience and participating distributors including Arte, A24 and Al Jazeera. “It’s 1968 and a young man stands in the middle of a rice paddy field and looks up and sees a helicopter.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Hot Docs is to honor Canadian writer-producer-director Alison Duke with the Don Haig Award, which recognizes “creative vision and entrepreneurship,” as reflected in her work, as well as a track record of mentoring emerging Canadian filmmakers. The award is presented to a Canadian independent producer with a feature-length film at the festival, with the recipient being selected by a jury of filmmakers.

Anna Wintour is SERIOUSLY concerned about Jeff Bezos‘ fiancée Lauren Sánchez‘s sense of style!

EXCLUSIVE: Arizona Distribution has acquired French rights for Argentinian director Federico Luis’s first feature Simon of the Mountain ahead of its world premiere in Cannes Critics’ Week in May.

Naman Ramachandran “Doctor Who” star Ncuti Gatwa leads the cast of a revival of Oscar Wilde‘s 1895 play “The Importance of Being Earnest” at London’s National Theatre. The play follows Jack Worthing, who while assuming the role of dutiful guardian in the country, lets loose in town under a false identity. Meanwhile, his friend Algernon Moncrieff takes on a similar facade.

Doctor Who’s Ncuti Gatwa and W1A’s Hugh Skinner will star in a National Theatre revival of Oscar Wilde’s play about courtships, betrothals, and confused identities. The Importance of Being Earnest also stars three-time Olivier Award winner Sharon D. Clarke playing the imperious Lady Bracknell.

Naman Ramachandran Eminent Indian documentarian Nishtha Jain’s latest effort is an account of the epic, year-long farmers’ protest that took place in India in 2020-21. “Farming the Revolution,” which world premieres at Hot Docs, follows the millions of Indian farmers who gathered during the height of COVID-19 lockdown at the borders of the country’s capital, Delhi, to protest against newly enacted farm laws. The farmers believed that if implemented, these laws would negatively impact the government-protected farmers’ markets, leaving them to the vagaries of the free market.

Addie Morfoot Contributor In “The Strike,” directors Joebill Munoz and Lucas Guilkey chronicle a 2013 prison hunger strike that changed imprisonment policies across the U.S. The doc tells the story of America’s supermax prison Pelican Bay, which opened in 1989 and was designed specifically for mass-scale solitary confinement. For decades, the California prison held mostly Black and Brown men alone in tiny cells without windows for years or sometimes decades based on questionable evidence.

Almost a year after Kevin Spacey was found not guilty of sex crimes, Channel 4 and Max in the U.S. are set to air testimony from more men detailing their experiences with the double-Oscar winner.

Marc Malkin Senior Editor, Culture and EventsTiffany & Co. rolled out the red carpet Thursday night for the launch of Blue Book 2024: Tiffany Céleste.Held at the Beverly Estate in Beverly Hills, where scenes from “The Godfather” and “The Bodyguard” were filmed, the party featured a selection of the 157-piece collection on display in glass cases as well being worn by the likes of Anya Taylor-Joy, Gal Gadot, Gabrielle Union, Reese Witherspoon and her lookalike daughter Ava Phillippe, Usher, Emily Blunt, Olivia Wilde and Diego Boneta.“It’s a very emotional moment for us to unveil this collection,” said Tiffany & Co.

Rafa Sales Ross Guest Contributor The seventh edition of The Changing Face of Europe, a section in Toronto’s Hot Docs Film Festival, explores the cultural, economic and political forces shaping contemporary Europe. From an investigation of a right-wing group in Fabien Greenberg and Bård Kjøge Rønning’s “Norwegian Democrazy” to the fight for bodily freedom in Elina Psykou’s “Stray Bodies,” this year’s selection broaches a series of urgent — and, at many times, highly-sensitive — sociopolitical topics at the forefront of European society from filmmakers who may not always get the support they need within the international festival landscape.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Cinephil has sold Arun Bhattarai and Dorottya Zurbó’s feature documentary “Agent of Happiness” to a wide range of key international territories ahead of the film’s Hot Docs debut this weekend. Deals are confirmed in the U.K.

Priyanka Chopra-Produced Doc Debuting On Prime Video India

Addie Morfoot Contributor The 31st edition of Canada’s influential Hot Docs Film Festival, which gets underway Thursday, could very well be the last. For the past month, the Toronto festival, one of North America’s largest dedicated to documentaries, has been roiled by staff and funding turmoil. On March 25, artistic director Hussain Currimbhoy and 10 of the fest’s programmers abruptly exited their posts.

A member of the kitchen staff at the Plaza Hotel Lucchesi in Florence, Italy must be a big fan of The Office!