Hot Docs Canadian Int’l Documentary Festival awards Iran’s ‘The Doll’
The Iranian film, ‘The Doll,’ directed by Elahe Esmaili, received the Best International Short Documentary Award at the 2021 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, also known as Hot Docs.
The award comes with a $3,000 cash prize courtesy at a special online ceremony webcast from Toronto. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, this year’s edition of the event was held online from April 29-May 9.
The short film now qualifies for consideration in the Documentary Short Subject category of the Academy Awards, without the standard theatrical run, provided they comply with Academy rules, ifilmtv.com reported.
The 33-minute documentary shows how all the family members of a young girl can have roles in her future and fate. She is only 14 when the family is making decisions about marrying her off.
The short doc has already toured various global events, including the Atlanta Film Festival in the US, the International Film Festival of Huesca in Spain, and the kortfilmfestivalen in Norway.
Hot Docs presented 11 awards and $55,200 in cash and prizes to emerging and established Canadian and international filmmakers.
Svetlana Rodina and Laurent Stoop’s ‘Ostrov – Lost Island’ and Emanuel Licha’s ‘Zo Reken’ took the top Hot Docs jury awards.
Best International Feature Documentary Award-winner, ‘Ostrov — Lost Island,’ chronicles a fishing community in the Caspian Sea, where elders cling to tradition and youth look to a new kind of future. The award comes with a $10,000 CAD cash prize, courtesy of the Panicaro Foundation.
The Special Jury Prize for international feature went to Mohamed El Aboudi’s ‘School of Hope,’ in which Morocco’s Oulad Boukais tribe, suffering from long drought, establishes a school to ensure their children’s future. Sponsored by A&E, the award comes with a $5,000 prize.
Best Canadian Feature Documentary Award-winner, ‘Zo Reken,’ is a portrait of Port-au-prince from a fourwheel drive, in which people discuss colonialism and international aid, denouncing the broken promises. Sponsored by DOC and Telefilm Canada, the award includes a $10,000 cash prize.
The Special Jury Prize for Canadian feature went to Yasmine Mathurin’s ‘One of Ours,’ about a Haitian-born youth who wrestles with his sense of belonging in his indigenous adoptive family after being racially profiled. Sponsored by DGC National and DGC Ontario, the award includes a $5,000 cash prize.
Elle-máijá Tailfeathers won the Emerging Canadian Filmmaker Award for ‘Kímmapiiyipitssini: The Meaning of Empathy’. The award is given to a first or secondtime Canadian filmmaker with a feature in the Canadian Spectrum program and includes a $3,000 cash prize.
Annabel Verbeke won the Emerging International Filmmaker Award for ‘Four Seasons in a Day’. Supported by the Donner Canadian Foundation, the award includes a $3,000 cash prize.
Sarra El Abed’s ‘Ain’t No Time for Women’ won the Betty Youson Award for Best Canadian Short Documentary and cash prize of $3,000 from John and Betty Youson.
Hot Docs is recognized as a qualifying festival for the Academy Awards in the Documentary Feature and Documentary Short Subject categories.