Founded by filmmakers, now with a permanent cinema of its own
Hot Docs
What began as a small showcase for Canadian documentary work grew into North America's largest documentary festival — and eventually bought the century-old Bloor Street theatre it calls home.
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Hot Docs was founded in 1993 by the Documentary Organization of Canada, a national association of independent filmmakers, as a showcase and advocacy platform for Canadian documentary work. Its first full festival ran in February 1994, and in 1996 it became a separately incorporated non-profit with an expanded mandate to support Canadian and international documentary filmmakers. Today it bills itself as the largest documentary festival in North America, presenting 150-plus documentaries annually each spring.
A permanent home on Bloor Street
Beyond the annual festival, Hot Docs operates a year-round documentary cinema in Toronto's Annex neighbourhood. The building at 506 Bloor Street West opened in 1913 as the Madison Theatre and cycled through several names over the 20th century before reopening in March 2012, under Hot Docs' management, as the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema. In June 2016, a gift from the Rogers Foundation let Hot Docs purchase the building outright, and it was renamed the Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema — giving the organization a permanent, first-run home for documentaries outside festival season.
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Sources
- Hot Docs — About
- International Documentary Association — Celebrating 25 Years of Documentary Film at Hot Docs
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