Demand is increasing for the 36 preselected pitch slots at Hot Docs’ second annual Toronto Documentary Forum, May 2-3.

Among the countries represented in the 36 selections, Canada leads the pack with 11 projects and the U.S. trails behind with 10.

A total of 119 submissions were received from 20 countries for the 36 preselected pitch slots, up 20% from last year.

Some of the Canadian selections include Paradigm Pictures’ Diet Wars, Take 3 Productions’ Tyler’s Barrel, Galafilm’s To Kill or to Cure? Crime and Punishment, Esperanto Productions’ She Got Game and 90th Parallel Film & Television’s Shopping (Retail Therapy).

The following broadcast representatives will be attending the forum: the BBC and Channel 4 (U.K.); RTE (Ireland); ARTE France and France 3; ZDF-Arte (Germany); DR TV and TV2 (Denmark); SVT (Sweden); YLE2 (Finland); ABC and SBS (Australia); and Court TV, HBO, ITVS, Oxygen, The Learning Channel and WGBH (U.S.).

Canadian representatives include CBC, CBC Newsworld, CTV, Life Network, Tele-Quebec and TVOntario.

Based on the Forum for International Co-financing of Documentaries in Amsterdam, the TDF is a two-day, roundtable pitch forum to assist documentary projects in the social, cultural and political genre in raising cofinancing from the international market.

Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival runs April 30 to May 6 in Toronto. This year the festival will present more than 70 docs from Canada and around the world, including six short mockumentaries produced by the festival.

Chosen from more than 120 submissions, the six mocs are: A Civil War Documentary Documentary by Duncan McKenzie, Eric Lunsky and Naomi Wise; The Front Door by Paul Pare, Terence Bowman and Bernard Deniger; George Grenouille by Debbie Fein-Goldbach; It by John May and Suzanne Bolch; Manufacturing Hair by Claire Queree and Justin MacGregor; and When the Lever Brakes by Dave Manning.

The Moc Docs series was conceived by Jeannette Loakman and Sally Blake. *

-www.hotdocs.ca