Hot Docs went out on a high note this year, closing its 14th edition with record numbers of public and industry attendees. Organizers of the Toronto festival say public attendance jumped 33% this year, reaching 68,000, while the head count among industry delegates came in ‘close to 2,000’ — up from 1,800 last year.

The festival wrapped on Sunday, handing its final prize, the audience award, to the feature War/Dance by U.S. first-timers Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine. It follows three orphans from a refugee camp in war-torn Uganda to the finals of a national dance competition, and is slated for theatrical release in September through ThinkFilm.

The audience award is based on ballots filled out by festival-goers, who gave second place to We Are Together, similarly set at a South African orphanage, by British director Paul Taylor. The highest ranked Canadian film was The Suicide Tourist, about a right-to-die clinic in Zurich, by John Zaritsky, which came in fourth.

Dutch filmmaker Heddy Honigmann, who received the festival’s outstanding achievement award at a gala presentation on Friday, placed at number 10 for Forever, her piece about the Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris.

The 11-day festival screened 129 films and also saw Telefilm Canada — together with CBC, the Rogers Group of Funds, and the National Film Board — renew its Theatrical Documentary Pilot Program for one year. The $2-million program, which debuted in 2006, supports production and completion of feature docs intended for theatrical release.