The Sundance and SXSW documentary Chasing Ice by American director Jeff Orlowski has taken the People’s Choice Award at the just-concluded Hot Docs Canadian International Film Festival.

The film about National Geographic photographer James Balog (pictured) on a harsh Arctic expedition to capture evidence of the world’s changing glaciers also picked up a cash prize generated by Hot Docs’ Doc Ignite crowdfunding platform.

The prize currently stands at just over $4,000, and the public can add to the cash prize until May 14.

Also filmmakers attending Hot Docs voted as their favourite film The Imposter, by British director Bart Layton.

Hot Docs on Monday also put attendance during this year’s 11-day run at an estimated 165,000 for 395 public screenings of 189 films in Toronto.

“In these challenging times for Canadian doc-makers, our audience numbers have broken all previous records,” say Hot Docs executive director Chris McDonald said in a statement.

Photo: video screen grab by Michael Brown