Angry Inuk wins Hot Docs audience award

Three Canadian films, including Angry Inuk (pictured), The Apology and Spirit Unforgettable, topped the Hot Docs audience-voted favourites list.

Alethea Arnaquq-Baril’s Angry Inuk has won the Vimeo On Demand Audience Award at Hot Docs.

The Canadian doc, which had its world premiere at the fest, follows a new generation of Inuit who confront assorted animal rights activist groups and defend their traditional hunting practices through tech-savvy strategies.

Angry Inuk also took home the Canadian Documentary Promotion Award, which comes with a Telefilm Canada-sponsored $25,000 cash prize for marketing and promotional purposes in Canada and abroad. The doc was produced by Arnaquq-Baril and Bonnie Thompson and executive produced by Daniel Cross, David Christenson and Bob Moore.

The Audience Award runner-up is another Canadian documentary, Tiffany Hsiung’s The Apology, in which three former “comfort women” break the silence around their sexual slavery during the Second World War and demand a formal apology from the Japanese government. The film, executive produced by Anita Lee, is backed by the National Film Board of Canada.

Placing third in the audience poll was Pete McCormack’s Spirit Unforgettable, another Canadian entry that centres on John Mann, frontman for Canadian Celtic rock band Spirit of the West, and his battle with early onset Alzheimer’s. The doc received a completion grant from the Shaw Media-Hot Docs Funds last September. Spirit Unforgettable was produced by Ben Murray, Cynde Harmon and McCormack, and executive produced by Andrew Barnsley, McCormack and Samantha Reynolds.

The 23rd edition of the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival ran from April 28 to May 8. The 11-day event featured 462 public screenings of 232 films on 15 screens across Toronto.

The top 20 audience favorites as determined by audience vote follows below:

1. Angry Inuk (Alethea Arnaquq-Baril; Canada)
2. The Apology (Tiffany Hsiung; Canada)
3. Spirit Unforgettable (Pete McCormack; Canada)
4. Hip-Hop Evolution (Darby Wheeler; Canada)
5. When Two Worlds Collide (Heidi Brandenburg, Mathew Orzel; Peru)
6. Life, Animated (Roger Ross Williams; USA)
7. Gleason (Clay Tweel; USA)
8. Mully (Scott Haze; USA, Kenya)
9. Migrant Dreams (Min Sook Lee; Canada)
10. Aida’s Secrets (Alon Schwarz, Shaul Schwarz; Israel, USA, Germany, Canada)
11. Strike a Pose (Ester Gould, Reijer Zwaan; Netherlands, Belgium)
12. Mr. Gaga (Tomer Heymann; Israel, Sweden, Netherlands, Germany)
13. Wizard Mode (Nathan Drillot, Jeff Lee Petry; Canada)
14. Tickled(David Farrier, Dylan Reeve; New Zealand)
15. Tempest Storm (Nimisha Mukerji; Canada, Germany, France)
16. Off the Rails (Adam Irving; Canada, USA)
17. Suited (Jason Benjamin; USA)
18. Gun Runners (Anjali Nayar; Canada)
19. Zimbelism (Matt Zimbel, Jean-François Gratton; Canada)
20. Sonita (Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami; Iran, Germany, Switzerland)

From Realscreen