Hot Docs has revealed the 20 films set to receive funding through the festival’s five funds, with $360,000 total awarded between the programs.

Among the funds announced is the inaugural CrossCurrents Canada Doc Fund, supported by Netflix, which was announced at the 2018 Hot Docs Festival. The new fund aims to support diverse voices and underrepresented perspectives, and distributed $160,000 between six documentaries, four features and two shorts.

The features include Becoming a Queen, directed and produced by Chris Strykes; There’s No Place like This Place, Anywhere, directed by Lulu Wei, and produced by Ali Weinstein; Black Zombie, directed by Maya Annik Bedward, produced by Bedward and Kate Fraser; and Je M’Appelle Marie-Soliel, directed by Émilie Martel, produced by Martel and Kristel Viduka. The two shorts are Gaag.iid, directed and produced by Kristi Lane Sinclair and Digtal Memory, directed and produced by Andréanne Germain.

Another four documentaries will receive funding through the Hot Docs Ted Rogers Fund, which awarded $45,000 between the projects. The fund was established in 2016. The recipients are Drift Productions’ First We Eat: Food Security North of 60, directed and produced by Suzanne Crocker; M Films and Storystream Creative copro Pan & Shoot, directed by Michael Del Monte; TINAM’s This is Not a Movie, directed by Yung Chang, and an untitled copro from Lost Time Media and Big Cedar Films, directed by Marc Serpa Francoeur and Robinder Uppal.

Eight African films received a total of $115,000 through the Hot Docs-Blue Ice Group Documentary Fund, now in its eighth round. Four films have received fund development grants: Nigeria’s Fela, produced by Mama Put Productions (directed and produced by Biyi Bandele); Mozambique/Germany/France copro The Nights Smell of Gunpowder, produced by 11 MM FILMES, KASKE Film, IDA.IDA, Momento!, and directed by Inadelso Cossa; South Africa’s The Radical, produced by Good Work and directed by Richard Finn Gregory, and Senegal’s The Vanishing, produced by Boul Fallé Images and directed by Rama Thiaw.

Another three films received production grants: The Republic Democratic of Congo’s On the Way to the Billion, produced by Kiripifilms and directed/produced by Dieudo Hamadi; Kenya’s Testament, produced by AfroFilms International and directed/produced by Zippy Kimundu and Meena Nanji, and Niger’s Zinder, produced by Tabous Production and Les Films Du Balibari, directed by Aicha Macky. Finally, Kenya’s Turkana: Race for Resources, produced by Content House Kenya and directed by Jackie Lebo, received a completion fund grant.

The recipient of 2019’s CrossCurrents Doc Fund international/theatrical stream fund is Iran/Germany copro The Art of Living in Danger, directed by Mina Keshavarz, and produced by Keshavarz, Gerd Haag and Kerstin Krieg. The film was awarded $30,000. Meanwhile Jewel of Pamir was awarded $10,000 through the CrossCurrent Doc Fund short/experimental/interactive stream. The film is directed by Tamana Ayazi and Ali Atif and produced by Ayazi.