Projects from producers Shasha Nakhai (Scarborough), Jennifer Baichwal (Into the Weeds) and Ina Fichman (2023 Oscar-nominated Fire of Love) are among the six Canadian and Canadian copro titles selected for this year’s Hot Docs Forum in May.

The 24th edition of the international financing event will have 19 projects representing 16 countries and 23 filmmakers, 12 of whom are women and 11 of whom are Black, Indigenous and people of colour, according to a news release. Presented by the Directors Guild of Canada, the forum aims to help projects secure coproduction financing and funds for feature-length documentaries.

Nakhai and Baichwal are among the producers on The Sandbox, which has Kenya-Jade Pinto attached as director. Pinto is also a producer alongside Rich Williamson on the project, which is from Toronto-based Compy Films and has the tagline: “Your future is being written in the sand.”

Fichman is producer of the copro The 5 Billion Dollar Scam, from her Montreal-based prodco Intuitive Pictures as well as Israel’s Medalia Productions. Hilla Medalia is attached as director on the doc, about “a precedent-setting legal case of an international scam gone awry,” said the release.

Montreal-based GreenGround Productions is behind Shifting Baselines, which has Julien Elie attached as director. Elie is also a producer, alongside Andreas Mendritzki and Aonan Yang. The film will look at the environmental impact in Boca Chica, Tex., as SpaceX sets up shop there.

Other Canadian copros on the docket include Cinema Kawakeb from Jordan’s Jo image Productions and Toronto’s YN Films. Mahmoud Massad is on board as director of the project, about an old cinema ticket office that became a confessional. The producers are Munire Armstrong and Su Baloglu.

Intercepted is from Montreal’s Les Films Cosmos, France’s Hutong Production and Ukraine’s MoonMan. The look at the Russian invasion of Ukraine will be directed by Oksana Karpovych, with producers Giacomo Nudi, Rocío Barba Fuentes, Pauline Tran Van Lieu, Lucie Rego and Darya Bassel.

Toronto-based filmmaker Charlie Tyrell (My Dead Dad’s Porno Tapes) is tapped as director for Show Me the Past is Real, from Toronto’s Younger Daughter Films and U.S.-based Parkside Films and Fit Via Vi Films. Julie Baldassi, Mona Panchal, Shannon Riggs, Clay Tweel, Bill Way and Elliott Whitton are producers on the project, which examines whether valued treasures can “really save the past.”

Teams behind each project will pitch to commissioning editors, film fund representatives, financiers, programming executives and angel investors at the Hot Docs Forum, which will unfold in-person at Toronto’s Hart House on May 2 and 3.

Two cash prizes will be awarded to top Forum pitch teams: the first-look prize, financed by members of Hot Docs first look access program, and the CMF-Hot Docs Forum Canadian Pitch Prize, presented in partnership with the Canada Media Fund.

An additional Wild Card pitch will be selected live at the forum, which is the flagship industry event of Hot Docs Festival, taking place April 27 to May 7.

Selected projects will also participate in Hot Docs Deal Maker, a curated one-on-one pitch meeting program for which projects will be announced on March 29.

Image: Hot Docs Forum, photo by Joseph Michael Howarth