Indo-Kenyan-Canadian filmmaker Kenya-Jade Pinto’s The Sandbox picked up two prizes from this year’s Hot Docs Forum pitch contest.

U.S. doc I of the Water topped the winners list at Hot Docs’ flagship industry event, taking home a $50,000 cash prize. The Forum is the festival’s annual international cofinancing market for non-fiction projects.

This year’s edition, held on May 2 and 3, featured 20 projects (representing 17 countries) from 24 filmmakers, 11 of whom are Black, Indigenous or persons of colour, and 12 of whom are women. The projects were pitched to more than 50 key funders and decision-makers, with a total of more than $78,000 awarded in prizes.

Taking first place in the pitch contest, I of the Water from Making Waves Films follows Samoan writer Sia Figiel as she untangles her past, faces her trauma and works towards healing after pushing herself into self-exile. The doc is directed by Kimberlee Bassford, who also produces along with Marilyn McFadyen, Vilsoni Hereniko, Leanne K. Ferrer, Cheryl Hirasa and Linda Goldstein Knowlton.

Second prize went to Pinto’s The Sandbox, a Canadian doc directed and produced by Pinto, with Shasha Nakhai, Jennifer Baichwal and Rich Williamson also among the producers. The film, with a tagline “your future is being written in the sand,” received a $15,000 cash prize.

The Compy Films project also picked up the Cuban Hat Award, which is awarded to a “powerful and unique project” based on voting and cash contributions from Forum observers, which Hot Docs then matches. This year’s prize amounted to $3,110.57, and was accompanied by two all-access passes to Hot Docs 2024, two all-access passes to CPH:DOX, one IDFA forum pass, and a dinner with newly appointed Hot Docs president Marie Nelson.

The Cuban Hat Award also recognized ABC News Studios executive editorial producer Poh Si Teng as the best decision-maker at this year’s forum.

The $10,000 CMF-Hot Docs Forum Canadian Pitch Prize for the top Canadian pitch was awarded to Intercepted from director Oksana Karpovych, which takes a journey through the “banality of evil” behind the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The film comes from Les Films Cosmos, Hutong Productions and MoonMan, with Giacomo Nudi, Rocio Barba Fuentes, Pauline Tran Van Lieu, Lucie Rego and Darya Bassel producing.

This story originally appeared in Realscreen