The fifth annual Hot Docs! wrapped Sunday, March 22 in Toronto with an awards gala honoring the best of independent documentary filmmaking, with the first annual Lifetime Achievement Award presented to director Allan King.

Chile, The Obstinate Memory from director Patricio Guzman and producers Yves Jeanneau and Eric Michel was named best Canadian film in the festival and also walked off with the best political doc award.

Hollywoodism: Jews, Movies & The American Dream, directed by Simcha Jacobovici and Stuart Samuels and produced by Elliott Halpern and Jacobovici, tied with Shelley Saywell’s Kim’s Story: The Road From Viet Nam in the best history doc category.

Other docs sweeping up more than one award include director B. Nash and producer Elizabeth Yake’s bp (Pushing The Boundaries), which won for best biography and best editing (Nash), and u.k.’s Antony Thomas’ Body Double: The Twin Experience, which won best doc by a broadcaster laurels and the Vision TV Award.

In a double tie, director Chris Triffo’s dad and Lara Fitzgerald’s Remembering Memories picked up best direction honors as well as the Telefilm Award.

Taking home the award for best arts doc were Noam Gonick and Laura Michalychyshyn for Guy Maddin: Waiting for Twilight. The best children’s doc nod went to Annie Frazier Henry and George Johnson.

Christian Bruyere and Ian Herring landed best short with Champions Of The Wild: Grizzlies, while Heartland from Laura Taler and Mark Hammond won best experimental short.

Best arts/culture/biography by a broadcaster went to Andrew Gregg for Christopher & Mary Pratt: Life & Times, and Neil Docherty won best political/social doc by a broadcaster with Murder, Money And Mexico.

Director John L’Ecuyer and producers Julia Sereny and Gerry Flahive took best social issues doc with Confessions Of A Rabid Dog, while Pat Barker won best cultural doc for Sitting On A Story.

Canada’s Wasteland from Andre Schwartz, Stephan Schuber and Ralph Schwingel and In My Father’s House from the Netherlands’ Fatima Jebli Ouzzani and Marty De Jong, tied for best int’l doc over 60 minutes. Best int’l doc under 60 was Australia’s Don Featherstone with Imaginary Life.

Best science/tech/environment doc by a broadcaster went to Morris Karp for John/Joan, while best science/tech/enviro doc went to Mitchell Azaria and Ihor Macijiwsky for Ellesmere Island National Park Reserve.

dop Barry Parrell won the cinematography award for Aliens: Are We Alone? Simon Leclerc’s Encounters With The Whales Of The St. Lawrence took best musical score, and Garrell Clark, Downy Karvonen and Paul Sharpe won overall sound with their work on Search For Closure.