Six Canadian documentary projects are among the 20 selected for the 2021 Hot Docs Forum, including titles produced by Jennifer Baichwal and Nicholas de Pencier’s Mercury Films banner and the National Film Board of Canada (NFB).

The annual documentary film market gives producers and filmmakers of pre-selected films the opportunity to pitch to international buyers. This year’s forum, which will take place on May 4 and 5, will be held virtually, with recorded pitches and feedback available to view for all-access industry pass holders to view on May 6 and 7.

The 20 forum titles span five continents, coming from countries such as the U.S., the U.K., China, South Africa, India, Japan, France, Czech Republic, Sweden, Chile, the Bahamas, Serbia, Croatia, Montenegro and Iceland.

Among the six Canadian titles and are Swan Song (Visitor Media, Mercury Films), directed by Chelsea McMullan, and produced by McMullan, Sean O’Neill, Baichwal and de Pencier; Wilfred Buck (Door Number 3 Productions, NFB), directed by Lisa Jackson and produced by Jackson and Alicia Smith; and Possessing Einstein (Frequent Flyer Films), directed by Michelle Shepard and produced by Bryn Hughes and Carolyn Abraham.

Three Canada/U.S. copros selected were Made in Ethiopia (Gobez Media, Made in Ethiopia), directed by Xinyan Yu and Max Duncan and produced by Yu, Duncan and Tamara Dawit; Fire of Love (Fire of Love Productions), directed by Sara Dosa and produced by Dosa, Shane Boris and Ina Fichman; and The Age of Loneliness (Studio112, Izi Films), directed by Jenni Morello and produced by Morello, Leslie Norville and Bennett Elliott.

The other international titles selected were Shameela Seedat’s African Moot (South Africa), Sarvnik Kaur’s Against the Tide (India), Débora Souza Silva’s Black Mothers (U.S.), Greta Stocklassa’s BLIX (Czech Republic, Sweden), Carola Fuentes’ Breaking the Brick (Chile), Kareem Mortimer and Laura Gamse’s Brigidy Bram: The Kendal Hanna Story (U.S., The Bahamas, South Africa), Sasha Kulak’s A Hawk as Big as a Horse (France), Biljana Tutorov and Petar Glomazić’s The Last Nomads (Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia), Vicky Du’s Light of the Setting Sun (U.S.), Cécile Embletonand Alys Tomlinson’s Mother Vera (U.K.), Shiori Ito’s Project X (Japan, U.K., U.S.), Marjolaine Grappe’s untitled film (France, U.S.), Nicos Argillet and Stéphane Correa’s Varado: The Curse of Gold (France, Iceland), and Rongfei Guo’s Yoga Village (China).

All selected films were determined by a committee, which include festival programmers and filmmakers such as Dorota Lech, Samara Chadwick, Heidi Fleisher and Stephanie Owens.

Hot Docs Forum prizes include the Canadian Forum Pitch Prize, presented in partnership with DGC National and DGC Ontario, given to a Canadian film participating in the forum. The first look pitch prize is given to the top forum pitches, determined by the investors and philanthropic supporters taking part in the annual first look program.

The Canadian buyers taking part in this year’s event include Bell Media, CBC, Knowledge Network and TVO. Other global buyers in attendance are A&E Networks, A24, Al Jazeera Documentary Channel, Al Jazeera English, American Documentary POV, ARD-NDR, ARD – SWR, ARD – WDR, ARTE France, ARTE G.E.I.E, BBC Storyville, Catapult, Chicken & Egg, CNN Films, Discovery Channel, Doc Society, EBS Korea, ESPN, Field of Vision, Ford Foundation, Fork Films, France Télévisions, The Guardian, Hulu, iQIYI, Impact Partners, ITVS, National Geographic, NBC Universal, Netflix, The New York Times – Op Docs, NHK, Participant Media, RAI, SBS, SVT, Sundance Film Institute, Vice Studios, YLE and ZDF/ARTE.

“The 2021 edition of the Hot Docs Forum is a bold and powerful mix of cinematic artistry and journalism, with 10 BIPOC and 20 women represented out of the 25 filmmakers,” said Lisa Valencia-Svensson, acting industry programs director for Hot Docs, in a statement. “The slate of projects gives us hope about the future of non-fiction filmmaking in its many forms, and excites us about films that are just over the horizon and will soon reach cinema audiences around the world.”

An additional 35 projects for the one-on-one pitch meeting program Hot Docs Deal Maker is expected to be announced on April 14. The full Hot Docs lineup will be announced on March 23.