Hot Docs has selected Toronto-based cinematographer Iris Ng for its annual Focus On program, which spotlights the work of Canadian documentary filmmakers.

Ng has worked as a cinematographer across a number of acclaimed documentaries and docuseries, including Sarah Polley’s 2012 Stories We Tell, Phyllis Ellis’ Toxic Beauty (2019), and Making a Murderer (2018). She has a shared credit on Lin Alluna’s Twice Colonized (2023).

Her past collaborators include Jennifer Holness, Michelle Sheppard, Fredrik Gertten, Vikram Jayanti, Tiffany Hsiung and Rama Rau.

Ng has also worked on scripted series, including CBC’s Strays and the web series Hey Lady!, starring Jayne Eastwood.

Hot Docs is also honouring Haitian filmmaker Raoul Peck with the Outstanding Achievement Award. Peck was nominated for an Oscar for his 2017 documentary I Am Not Your Negro, about writer and civil rights activist James Baldwin.

He will receive the award at the special ceremony during the spring film festival. Peck will also curate a selection of films to screen at the festival.

Hot Docs also announced that it has added a new program to the 2024 line: Festival Favourites. The program showcases feature-length documentaries that have been a hit with critics and audiences on the festival circuit.

Among the selections is Canada/France/Ukraine doc Intercepted, which shows recorded conversations of Russian soldiers in the war in Ukraine and debuted at the Berlin International Film Festival earlier this year. The film is directed by Oksana Karpovych, and produced by Montreal’s Les films Cosmos with coproducers Hutong Productions and MoonMan.

Hot Docs runs in Toronto from April 25 to May 5.

Image courtesy of Hot Docs