Hot Docs’ jury picks Iran’s ‘The Doll’

The 2021 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival has awarded ‘The Doll’ from Iran.

Directed by Elaheh Esmaeeli, the Iranian title received the award for best international short doc, which comes with a $3,000 cash prize courtesy of Hot Docs, at a special online ceremony webcast from Toronto on Friday night.

The short film now qualifies for consideration in the Documentary Short Subject category of the Academy Awards, without the standard theatrical run, provided they comply with Academy rules.

The 33-minute doc shows how the whole family members of a young girl can have parts in her future and fate. She is only 14 when the family is making decision about marrying her off.

The short doc has already toured various global events, including the Atlanta Film Festival in the US, the International Film Festival of Huesca in Spain, and the kortfilmfestivalen in Norway.

The Hot Docs presented eleven awards and $67,000 CAD ($55,200) in cash and prizes to emerging and established Canadian and international filmmakers.

Svetlana Rodina and Laurent Stoop’s ‘Ostrov — Lost Island’ and Emanuel Licha’s ‘Zo Reken’ took the top Hot Docs jury awards.

Best International Feature Documentary Award-winner ‘Ostrov — Lost Island’ chronicles a fishing community in the Caspian Sea, where elders cling to tradition and youth look to a new kind of future. The award comes with a $10,000 CAD cash prize courtesy of the Panicaro Foundation.

The Special Jury Prize for international feature went to Mohamed El Aboudi’s ‘School of Hope’, in which Morocco’s Oulad Boukais tribe, suffering from long drought, establishes a school to ensure their children’s future. Sponsored by A&E, the award comes with a $5,000 prize.

Best Canadian Feature Documentary Award-winner ‘Zo Reken’ is a portrait of Port-au-Prince from a four-wheel drive, in which people discuss colonialism and international aid, denouncing the broken promises. Sponsored by DOC and Telefilm Canada, the award includes a $10,000 cash prize.

The Special Jury Prize for Canadian feature went to Yasmine Mathurin’s ‘One of Ours’, about a Haitian-born youth who wrestles with his sense of belonging in his Indigenous adoptive family after being racially profiled. Sponsored by DGC National and DGC Ontario, the award includes a $5,000 cash prize.

Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers won the Emerging Canadian Filmmaker Award for ‘Kímmapiiyipitssini: The Meaning of Empathy’. The award is given to a first or second-time Canadian filmmaker with a feature in the Canadian Spectrum program and includes a $3,000 cash prize.

Annabel Verbeke won the Emerging International Filmmaker Award for ‘Four Seasons in a Day’. Supported by the Donner Canadian Foundation, the award includes a $3,000 cash prize.

Sarra El Abed’s ‘Ain’t No Time for Women’ won the Betty Youson Award for Best Canadian Short Documentary and cash prize of $3,000 from John and Betty Youson.

The Hot Docs is recognized as a qualifying festival for the Academy Awards in the Documentary Feature and Documentary Short Subject categories.

This year’s edition of the event was held online due to the coronavirus pandemic on April 29-May 09, 2021.

Read more:

Canadian Hot Docs honors Iranian doc ‘Eyes and Hands’

Iran ‘Beloved’ strikes Hot Docs audiences

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