Hot Docs 2023 checks the world's fevered brain

Peter Howell

Movie Critic

Toronto’s Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival has grown over the past three decades from an ambitious selection of 21 factual films into a sprawling cinematic canvas of what’s on the world’s fevered brain.

The 30th edition of this Toronto tradition, running April 27 to May 7 at various downtown venues, will be a mostly in-person affair, with 214 features and shorts drawn from 72 countries. (More than 100 films will stream nationwide from May 5 to 9 on hotdocs.ca.)

With topics ranging from war to witches, and featuring such blazing personalities as singer/activist Joan Baez and former Supreme Court of Canada justice Rosalie Abella, the fest offers its usual array of must-see documentaries.

Here are my alphabetically arranged 10 hot picks at Hot Docs 2023: https://bit.ly/41HBRlm 🌓