TORONTO — Twelve awards and $67,000 in cash and prizes were presented to Canadian and international filmmakers Friday at the Hot Docs festival in Toronto.
The Best Canadian Feature Documentary Award went to "Unarmed Verses," in which a 12-year-old girl's poignant observations about life, the soul and the power of art, give voice to a Toronto community facing imposed relocation.
The Special Jury Prize – Canadian Feature Documentary was presented to "Resurrecting Hassan," in which a family of blind Montreal buskers, haunted by the loss of their second child, seek the help of a mystical Russian healer to resurrect him from the dead.
"A Moon of Nickel and Ice," the story of the remote industrial city of Norilsk in Arctic Siberia, won the Emerging Canadian Filmmaker Award for Francois Jacob.
The Special Jury Prize – International Feature Documentary was presented to "A Cambodian Spring," which looks at the chaotic and violent wave of change that is shaping modern-day Cambodia.
The $50,000 award for Best Canadian Documentary is to be announced on Sunday and the top 10 favourite audience films of the 2017 festival will be released on Monday.
The Canadian Press
