DOC welcomes Hot Docs’ announcement of their 2025 festival

Toronto, Thursday, October 17th 2024 – As the National organization representing Canada’s documentary filmmakers, DOC welcomes the news that Hot Docs will be holding a 2025 edition of the festival.

Over thirty years ago, DOC founded Hot Docs. Although our two entities are distinct, we remain connected through an important relationship where DOC comprises 49% of the Hot Docs board and through an annual royalty payment, that ensures that DOC is able to continue to advocate for the Canadian documentary community.

Our community has weathered an extremely difficult year. We have witnessed our beloved festival face extreme challenges, and we have in turn challenged Hot Docs to address the serious concerns that emerged in 2024.

DOC asked Hot Docs to address key questions about its financial situation, its human resources and its governance. In the months following the 2024 festival, Hot Docs has been addressing these issues head-on and has implemented substantive changes.

We remain, and always will be a family of documentary creators. Due to Hot Docs’ financial situation, DOC has decided to enact a payment plan that will allow Hot Docs to delay its payment to DOC. This decision was made with the greatest care in order to ensure that Hot Docs can continue its mission, without sacrificing DOC’s ability to serve our community.

The process of renewal within the festival is ongoing, and DOC is proud to stand in partnership with Hot Docs. We look forward to celebrating the 2025 edition with our community in April.

Read Hot Docs’ full statement here: https://hotdocs.ca/news/2024-fall-updates

** UPDATE ** October 18th, 2024: Joint statement by Hot Docs Interim Executive Director Janice Dawe and DOC Executive Director Sarah Spring in response to false statements that mischaracterized the relationship between Hot Docs and DOC:

Hot Docs and DOC are working collaboratively to ensure the success of the 2025 festival. We share mutual goals and values and believe in the positive impact of documentary storytelling to better our world. Our long standing relationship remains one of mutual respect and collaboration grounded in our shared community. DOC respects the process of change the festival has undertaken. Hot Docs wishes to assure DOC members that the comments made by a third party advisor in a recent Globe & Mail article were unauthorized, unexpected and unhelpful to our mutual objectives. The festival has ended the advisory relationship with the individual who made them.

– Janice Dawe, Interim Executive Director of Hot Docs & Sarah Spring, Executive Director of DOC

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About DOC

The Documentary Organization of Canada (DOC) is the collective voice of Canada’s independent documentary creators. Founded in 1983 to represent the interests of Canada’s growing community of indie doc filmmakers, today DOC has over 1300 members across six chapters from coast to coast. DOC conducts valuable research and advocacy work that strengthens the ecosystem for documentary production, and runs National programs that support our community. DOC’s mandate as a member-driven organization is to advocate for an equitable, sustainable environment for documentary production and to strengthen the sector within the broader cultural industry.

For more information, please contact:

Sarah Spring, Executive Director
Documentary Organization of Canada
sarah@docorg.ca