Hot Docs festival boasts a record-breaking audience number of 180,000

TORONTO – The Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival has scored a new attendance high.

Organizers say this year’s 11-day event that wrapped on Sunday had record-breaking audience numbers reaching an estimated 180,000.

The 20th annual doc festival — billed as North America’s largest — screened 204 films on 16 screens across Toronto.

It also included educational forums and Q&As with filmmakers and documentary subjects.

The Audience Award, determined by audience votes and presented by Netflix, went to “Muscle Shoals.”

Greg (Freddy) Camalier directed the film, which looks at a tiny backwater Alabama town’s impact on popular music.

The Jason DaSilva-directed “When I Walk,” about a young filmmaker with multiple sclerosis, won the $10,000 best Canadian feature documentary award.

And the $10,000 prize for best international feature documentary went to “Dragon Girls,” which is directed by Inigo Westmeier and follows young female warriors-in-training learning ancient Shaolin Kung Fu near Beijing.