Toronto’s Hot Docs festival reports record attendance numbers once again

Toronto’s Hot Docs festival is reporting another record-breaking year of attendance figures.

The Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival says the 26th edition drew in about 228,000 people.

That’s up from last year’s estimated audience of 223,000, and also up from the 215,000 reported in 2017.

Matt Gallagher’s “Prey” won the $50,000 Rogers Audience Award for best Canadian documentary.

It also took a $5,000 special jury prize for its look at a survivor of clergy sexual abuse who takes on the Catholic church in an Ontario court.

Claudia Sparrow’s “Maxima,” about an Indigenous Peruvian farmer in a land dispute with a mining operation, landed the Hot Docs Audience Award for a feature film.

Other Hot Docs award winners included Tasha Hubbard’s “nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up,” which won the best Canadian feature documentary award for its look at the killing of a young Indigenous man in Saskatchewan.