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2025 Festival Film Submissions

Please read our eligibility guidelines before filling out this form.

Please provide as much information as possible for the film you are submitting. 

Fields marked with an * are required.

The form must be submitted and the submission fee paid before the final deadline in order to be considered.

For assistance with this form, contact submissions@hotdocs.ca

Primary Contact

All email confirmations and messages related to this submission will be sent to the primary contact. 
Please ensure that all contact information is accurate.





Secondary Contact

You may include a secondary contact. Email confirmations and messages related to this submission will be sent to both the primary and secondary contacts. 

Please ensure that all contact information is accurate.







Hot Docs uses the English title in ALL Festival publications, including the program book and schedule. Exceptions will be made for titles with names, proper nouns, or other untranslatable words.

If your title begins with an article, please select it from the list and fill in Title without the article.


If different from above, this refers to the title of your film in the language of its country of origin. For example for the film The Railroad All Stars, a Spanish documentary, you would type in 'Estrellas de la Linea' for its original language title.


Closed Captions -  textual representation of the audio that can be viewed on a Captiview device.
Open Captions  -  display textual representation of the audio that can be viewed on screen during the film.
Full Subtitles - with English subtitles throughout the entirety of the film.


To be eligible for Hot Docs 2025, must have been completed after January 1st, 2024, no public screenings prior to 2024

Runtime In minutes, round up to closest minute. i.e if the film is 40:08, put 41 For series, please include total runtime of all episodes


Premiere Status



World Premiere – Has not screened anywhere in the world
International Premiere – Has screened, but only in the country/countries of production
North American Premiere – Has screened internationally but not in North America 
Canadian Premiere – Has screened Internationally and in North America, but not in Canada

Ontario Premiere – Has screened in Canada, but not in Ontario
Toronto Premiere – Has screened in Ontario, but not in Toronto

Hot Docs requires all feature and mid-length submissions to be at minimum an Ontario premiere and short films to be at minimum a Toronto Premiere.

If your short film is available publicly online, please select Toronto Premiere.

Please indicate the premiere status this submission would receive if selected for Hot Docs 2024.

If your premiere status changes during the programming consideration process, please email us at submissions@hotdocs.ca


All future events will be kept confidential


Streaming services available in Canada: Amazon Prime, Apple TV, CBC Gem, Crave, CTV, CuriosityStream, Discovery, Hulu, Paramount+, Tubi, YouTube


Please provide dates in the format DD/MM/YYYY if you know the exact dates.







ex: Chicken and Egg, Bertha Film Fund, etc.

Max 30,000 characters

Max 40 Words


ex. Animal slaughter, sexual assault, etc. This will not affect your submission but will help our programmers in preparing to view the content.

In order to help our programming team better understand what we are seeing, please provide a brief explanation of how you have used Generative AI and your motivations for its use.


Indicate 3 keywords or tags that uniquely describe your documentary and are different from the above listed genres.

 ie: Indigenous, LGBTQ+, Personal, Activism, Food, Music

%

If you are not sure, please select "no"
You can read about the Canadian Audio-Visual Certification Office (CAVCO) requirements here.
Country of Production is defined primarily as the country from which financing for the production originated. It does not refer to filming locations. For more information, please visit the FAQ page.

There can be several countries of production. Please add each in a sequence that reflects the production’s official priority sequence for this information.


Director


Please provide as much credit information of the director(s) for this submission as possible.

Submissions should at minimum include credit and contact information for director(s). 





Please avoid using the '&' symbol in this field. Kindly use 'and' instead.





This information may be used in publications, should the film be selected




If you're submitting a short or mid-length film, select "No"


Hot Docs aims to be a more diverse and inclusive festival. To help us measure and improve upon these efforts, we kindly ask you to respond to the following questions. All responses are confidential and will be used for research and statistical analyses.







Select all that apply. Categories based on Statistics Canada Framework.


select all that apply

Other Team Members






Please avoid using the '&' symbol in this field. Kindly use 'and' instead.





This information may be used in publications, should the film be selected




If not, please click the "Add Another Team Member" link above


Production Company



Sales Agent 






Distributors






Screeners

Please provide a streamable link to your film below. We do not accept downloadable links or links to your trailer for consideration.

You may update your screener at any time, although we cannot guarantee the new version will be seen if we've already reviewed the previously submitted version.

If you do not have a screener link at this time, please email submissions@hotdocs.ca.




Rough Cut: a basic edit of the footage which gives an idea of the overall structure of the film.
Picture lock: the point at which the film’s final edit has been approved, and no further changes can be made to the visual/story content. Please note any post-production processes such as sound design, color correction, and special effects to come.
Final cut: ready for exhibition






Submission Pricing Table

Your discount code is no longer active, please contact submissions@hotdocs.ca if you have any questions


Where the receipt needs to be sent.

If you do not have a company, leave the "Company Name" blank.










$
Please ensure your runtime is entered correctly on the first page for the price output. For example, if the film is 40:08, please round up to 41 minutes. For series, kindly include the total runtime of all episodes.

$

$

$

$


$
CAD

Credit Card details




This is a security code. Please enter last three digits by the signature strip on the back of your card.


Please do not click the Submit button more than once. The form may take a few moments to process. 

After clicking Submit, you will not be able to make further changes to your form details nor will you be able to retroactively apply a discount code.
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