#HOTDOCS: RETURN OF DOC SOUP SERIES AND OCTOBER 2026 PROGRAMMING

Hot Docs is excited to announce the return of popular and long-running series Doc Soup, the launch of new series Aspect Ratio from curator José Teodoro, highly-anticipated new releases including several Hot Docs and TIFF official selections, and spooky season several screenings, including the return of the Nightmares on Bloor Street series and two collaborations between that series and regular monthly series Midtown Matinees. In addition, Stories We Told brings Begone Dull Care: The Films of Norman McLaren and Evelyn Lambart with an introduction from recent TIFF Midnight Madness People’s Choice Award winner Matthew Rankin (Ladies and Gentlemen, Brian Mulroney; Universal Language), plus Vincent Price: What Keeps Us Alive with Victoria Price, T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets with Sophie Fiennes, Author Talk event with Robert Kolker, National Theatre Live, Exhibition on Screen: James McNeill Whistler, and more.

Doc Soup returns for the 2026-27 season with monthly screenings at Hot Docs Cinema. The series will launch on October 7 with a screening of Sundance 2026 official selection Hanging by a Wire by director Mohammed Ali Naqvi, who will take part in a virtual post-screening Q&A. In August 2023, a routine commute turns terrifying when a cable car’s wire snaps, leaving eight passengers—including six schoolboys—dangling 900 feet above a ravine in the remote Himalayan foothills. With no margin for error and a cable that could fail at any moment, an unlikely alliance of rescuers must improvise under intense public scrutiny, racing against the clock before disaster strikes on live television. This year’s Doc Soup season will include seven monthly screenings from October to April. New this year, a regular second screening slot has been added each month on Thursday morning at 10:30am following the first screening on Wednesday at 7pm. Doc Soup subscriptions are now on sale and include one ticket to each Doc Soup film, as well as a Hot Docs 2027 Festival 12-Pack. For more information and dates, visit http://go.pardot.com/e/463832/whats-on-doc-soup/lxq1q/978276681/h/MKGwyNlbp9HgOjhY2AGrROd7fLHEU8f1I0yhRe26XYs

October welcomes the launch of new series Aspect Ratio from author, critic, and curator José Teodoro. From its origins, cinema has carried varying ratios of material staged and material captured. This series seeks to celebrate, educate, and prompt dialogue around the rich history of films that brazenly straddle genre boundaries, whether infusing fiction with shards of the real or forging a palimpsest of documentary and myth. Each screening will be introduced by José Teodoro and followed by an informal conversation. The series launches October 3 with Chris Marker’s 1983 mind-bending free-form travelogue Sans Soleil, the endlessly seductive magnum opus from the late French polymath that eludes categorization and circles themes of memory and history, time and its ceaselessness. For more information, visit http://go.pardot.com/e/463832/whats-on-aspect-ratio/lxq1t/978276681/h/MKGwyNlbp9HgOjhY2AGrROd7fLHEU8f1I0yhRe26XYs

In October and November, Hot Docs Cinema will welcome the theatrical release of several official selections from the Hot Docs Festival and the recent Toronto International Film Festival, including Union Town from Academy Award-winner Barbara Kopple; The Sandbox from director Kenya-Jade Pinto; Black Zombie from director Maya Annik Bedward; Once Upon a Time in Harlem from David Greaves, Liani Greaves and William Greaves; Musk from Academy Award-winner Alex Gibney; and Run Terry Run from director Sean Menard. Hot Docs will also screen the TIFF50 selection You Had to Be There: How the Toronto Godspell Ignited the Comedy Revolution, Spread Love & Overalls, and Created a Community That Changed the World (In a Canadian Kind of Way) from director Nick Davis.

The ghosts of the Bloor Cinema rise yet again with the Halloween series Nightmares on Bloor Street, a chilling selection of classics and genre-benders aimed at getting audiences good and goosepimply for spooky season. Experience iconic offerings on the big screen in one of Toronto’s oldest operating movie theatres. Titles screening as part of this series include 1977’s House (Hausu) by director Nobuhiko Obayashi and Strange Journey: The Story of Rocky Horror from director Linus O’Brien. A collaboration between monthly series Midtown Matinees and Nightmares on Bloor Street brings two classic Universal monster movies from the 1930s to the big screen, 1931’s Frankenstein and 1935’s Bride of Frankenstein, both directed by James Whale. October will also see the return of the popular The Rocky Horror Picture Show – Halloween Extravaganza, featuring Toronto’s own shadow cast, Excited Mental State, live on stage. There will be two performances each night on October 30 and 31. For more information and a complete list of titles and screening dates and times, visit http://go.pardot.com/e/463832/-on-nightmares-on-bloor-street/lxq1x/978276681/h/MKGwyNlbp9HgOjhY2AGrROd7fLHEU8f1I0yhRe26XYs

Monthly series Stories We Told brings Begone Dull Care: The Films of Norman McLaren and Evelyn Lambart with an introduction from recent TIFF Midnight Madness People’s Choice Award winner Matthew Rankin (Ladies and Gentlemen, Brian Mulroney; Universal Language). Additional screenings include Vincent Price: What Keeps Us Alive with Victoria Price, T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets with Sophie Fiennes, Author Talk event with Robert Kolker, Broken English from directors Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard featuring Tilda Swinton, National Theatre Live: The Misanthrope featuring a lead performance by Sandra Oh, and Exhibition on Screen: James McNeill Whistler.

The above films join the full line-up of screenings and events taking place in October at Hot Docs Cinema. For more of what’s on at Hot Docs Cinema, visit hotdocs.ca

Operated by Hot Docs, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to advancing and celebrating the art of documentary, Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema is the world’s largest documentary cinema. A historic, century-old landmark located in Toronto’s vibrant Annex neighbourhood, the Cinema is a year-round home for non-fiction film and storytelling, presenting first-run international and Canadian documentaries, curated film and speakers series, signature events including Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, as well as hosting for some of the city’s premier festivals and events.

Hot Docs (www.hotdocs.ca), North America’s leading documentary festival, conference and market, is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to advancing and celebrating the art of documentary and to creating production opportunities for documentary filmmakers. Hot Docs presents the 34th Hot Docs Festival April 23 to May 2, 2027, in Toronto. Since its inception in 1993, Hot Docs has supported the Canadian and international industry with professional development programs and production fund portfolio, including the Hot Docs Ted Rogers Fund, CrossCurrents Doc Funds, Hot Docs-Slaight Family Fund, Hot Docs-Blue Ice Docs Fund and Hot Docs Partners, and valuable professional development programs, including Doc Ignite and Hot Docs Incubator.