#FIRSTLOOK: HOT.DOCS ANNOUNCE JULY 2026 PROGRAMMING

Toronto cinephiles have much to look forward to this summer as Hot Docs shares the July programming lineup for Hot Docs Cinema, with special guests, new release documentaries, cinema classics and Festival favourites all on offer at the historic movie theatre at 506 Bloor Street. Highlights of July’s programming include the return of the Truth and Dare series and an intriguing range of Hot Docs Festival 2026 official selections, plus several classic titles by acclaimed filmmakers spanning decades of cinema history. In addition, Hot Docs Cinema will welcome some special guests to participate in post-screening Q&As.

The Truth and Dare series brings cutting-edge documentaries that challenge the idea of what a doc needs to be, and is curated by Nick Armstrong, Adam Bovoletis and Sacha Kingston-Wayne. The series is back in July at Hot Docs Cinema with the international premiere of director Marcus Batto’s collage-tornado of a film There’ll Likely Be Michael Jackson Vigils Throughout the Night, followed by a post-screening Q&A with the filmmaker. Remixing early YouTube vlogs, news coverage, song fragments and more, There’ll Likely Be Michael Jackson Vigils Throughout the Night is both a potent exercise in modern internet archiving and a time capsule for a bygone era of the world wide web. More honest than any traditional MJ biopic could ever aspire to be, Batto’s film defines Jackson through a web of the world’s wide-ranging POV’s in this one very specific moment in time: eschewing valourization while exploring the idea of celebrity deification. The feature will be preceded by the Toronto premiere of the short film Take a Look Around by local filmmaker Colby Richardson, an experimental doc about a video artist who brings a power drill camera contraption to the CNE.

July will also see the return of four recent official selections from the 2026 Hot Docs Festival, works that showcase the intriguing range of the documentary medium and non-fiction filmmaking. From Oscar-nominated filmmaker Sara Dosa (Fire of Love) and National Geographic Documentary Films comes Time and Water, a powerful documentary that explores the intimate connection between humans and the natural world through the lenses of personal memories, archival footage, and the monumental movements of glaciers. Oscar-nominated filmmakers Tia Lessin and Carl Deal (Trouble the Water) share the compelling and highly entertaining story of journalist Amy Goodman in Steal this Story, Please!, which follows Goodman’s three decades long career as an essential voice highlighting global issues and pursuing truth in an era of “alternative” facts. The film was voted by 2026 Hot Docs Festival audiences as their #2 Audience Favourite. Tia Lessin and Carl Deal will be in attendance for the first screening to take part in a Q&A. One of the most talked about titles from the Festival and the Grand Prize winner at the 59th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, Better Go Mad in the Wild from filmmaker Miro Remo is a wildly original portrait of twin brothers Franta and Ondra, blurring the boundaries between documentary observation and dreamlike invention, and demanding to be seen on the big screen. The #4 Audience Favourite from the 2026 Hot Docs Festival, the crowdpleaser 32 Meters by filmmaker Morteza Atabaki follows the determined effort to organize a women’s shooting competition in a rural Turkish village where tradition still imposes strict boundaries between men’s and women’s roles.

Hot Docs Cinema’s July programming will also welcome several classic titles by acclaimed filmmakers spanning decades of cinema history. Abbas Kiarostami’s 1990 masterpiece Close-Up blurs the lines between documentary and fiction and uses a real-life event—the arrest of a young man on charges that he fraudulently impersonated the well-known filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf—as the basis for a stunning, multilayered investigation into movies, identity, artistic creation, and existence, in which the real people from the case play themselves. Penelope Spheeris’s The Decline of Western Civilization is a riveting, unflinching account of the punk rock phenomenon and its alienated, reactionary subculture, and comes to the Jukedocs series for a special 45th anniversary screening. Travel back in time to The Midtown with a special Midtown Matinees 75th anniversary screening of a true Hollywood classic, An American in Paris starring Gene Kelly and directed by Vincente Minnelli. Returning in July after launching the Stories We Told series earlier this year, Peter Lynch’s Canadian classic Project Grizzly was a cultural phenomenon and gets a 30th anniversary screening with director Peter Lynch in attendance. Stories We Told is back with Roman Kroitor and Wolf Koenig’s pioneering use of cinema vérité in 1959’s Glenn Gould: On and Off the Record, two classic Canadian documentaries that show different sides of legendary Canadian pianist Glenn Gould. Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 1987 Sundance Film Festival, director Ross McElwee’s wryly hilarious road movie Sherman’s March gets a 40th anniversary screening to celebrate its enduring reputation as one of the great comedic masterpieces of documentary’s history.

The above films join the full line-up of screenings and events taking place this month at Hot Docs Cinema. For more of what’s on at Hot Docs Cinema in July, 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 presented its 33rd Hot Docs Festival April 23 to May 3, 2026, 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.