Winners of the International Documentary Challenge, a timed filmmaking competition co-presented by Hot Docs, were announced on Saturday, April 26, at a special screening premiering the entries.

The winners of this year's Challenge are:

Best Film of the 2008 International Documentary Challege ($1,000 cash award) CLICK WHOOSH
Team: Reel Grrrls
City/Country: Seattle, WA, USA
Genre: Historical
Team Leader: Reid Kuennen

American Documentary | P.O.V. Short Film Award ($1,000 Cash Award & featured on POV Website)
ARS MAGNA
Team: Juicebox
City/Country: Seattle, WA, USA
Genre: Biography/Character Study
Team Leader: Sean Roach

Doc Challenge Original Vision Award BEHOLDER
Team: Boss and Coder 34
City/Country: Brooklyn, NY, USA
Genre: First Person
Team Leader: Eric Daniel Metzgar

Best Directing
STICK AND POUND
Team: It Donned On Me
City/Country: Foster City, CA, USA
Genre: Art
Directed by: http://www.ItDonnedOnMe.com

Best Editing
I=ME2
Team: Year of the Rooster
City/Country: Sherman Oaks, CA, USA
Genre: Experimental
Edited by: Kevin Thomas

Best Cinematography
STICK AND POUND
Team: It Donned On Me
City/Country: Foster City, CA, USA
Genre: Art
Cinematography by: http://www.ItDonnedOnMe.com

Best Writing
BEHOLDER
Team: Boss and Coder 34
City/Country: Brooklyn, NY, USA
Genre: First Person
Written by: Eric Daniel Metzgar

Best Soundtrack
THE MIXTRESS
Team: Wideshot Studios
City/Country: Portland, OR, USA
Genre: Biography/Character Study
Arranged by: The Mixtress: Jules Bennett

Best Original Score
JETTY
Team: Fly On The Wall
City/Country: Portland, OR, USA
Genre: Social Issue/Political
Original Score by Bell Plaines & Arlen Kallunki

Best Use of "Change" Theme
PENNYWISE: THE CHANGING FACE OF CHANGE
Team: Lucky Shot
City/Country: Silver Spring, MD, USA
Genre: Social Issue/Political

Best Use of Date Stamp
RED LIGHT BLUES
Team: Abrahami-Netz Productions
City/Country: Amsterdam, Netherlands
Genre: Social Issue/Political

BEST USE OF GENRE AWARDS

Best Use of Art Genre
GHOST BIKE
Team: Go!
City/Country: Toronto, ON, Canada

Best Use of Character Study Genre
ARS MAGNA
Team Juicebox
City/Country: Seattle, WA, USA

Best Use of Experimental Genre
I=ME2
Team: Year of the Rooster
City/Country: Sherman Oaks, CA, USA

Best Use of First Person Genre
BEHOLDER
Team: Boss and Coder 34
City/Country: Brooklyn, NY, USA

Best Use of Historical Genre
CLICK WHOOSH
Team: Reel Grrrls
City/Country: Seattle, WA, USA

Best Use of Music Genre
OLD SOUL
Team: Reel Hard Workin Dogs
City/Country: Washington, DC, USA

Best Use of Nature Genre
FARM TO TABLE
Team: Smoke In Mirror Productions
City/Country: Rutland, VT, USA

Best Use of Social Issue/Political Genre
MEET THE FREEGANS
Team: Shields Films
City/Country: Portland, OR, USA

Best Use of Sports Genre
THE ART OF BALANCE
Team: Surge Media
City/Country: New York, NY, USA

SPECIAL JUDGES AWARDS

Best Use of Archival Footage
PENNYWISE: THE CHANGING FACE OF CHANGE
Team: Lucky Shot
City/Country: Silver Spring, MD, USA
Genre: Social Issue/Political

Best Social Commentary
FIERCELY INDEPENDENT
Team: Higher Rock & Downward Spiral Productions
City/Country: Moab, UT, USA

In addition to the awards announced at the Hot Docs Awards Presentation on Friday, April 25, the Hot Docs Audience Award and the CIDA Award were named at the close of the Festival.

TAKING ROOT: THE VISION OF WANGARI MAATHAI (Director: Lisa Merton, Alan Dater; USA), the inspiring story of the Nobel laureate whose simple act of planting trees inspired Kenya’s environmental movement, protected the human rights of its people and defended the nation’s democracy, won the Hot Docs Audience Award. Sponsored by History Television, the award is decided by audience ballot.

The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) Prize for best Canadian documentary on international development was awarded to SHOCK WAVES (Director: Pierre Mignault, Hélène Magny) for its courageous portrayal of a country and its people. The documentary shows the powerful impact that community-based radio has in affecting significant change throughout the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The CIDA Jury commended the filmmakers for sharing the risks taken by the Radio Okapi journalists on the ground and for bringing a fresh perspective to this under-reported story. The CIDA Award comes with a $5000 cash prize.

The 2008 Hot Docs top 10, as determined by audience ballot, are:

1. TAKING ROOT: THE VISION OF WANGARI MAATHAI (Director: Lisa Merton, Alan Dater; USA)
2. PLANET B-BOY (Director: Benson Lee; USA)
3. DEAR ZACHARY: A LETTER TO A SON ABOUT HIS FATHER (Director: Kurt Kuenne; USA)
4. THE ENGLISH SURGEON (Director: Geoffrey Smith; UK)
5. TRIAGE: DR. JAMES ORBINSKI’S HUMANITARIAN DILEMMA (Director: Patrick Reed; Canada)
6. ANVIL! THE STORY OF ANVIL (Director: Sacha Gervasi; USA)
7. THE BEETLE (Director: Yishai Orian; Israel)
8. DADDY TRAN: A LIFE IN 3-D (Director: Siu Ta; Canada)
9. STRANDED, I’VE COME FROM A PLANE THAT CRASHED IN THE MOUNTAINS (Director: Gonzalo Arijon; France)
10. ALL TOGETHER NOW (Director: Adrian Wills; Canada)

Each year Hot Docs is pleased to host a number of official delegations at the Festival. The delegations, each a total of 10 - 20 established producers and broadcasters working in social, cultural and political documentary genres, will partake in the wealth of networking opportunities, market events and conference sessions offered, including the Toronto Documentary Forum, Hot Docs' renowned international co-financing market event.

The following have confirmed International Delegations:

Italy led by Doc It! and the Italian Trade Commission
Brazil led by the Brazilian TV Producers Association
Catalan led by Catalan Films & TV
Nordic region led by the Norwegian Film Institute, Finnish Film Foundation, Danish Film Institute, Icelandic Film Centre and Swedish Film Institute
South Korea led by the Korean Film Council

Visit www.hotdocs.ca for more information.

Hot Docs is pleased to announce the following group of esteemed filmmakers, industry professionals and journalists who will form the 2008 Hot Docs Festival Jury. Together they will determine the best of this year's festival selections in the International Spectrum, Canadian Spectrum and Shorts to Mid-length categories:

Massoud Bahkshi, Filmmaker, Documentary & Experimental Film Center (DEFC), Iran
Elena Fortes Acosta, Festival Director, Ambulante Documentary Film Festival (Documental Ambulante A.C), Mexico
Elvis Mitchell, Film Critic/Radio Talk Show Host, KCRW ("The Treatment"), USA
Rada Sesic, Programmer, IDFA Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Iikka Vehkalahti, Commissioning Editor, YLE TV 2 Documentaries, Finland
Arturo Perez Torres, Filmmaker/Producer, Open City Works, Canada
Johanna Schneller, Freelance Journalist, The Globe and Mail, Canada
Michael Burns, Producer, Manifest Communications, Canada
Molly Dineen, Filmmaker/Producer, UK

Michaelle McLean, Director of Hot Docs' Toronto Documentary Forum, will be sharing her expertise in a presentation at the Conferencia Internacional Coproducción de Documentales, September 26 & 27, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Aimed at documentary producers in South America, the conference will be examining the current international documentary market and exploring systems of co-production in other countries with a view to encouraging these partnerships in the region. McLean is also looking forward to meeting producers and other members of the South American documentary industry and can be reached through the conference's email below. The conference is organized by planoLATINO, the first Latin American distributor exclusively devoted to the distribution of documentaries.

For more information please visit http://planolatinoconferencias.blogspot.com/ or email conferencia@planolatino.com.a

Hosted by filmmaker and journalist Avi Lewis, the 2007 Hot Docs Awards Presentation saw twelve awards and more than $50,000 in cash and prizes awarded.

A jury of filmmakers, industry professionals and journalists decided the following awards for films in official competition:

Best Canadian Feature Documentary: “The Bodybuilder And I”
D: Bryan Friedman
P: Julia Rosenberg, Anita Lee
Generously sponsored by the Documentary Channel and DOC. Awarded by the Documentary Channel: $5000.

Special Jury Prize Canadian Feature Documentary: “Driven By Dreams”
D: Serge Giguere
P: Nicole Hubert, Colette Loumede
Generously sponsored by the NFB. Awarded by the NFB: $5000 FAP prize.

Best International Feature Documentary: “Losers And Winners”
D: Ulrike Franke, Michael Loeken
P: Filmproduktion Loekenfranke
Generously sponsored by CBC International Sales. Awarded by Hot Docs: $5000.

Special Jury Prize International Feature Documentary: “Without The King”
D: Michael Skolnik
P: Paola Mendoza, Michael Skolnik
Generously sponsored by A&E Television and OMDC.

Best Mid-Length Documentary: “Forgiveness: Stories For Our Time”
D: Johanna Lunn
P: Johanna Lunn, Kent Martin
Generously sponsored by Playback and the Canada Council for the Arts.

Best Short Documentary: “Man Up”
D/P: Arturo Cabanas

The Don Haig Award
Recipient: Hubert Davis
Awarded by the Don Haig Committtee: $10,000

The Lindalee Tracey Award
Recipient: Trevor Anderson
Awarded by the Lindalee Tracey Award organizers: $5000

Hot Docs Outstanding Achievement Award
Recipient: Heddy Honigmann

The Audience Award, determined by audience ballot, was awarded to Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine's “War/Dance”