Hot Docs Announces Programming Team for 2026 Festival

The next edition of Hot Docs is shaping up with the announcement of the programming team for the 2026 festival. Following the announcement this summer of Gabor Pertic as the lead programmer for the festival, Hot Docs announced that Vivian Belik, Simone Estrin, Gugi Gumilang, and Carmen Thompson as the international feature programmers for the festival. Meanwhile, Alex Rogalski returns as Senior Canadian Programmer, while Aisha Jamal will program both Canadian and international features, and Mariam Zaidi will serve as Canadian programmer and senior international shorts programmer. Rolla Tahir rounds out the programming team as international shorts programmer.

“With our festival programming team in place and a strong programming vision in action for our cinema, Hot Docs is thoughtfully preparing to give Toronto audiences something truly special,” Hot Docs’ executive director Diana Sanchez said in a statement. “The community here in Toronto is full of film lovers and professionals, many of whom have supported this organization over the years, and many who have not yet experienced what we have to offer. I’m excited by the potential for us to reach both, and today, we have a passionate team leading the way to help us do just that.”

Hot Docs also announced that, in addition to serving on the international features team for the festival, Belik will serve as the year-round programmer for Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema. Belik previously programmed with the TIFF Cinematheque and was responsible for this summer’s popular Fred Wiseman retrospective, which screened many of the veteran filmmaker’s earlier and most influential works. In addition to her work on the Toronto scene, Belik has programmed for the Available Light Film Festival in Whitehorse and the Gimli Film Festival. She will be responsible for new releases and series at the cinema, while Pertic will continue to curate the Doc Soup subscription series. Doc Soup kicked off last month with The Librarians and continues this evening with Roads of Fire.

Today’s appointments follows considerable turnover in the Hot Docs programming team over the past two years, while appointments on the industry side have yet to be announced following the departures of key personnel earlier this year. However, the programming appointments follow this summer’s news that Hot Docs had completed a sale for the cinema that would allow it to continue year-round programming as it seeks to rebuild and reorganize. Submissions for the 2026 edition of Hot Docs are now open. The next festival runs April 23 to May 3.

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