Mexico’s ‘The Queendom’ Nabs First Look Prize at Hot Docs Forum
variety.comJennie Punter “The Queendom,” one of 20 projects presented at Hot Docs’ marquee market event, the Forum, has won the First Look first prize of Can. $25,000 cash, one of three pitch prizes announced Thursday at the festival.The documentary and science-fiction hybrid—about three Indigenous scientists, all women, who decide to partner with mushrooms to fight for their territories—is directed by Otilia Portillo and produced by Paula Arroio Sandoval for Mexico’s Oscura Producciones S.A.
de C.V. Elena Fortes is executive producer.Second prize and Can. $15,000 was awarded to “A Woman’s Path,” about a woman who is betrayed by her family and forced to leave her nomadic life with the Bakhtiari tribe.
The documentary is directed by Marjan Khosravi; its producers are Milad Khosravi and Stephanie Von Lukowicz for Seven Spring Pictures (Iran) and Lukimedia (Spain).
Hot Docs’ First Look is a curated access program for philanthropic investors in documentary film; the Forum’s First Look pitch-prize winners are chosen by the program’s current participant-investors after they have viewed all Forum pitches.“Untitled Labor Union Documentary,” a portrait of workers at an Amazon fulfillment center who are fighting to unionize, won the 2022 CMF-Hot Docs Forum Canadian Pitch Prize and a $10,000 cash prize.
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