The feature explores the trajectory and milestones in Canada’s 2SLGBTQ+ movement, including pride and protest footage and personal accounts. “This is such a wonderful and meaningful acknowledgement,” Parade producer Justine Pimlott told a Hot Docs press conference on Tuesday. “There is still much work to be done. My hope is that our film serves as an inspiration and a call to action, not only for the queer community, but also for our allies,” she added.

The Special Presentations is programmed with mostly Canadian premieres, like The Nest by co-directors Chase Joynt and Julietta Singh; Come See Me in the Good Light, Ryan White’s Sundance film about spoken word artist and poet laureate of Colorado Andrea Gibson and produced by Tig Notaro; Nyle DiMarco and Davis Guggenheim’s Deaf President Now!, another Sundance doc about the landmark 1988 student protest that transformed accessibility rights in the U.S.; and Life After, where director Reid Davenport investigates assisted suicide laws for disabled people.

Shoshannah Stern’s Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore, a film about the Oscar-winning deaf performer Marlee Matlin; Coexistence, My Ass!, activist and comedian Noam Shuster Eliassi’s film out of Sundance about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; Violet Du Feng’s The Dating Game, about desperate bachelors in China joining a dating boot camp; director Sam Feder’s Heightened Scrutiny, which follows legal battles against assaults on trans rights in the U.S.; Isabel Catro’s Selena Y Los Dinos, a portrait of Selena Quintanilla, or the “Queen of Tejano Music”; and Spreadsheet Champions, Kristina Kraskov’s film about students skilled at Excel competing at the Office Specialist World Championship.

Janice Dawe has been replaced with veteran film programmer Diana Sanchez as the new executive director of Hot Docs ahead of its 2025 edition. “Toronto, and the doc community, we need Hot Docs, and I am committed and very excited to work with this incredibly talented team that’s welcomed me so warmly,” Sanchez said when addressing the Hot Docs Cinema audience.

Hot Docs, as it restructures financially, briefly shuttered its flagship Toronto cinema and scaled back its board of directors and operating staff. Prior to unveiling the 2025 lineup, Heather Haynes, director of programming at Hot Docs, drew attention to Hamdan Ballal, one of the co-directors of the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land.

“These acts lay bare the growing dangers faced by courageous journalists, filmmakers and ordinary citizens who risked their lives to share their vital stories. We are united in hope for Hamdan’s safe return to his loved ones,” Haynes said. On Tuesday morning, Abraham said Ballal had been freed from military prison and was headed home to his family.

In all, 113 documentaries from 47 countries will screen during Hot Docs’ 2025 edition, including 26 homegrown Canadian feature docs, in addition to industry events and programs.