That’s right: this year, my list of must-check-out films at the festival is so long that I’ve decided to break it into two parts. I’ve screened 62 documentaries – in their entirety, folks – and have rounded up 14 (!) features worthy of a spot on your to-see list. (Fear not, short-film fans: my roundup of must-see Hot Docs shorts is on deck, too.)
I’ve grouped the films based on their premiere dates at the festival. The first batch, below, all premiere between April 24 and 27, and the second batch (dropping tomorrow!) all premiere between April 28 and May 2.
Without further adieu, here are the first seven documentaries I’ve loved:
Barbara Forever (7/8)
Okay, lemme just preface this review by saying: if onscreen nudity makes you uncomfortable, this might not be the doc for you. Because a lot of the people in it are au naturel a lot of the time. That said, you’d be doing yourself a disservice by skipping it, because director Brydie O’Connor’s masterfully assembled biography of feminist, performance artist and pioneering lesbian filmmaker Barbara Hammer is as bold and ambitious as its game-changing subject. “Narrated” using archival audio of Hammer (who died at age 80 in 2019), made up almost entirely of clips from Hammer’s often-erotic films and archival footage she shot herself, and occasionally punctuated by present-day interviews with her longtime partner Florrie Burke, the film is an enormously impressive editing feat (hat tip to O’Connor’s editor, Matt Hixon, as well!), chronicling Hammer’s life, loves and career in extensive, fascinating detail. The result is a wildly inventive and creatively comprehensive portrait of a woman whose outrageous and unapologetic approach to documenting lesbian history — and the lesbian experience in the 1970s and ’80s — on film blazed trails for countless queer artists and filmmakers to come.
Let Our Mountains Live (7/8)
When you think of the battle for Indigenous rights, Norway might not be the first country to spring to mind. Yet the fight of the Sámi people to have their culture, traditions and rights recognized by the Norwegian government goes back centuries, and forms the basis for this taut, tense David vs. Goliath doc that plays like a suspenseful legal drama. Directed by Håvard Bustnes and unfolding through flashbacks during testimony at a 2024 trial, the film follows reindeer herders Sissel, Terje and Elise as they go up against power companies and the Ministry of Energy over the destruction of important grazing land to make way for wind turbines. Supported by an army of young activists, the herders set out to combat and correct the violation of their Indigenous rights, enduring a frustrating-beyond-measure d-r-a-g-g-e-d o-u-t legal process that spans several years. Compelling from the jump, it’s also a timely documentary about the selling off of Indigenous-owned land to the highest bidder, and the ongoing destruction of the natural environment in the name of profit.
Love Apptually (7/8)
This eye-opening documentary from director Shalini Kantayya (TikTok, Boom.) should send a shiver down the spine of the estimated 380 million people currently using dating apps. Exploring love, relationships and connection in the digital age, and anchored in French journalist Judith Duportail’s investigative work, the film pulls back the curtain on the little-known perils and pitfalls of dating apps — namely: the gamification of romance; the commodification of humans; the coded patriarchy of dating-app algorithms; the inherent security risks, be they scams or stolen personal data; the total lack of transparency over how user data is manipulated; and, perhaps most alarmingly, how every single dating app is actually engineered to keep users single. Peppered with clips from popular rom-coms and featuring interviews with an assortment of app users, the documentary is a much-needed wake-up call that reveals how Big Tech has skillfully (and secretly) turned the search for love into an addictive, privacy-poaching pursuit. Swipe at your own risk.
Myspace (7/8)
Sigh. Remember when the internet was fun and friendly? When it wasn’t teeming with scams and AI slop and misinformation and toxicity? That nostalgia for the kinder, gentler digital age of the late-1990s and early 2000s fills every frame of director Tommy Avallone’s lighthearted but no less comprehensive look back at the titular online community — how it started, how it evolved and how it gradually faded away. Featuring interviews with several of the platforms co-founders, including Chris De Wolfe and Aber Whitcomb, as well as several celebrity fans (Kevin Smith, Lil Jon, Dane Cook and Colbie Callait), the doc explores what made Myspace the most popular social network from 2005 to 2008, how it became a launchpad for musical acts from Justin Bieber to Taylor Swift, and why so many people loved it so very much. Filled with fabulous vintage clips — as well as a deep dive into the infamous Tom photo! — the film is clearly geared towards Gen Xers, and serves as a wonderfully affectionate reminder of how we lived our lives, shared our interests, and made meaningful connections online before social media and “influencer culture” took over.
The Sandbox (7/8)
At the other end of the spectrum is this terrifying techsposé about the surveillance-technology industry, and how the digitization of border/immigration control has opened up a horrifying Pandora’s Box filled with new and dangerous ways to target, and in many cases eliminate, “the other.” Director Kenya-Jade Pinto’s searing doc reveals how the high-tech mechanisms of control — from thermal-imaging cameras and digital IDs to ground sensors and unmanned drones — have evolved, and how they now generate robust fear-and-brutality-driven profit margins for military contractors. Juxtaposed with investigative journalist Lydia Emmanouilidou’s interview with “Ramon,” an asylum seeker who survived the 2023 Pylos migrant-boat disaster that killed more than 500 people, the film is packed with “OMG, what?!” information about how these advanced technologies are being tested out on a vulnerable population (i.e., refugees and asylum seekers, who are likely too scared to speak up, refuse or protest), and how they could eventually be weaponized against any group of people deemed to be a problem to the powers-that-be. Sobering and solid, especially as AI slowly infiltrates every corner of our existence, Pinto’s doc sounds a crucial alarm about Big Data becoming Big Brother.
The Secret Reading Club of Kabul (8/8)
Every single year since 2022, Hot Docs has featured powerful films about the oppression of women in Afghanistan under Taliban rule and, sadly (because the brutality of that regime continues), 2026 is no exception. Last year, I cited Teaching Hawa as a must-see at Hot Docs 2025, and this equally important, heartbreaking and infuriating documentary from co-directors Shakiba Adil and Alina Hirronen serves as a fitting companion film. Drawing parallels with The Diary of Anne Frank, and compiled using the video diaries of three brave and determined young Afghan women — Rakhshana (21), Dua (23) and Mahtab (15) — the doc explores how education for girls and women has become a criminal offense, how hopelessness about the future can suffocate the spirit, and how the members of this intrepid trio literally risk their lives to learn in secret via a twice-a-week book club. As raw and unflinching as it is inspirational, the documentary provides further evidence of the truly catastrophic-for-women repercussions of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, and how, in the absence of international intervention, resilience and small acts of resistance remain the critical keys to survival for the mind, body and soul.
A War on Women (8/8)
You know, I long for the day when there’s no longer a need to have documentaries about women being beaten, tortured, killed, oppressed, suppressed or otherwise treated poorly anywhere on the planet. Until then, I hope as many filmmakers as possible create powerful docs like the one above and this one, which also deals with women being stripped of their rights and turned into… what’s worse than second-class citizens? Only this time, Iran takes center stage. Directed by Raha Shirazi, the film chronicles the history of feminism in Iran and the rise of the “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement through interviews with seven courageous women, who have each stood up to the regime in their own way: former Minister of Women’s Affairs Mahnaz Afkhami; actor Golshifteh Farahani; activist Masih Alinejad; former political prisoner Shaparak Shajarizadeh; poet and journalist Asieh Amini; human-rights advocate Azam Jangravi; and Elahe Tavakolian, who was blinded during the protests after the murder of Mahsa Amini in 2022. Archival footage of the comparatively idyllic lives women led in pre-1979 Tehran — freely working! teaching! learning! shopping! wearing bathing suits! and not being openly beaten in the streets by any man who feels like smacking them around! — illustrates just how dramatically life for women has deteriorated. Like other documentaries of this ilk, it’s a rage-inducing but excellent film that should be required viewing for people in positions of power, who can take action to stop the ongoing gender apartheid happening in countries across the Middle East and beyond.
Keep reading: click here for Part II and more awesome must-see picks!
Check out more of Moviepie’s coverage of Hot Docs 2026 here!
