By John Corrado

The 2025 edition of Hot Docs has just come to a close, and the winners of the festival’s Audience Awards have just been announced. Coming in first for the Hot Docs Audience Award is Ryan White’s incredibly moving Come See Me in the Good Light, which was also my personal favourite of the festival (you can read my 4-star review here).

The recipient of the Hot Docs Rogers Audience Award for Best Canadian Documentary was the animated documentary Endless Cookie, with the award being announced last night before a free encore screening of the film at the Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema to close out the festival.

The full list of the top twenty documentaries, as voted on by audiences, is below.

1. Come See Me in the Good Light (D: Ryan White | P: Jessica Hargrave, Ryan White, Tig Notaro, Stef Willen | USA | 2025 | 104 min)
2. Endless Cookie (D: Seth Scriver, Peter Scriver | P: Daniel Bekerman, Chris Yurkovich, Alex Ordanis, Jason Ryle, Seth Scriver | Canada | 2024 | 97 min)
3. Antidote (D: James Jones | P: James Jones | United Kingdom | 2024 | 90 min)
4. Coexistence, My Ass! (D: Amber Fares | P: Rachel Leah Jones, Amber Fares, Valérie Montmartin | USA, France | 2025 | 95 min)
5. Saints and Warriors (D: Patrick Shannon | P: Michael Grand | Canada | 2024 | 97 min)
6. 2000 Meters to Andriivka (D: Mstyslav Chernov | P: Mstyslav Chernov, Michelle Mizner, Raney Aronson-Rath | Ukraine | 2025 | 106 min)
7. Mr. Nobody Against Putin (D: David Borenstein, Pavel Talankin (co-director) | P: Helle Faber | Denmark, Czech Republic | 2025 | 90 min)
8. Selena y Los Dinos (D: Isabel Castro | P: Julie Goldman, Christopher Clements, J. Daniel Torres, David Blackman, Simran Singh | USA | 2025 | 106 min)
9. Cutting Through Rocks ((اوزاک یوللار) (D: Sara Khaki, Mohammadreza Eyni | P: Mohammadreza Eyni, Sara Khaki | Iran, USA, Netherlands, Germany, Canada, Qatar, Chile | 2025 | 95 min)
10. Parade: Queer Acts of Love & Resistance (D: Noam Gonick | P: Justine Pimlott  | Canada | 2025 | 96 min)
11. Deaf President Now! (D: Nyle DiMarco, Davis Guggenheim | P: Nyle DiMarco, Davis Guggenheim, Amanda Rohlke, Jonathan King, Michael Harte | USA | 2024 | 100 min)
12. Facing War (D: Tommy Gulliksen | P: Anne Marte Blindheim, Danielle Turkov Wilson | Norway | 2025 | 100 min)
13. The Nest (D: Chase Joynt, Julietta Singh | P: Alicia Smith, Justine Pimlott | Canada | 2025 | 89 min)
14. Writing Hawa (D: Najiba Noori, Rasul Noori (co-director) | P: Christian Popp, Hasse van Nunen, Renko Douze | France, Netherlands, Qatar, Afghanistan | 2024 | 85 min)
15. The Gardener and the Dictator (D: Hui Wang | P: Jun Zhang, Hui Wang | Canada | 2025 | 98 min)
16. Holloway (D: Sophie Compton, Daisy-May Hudson | P: Alice Hughes, Polly Creed, Sophie Compton, Tarquin Ramsay | UK | 2024 | 87 min)
17. The Last Ambassador (D: Natalie Halla | P: Peter Drössler, Arash T. Riahi, Sabine Gruber, Natalie Halla | Austria | 2025 | 80 min)
18. The Track (D: Ryan Sidhoo | P: Ryan Sidhoo | Canada | 2025 | 90 min)
19. Spreadsheet Champions (D: Kristina Kraskov | P: Anna Charalambous, Charlotte Wheaton, Nick Batzias | Australia | 2025 | 86 min)
20. Aisha’s Story (D: Elizabeth Vibert, Chen Wang (co-director) | P: Elizabeth Vibert, Salam Barakat Guenette | Canada | 2025 | 62 min)