Here are some of Hot Docs best offerings — whether you're in Toronto or not

Despite a series of depressing headlines last year and a significantly scaled-back lineup in 2025, Toronto's Hot Docs is back for another year.

The documentary festival, often described as North America's biggest, has mostly been in the news over the past year for its budget struggles, employee exodus and subsequent existential crises. Still, the festival (which runs from April 24 to May 4) boasts a slate of 113 documentaries for 2025, covering everything from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, to the Russia-Ukranian war to the often ridiculous realities of being raised in the circus (that is, in the adorable and contemplative Circusboy). 

To help you navigate the festival, we've put together a list of some of the best films on offer — as well as when and how those outside of Toronto can watch them.

How do you face evil when no one seems to be doing anything to stop it? And how many rules will you break to ensure those responsible are stopped?

Those are the questions that Windor, Ont., man Jason Nassr seemingly asked himself when setting up Creeper Hunter TV, one of many North American organizations promoting themselves as grassroots bait groups chasing online child predators. While it might sound like the intro to a superhero movie, documentarian Matt Gallagher attempts to show how these groups can sometimes lead to wanton cruelty, widespread harm and even criminality.

As Shamed documents, Nassr eventually found himself and his organization connected to a complicated court case, and more than one suicide. Speaking to relatives, law enforcement and Nassr himself, Gallagher pulls no punches in examining the apparent motivations behind online vigilantism, and the possibly tragic fallout of taking the law into your own hands.

As of Thursday morning, there were tickets available for its April 28 and May 2 showings.

If you're outside Toronto: Shamed is scheduled to air online and broadcast on TVO in the fall.

There is something beautifully strange about Ryan Sidhoo's The Track. The meditative sports documentary is ostensibly about a neglected Sarajevo bobsled, skeleton and luge track that was one of the fewer than 20 working complexes in the world. Now, it is a crumbling, bullet-marked testament to the Bosnian war, and Sidhoo documents former luge Olympian Senad Omanovic's determined effort to keep it — and the sport he loves — from disappearing forever.

But as Sidhoo follows Omanovic and the group of Olympic hopefuls training under him, The Track becomes something more. The beautifully shot, majestically scored and professionally paced doc is as much an examination of the indomitable nature of hope as it is the wonderfully odd sport at its core. 

Tickets for its April 27 and April 30 showings were available as of Thursday morning.

If you're outside Toronto: The Track is set for a wide release this fall, shortly ahead of the 2026 Winter Olympics.

The Associated Press war correspondent Mstyslav Chernov put his life at risk while making 20 Days in Mariupol, the Oscar-winning documentary focusing on the first days of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

2000 Meters to Andriivka is, incredibly, more of the same. Embedded with a group of Ukranian soldiers at the frontline, Chernov's newest documentary showcases the absurd human cost that must be paid simply to move two kilometres toward a small Ukrainian village. Firefights break out, military vehicles are bombed, and many die on both sides as Chernov's camera rolls. The result is a harrowing documentary, that's as vital as it is hard to watch.