Daniel Kokotajlo’s second  world premiere at the London Film Festival has been acquired by Brainstorm Media and BFI Distribution. 

The Hunger Acre, a horror thriller by British writer and director Daniel Kokotajlo (Apostasy), starring Morfydd Clark (The Ring of Power) and Matt Smith (The Crown), signed a US-UK deal. 

Cornerstone handled the film’s multi-territorial sales; Brainstorm Media acquired North American distribution rights  and BFI Distribution handled the US and Irish broadcasts. The deal was completed following the film’s world premiere at the BFI London Film Festival, where it was screened in competition. Additional opportunities include: 

The International Award for Best Film Actor was awarded to Ismael Vasquez Bernabe, director of The Weavers’ Songs, a Mexican record about weaving in San Pedro Amuzgos, Oaxaca. Canada’s best-selling film, Pablo Alvarez-Mesa’s Soldier’s Lagoon, tells the story of Simón Bolívar’s campaign to liberate Colombia two centuries ago. 

The Special Jury Prize for  Canadian Film Documentary was awarded to directors Michael Mabbott and Lucah Rosenberg-Lee for No Other: The Jackie Shane Story, about  pioneering black people leaving the scene in Nashville. too high. With Standing Above the Clouds, Erin Lau and Amber Espinosa-Jones, winners of the 

Best Social Media Award, is about the journey of three native Hawaiian families to protect the sacred mountain where a telescope will be installed on Mauna Kea. 

Also on Friday evening, Haitian film actor Raoul Peck received the best award in Toronto. The awards ceremony brought an end to the chaos of 2024 at Hot Docs when artistic director Hussain Currimbhoy and ten programmers suddenly left the event’s planning team before it began on April 25. 

According to organizer Hot Docs, a total of 15 awards were presented at the ceremony, which was held due to limited capacity at the Innovation Center in Toronto on Friday evening. 

The departure of Currimbhoy and the programming team prompted Hot Docs president Marie Nelson, the former ABC News and Disney executive who took over the first Canadian festival in June 2023, to appoint Heather Haynes as the event’s director and announce the finale to  the festival. movies directly. Hot Docs started earlier this year.