According to indieWIRE the audience at Hot Docs jumped 42% from 2008 to 2009 and had record breaking numbers this year (122,000). This is fantastic news for a festival with such a superb line-up of documentaries. The top 10 audience votes reflect just a tiny percent (and range) of the films screened:

1. The Cove (D: Louie Psihoyos; USA)
2. 65_RedRoses (D: Philip Lyall, Nimisha Mukerji; Canada)
3. Inside Hana’s Suitcase (D: Larry Weinstein; Canada, Czech Republic)
4. Best Worst Movie (D: Michael Paul Stephenson; USA)
5. A Hard Name (D: Alan Zweig; Canada)
6. Over The Hills and Far Away (D: Michel Orion Scott; USA)
7. Winnebago Man (D: Ben Steinbauer; USA)
8. Burma VJ (D: Anders Hogsbro Ostergaard; Denmark)
9. Rough Aunties (D: Kim Longinotto; UK)
10. Prom Night In Mississippi (D: Paul Saltzman; Canada)

The jury winners are here. Embarrassingly I hadn’t seen many of the jury winners but I’m very glad that Chung-ryoul Lee won the HBO Documentary Films Emerging Artist Award for Old Partner, one of my favorite films of the fest and one I had been longing to see ever since I heard people singing its praises at Sundance. The film I have been absolutely obsessed with is Renzo Martens’ Episode 3 – Enjoy Poverty. I’m waiting for Hot Docs to post video of the Q&A Martens gave after the first screening and I’m formulating a longer post about making documentaries about Africa and the politics of impact and aid. To this end I’ll be attending the Envision event on Thursday at the DGA in NYC to watch Rough Aunties and Pray the Devil Back to Hell. We’ll see how the panel Seeing Africa Through African Eyes tackles the issue!

I had a chance to attend the first North American Good Pitch at the TDF at Hot Docs – many of the issues around social change and documentaries came up during this event too so more thoughts on this to come shortly as well. The next Good Pitch will be at SILVERDOCS in June by the way – you can see the 8 projects selected on the BRITDOC website.

For now here are some photos documenting various Hot Docs hi-jinks.

Jess Search and Katie Bradford from BRITDOC (over from London to run the Good Pitch) talking to SXSW’s Janet Pierson at the British party hosted by Sheffield Doc/Fest and BRITDOC. The party took place the night I arrived and in true British style much booze was consumed!

Judith Helfand (Working Films, Chicken & Egg, filmmaker – this woman wears many amazing hats!) with Julie Goldman from Cactus Three.

Danielle DiGiacomo (indiePix), Yung Chang (director of the brilliant Up the Yangtze who had a short called Ali Shan at Hot Docs this year), Pamela Cohn (if you’re into docs and you don’t read her blog Still in Motion you’re a fool!) – this photo was taken at the hilarious Winnebago Man party. We got moved from the original hotel room where we were being a bit loud and ended up in a conference room in the wee hours.

Judith Helfand, Mark Atkin (SBS, Australia) and Joel Heller (one of the producers behind Winnebago Man which is definitely becoming a must-see doc this year. It’s a great film, full of complexity and warmth which you may not expect if you’ve only seen the original viral video.)

We took over the blackboard in the conference room and added some of our own 1AM thoughts to the corporate nonsense that was already on there. “ARTISINAL CHEESE” is my contribution in case you’re wondering.

Sean Farnel, Hot Docs programmer, posted this slide show from the festival’s annual press conference to his excellent Seafar blog. You get to hear about some of the films screening this year without even having to read anything. Magic!

I love Hot Docs and will be there again this year so look forward to seeing some of you in Toronto!

Hot Docs 2009 Press Conference Slideshow from seafar on Vimeo.

No this hasn’t turned into a food blog. But I know I wittered on and on to a lot of people in Austin about all the amazing food I was eating and I feel like you should share the food joy too. I should add that I was mostly vegetarian until I went to Austin for SXSW for the first time in 2004. I still feel terribly guilty about eating meat and I’m back to my veggie ways again now but when in Rome… drink in an Irish pub and all that!

These were my favorite places this year:

BBQ: Stubbs

Mexican: Polvos

Cupcakes: Hey Cupcake

Breakfast: Magnolia Cafe (Everybody Knows, Everybody Goes), 1886 Cafe &  Bakery at the Driskill (an old favorite) and the lovely Bouldin Creek Cafe (a new and really fantastic discovery)

Sunday brunch: Moonshine

These pictures are not exactly appetizing, they’re more Martin Parr-eque terrifying. BBQ and Mexican food tastes better than it looks I think, especially when it’s me taking the photos with my little digital camera.

And this was the Texas Carne Asada Massacre at Polvos with Jamie Jay Johnson, Mike Palmieri and Donal Mosher – tortillas have never looked so disturbing!

When your own mother tells you you’re behind on your blog you KNOW you’d better get to it!

This was the first year I didn’t stay for the music at SXSW but I had a great and busy time at both the Film and Interactive Festivals. It’s tricky to try to do both because there isn’t really enough time to do either one justice but the Interactive panels are fascinating and cover all sorts of topics that filmmakers need to be thinking about these days: audience, marketing, copyright, new technology. I saw some great films, particularly Aron Gaudet’s The Way We Get By, Ben Steinbauer’s Winnebago Man, Gary Hustwit’s Objectified, Bradley Beesley’s Sweethearts of the Prison Rodeo and finally Michael Paul Stephensen’s hilarious Best Worst Movie.

I also ate a LOT of great Austin food but more about that later.

Some photos from my Austin (I love that town!) adventures.

At the party after the fantastic premiere of Sweethearts of the Prison Rodeo: Malcolm Pullinger (Editor and Producer of Winnebago Man), Bradley Beesley (Director of Sweethearts), James Payne (Producer of Sweethearts)

Winnebago Man Producer Joel Heller whispers into the very cool, very weird ear broach of Sweethearts Producer (and IFP Deputy Director) Amy Dotson

Malcolm and Joel on the Winnebago right before the sold out premiere of Winnebago Man

Winnebago Man Director Ben Steinbauer with Jack “Do me a Kindness” Rebney himself after the premiere

Winnebago celebrations at the IFP Festival Direct party on Saturday night: Malcolm, Joel and Ben

Standing in the Convention Center, Matt Golding is persuaded to see Jamie Jay Johnson’s Sounds Like Teen Spirit

At the party before Sounds Like Teen Spirit (which involved a Euro pub-quiz and an egg throwing competition): Gary Hustwit (at SXSW with Objectified) with James Lees (at SXSW with his short film Pockets)

BRITDOC’s Jess Search holds up one of the many strange and wonderfully European prizes at the Sounds Like Teen Spirit quiz with Director Jamie Jay Johnson

Three very lovely people: Michael Palmieri (who was at True/False earlier in the month with October Country), Malcolm Pullinger and Donal Mosher (co-director of October Country)

It turns out Mike is a total pro (and winner) at the egg throwing competition – the style! the perfect form!

AJ Schnack (All These Wonderful Things) and Karina Longworth (Spout)

Basil Tsiokos (who was on the Documentary Competition Jury) and Sky Sitney (Silverdocs) – Sky is proudly showing off her rosette for participating in the egg throwing competition!

Q&A after the gently powerful The Way We Get By: Aron Gaudet (Director), Gita Pullapilly (Producer) and Dan Ferrigan (Cinematographer)

After an incredible dinner at Polvos we got a ride back into town on a very crowded Winnebago! Me, Mark Rosenberg (Rooftop Films) and Lina Srivastava (social change strategist and my lovely roommate during SXSW along with the equally lovely Katrin Verclas)

I’m stuck in an airport hotel in St Louis. Lots of flights have been canceled because of bad weather in NYC but I’m still feeling the happy glow from True/False and a wifi connection is a wifi connection so all is not lost.

Saturday and Sunday were jam-packed with great screenings and super-fun parties. More on the films to come but here is the final installment of photos.

True/False is on the telly!

Buskers before the final screening of The Yes Men Fix The World in the beautiful and newly renovated Missouri Theatre – they did a banjo version of Paradise City. Yup.

The Rowdy Bunch: Nate Truesdell, Josh Weinstein, Todd Sklar, Jamie Jay Johnson, Danielle DiGiacomo, Natalie Difford and me

Men with great hair: Jamie Jay Johnson and Josh Weinstein

Bryan Stamp (Participant Media), Brian Brooks (indieWIRE) and David Wilson (True/False)

Jamie, me and Nicholas Abrahams (his film The Posters Came From The Walls is really good and very funny – it looks at Depeche Mode fandom all over the world in hilarious sequences that add up to something entirely pleasing)

The most excellent Ionic Furjanic got us all dancing at a party on the final night

The March March parade up Broadway makes everyone smile. I was talking to someone about it afterwards and she said how nice it was to see grown-ups jumping up and down and grinning inanely and what an incredible sense of community an anarchic parade like this creates. Amen! Here’s the evidence.

This fine lady was giving out buttons that said I AM LOVED in lots of different languages

Esther Robinson (a Swami here this year), with Sky Sitney (Silverdocs)

Stephanie Skaff, AJ Schnack, Mark Rosenberg (Rooftop Films) and David Wilson (True/False – whoo hoo!!!) – apologies to all for my over-enthusiastic flash

Natalie Difford (Chicken & Egg), Brent Hoff (Wholphin), and me

The legendary Exene Cervenka busks before Sounds Like Teen Spirit (I was too awestruck to get close enough to take a proper picture)

Me, Jess Search (BRITDOC) and Jamie Jay Johnson after Jamie’s packed screening of Sounds Like Teen Spirit. I’m utterly biased but I enjoyed the screening immensely and I think everyone else did too. Hooray!

I arrived in Columbia, Missouri yesterday and was immediately swallowed up into the documentary joys of True/False (not to mention the excellent cheeseburgers at Booches). I’m about to join the March March parade up Broadway and then see Ondi Timoner’s We Live in Public followed by Jamie Jay Johnson’s Sounds Like Teen Spirit. My kind of Friday night! Here are some photos from the last 24 hours.

True/False cupcakes in the Ragtag

Me in a Jamie Jay Johnson (Director of Sounds Like Teen Spirit) and Nicholas Abrahams (Co-Director of The Posters Came From The Walls) sandwich

Brian Brooks (indieWIRE), AJ Schnack (All These Wonderful Things blog), Rachel Rosen (LA Film Festival) and Karina Longworth (Spout blog)

Jamie Jay Johnson, Jess Search (BRITDOC) and Heather Croall (Sheffield Doc/Fest) – so great to see these lovely people here in the middle of America.

Havana Marking (Director of Afghan Star) and Pamela Cohn (Still in Motion blog)

Todd Griffin (composer, musician, member of The Quavers) and Matt Dentler (Cinetic)

I’m getting perilously close to the sell-by date on this meme, so having been tagged by both Danielle DiGiacomo and Yance Ford I am finally getting my meme on.

Here goes:

1. Favorite feature: Burma VJ by Anders Ostergaard (incredibly powerful, like being punched in the stomach – this shows what documentaries can do that the news simply can’t, it’s not just about footage but about story and characters and context)

2. Most problematic/interesting/thought-provoking feature: Boy Interupted by Dana Perry (I found the portrayal of childhood mental illness fascinating and very disturbing and was floored by the ability of his parents to make a film about their son’s suicide at age 15 with such unflinching courage and honesty)

3. Favorite short film: So The Wind Won’t Blow It All Away by Annie P. Waldman, Utopia Part 3: The World’s Largest Shopping Mall by Sam Greene and Carrie Lozano, I Live in the Woods by Max Winston (made me laugh)

4. Film most regrettably missed: Sergio, Push, We Live in Public, Humpday and The Cove (I missed a lot of films unfortunately)

5. Most fun party: The British/Afghan party – epic!

6. Best post-screening Q & A: Um, does The Panic Button panel count?

7. Favorite nonfiction character(s): The Rough Aunties in Kim Longinotto’s Rough Aunties

8. Most memorable moment: Inauguration Day in the Filmmakers Lodge – such a lovely, warm, happy, optimistic morning

I think everyone I know has already been tagged so I’m not tagging anyone. Does that mean I killed a meme? Oh dear.

Please forgive my duplicate-blogging. I put this on the Festival Focus blog but I can’t resist adding it here too since Obama played such a large role in this year’s Sundance for me. The film was made by my wonderful condo mates Shooting People’s Jesse Epstein and Chicken & Egg Pictures’ Natalie Difford with music by Force Theory.

I love Helvetica and am really looking forward to seeing Hustwit’s latest film, Objectified, at SXSW in March. I can see long lines for this film too. I nearly didn’t get into the Helvetica screening at SXSW in 2007. The line went all the way through the convention hall because it was a joint Interactive/Film screening and everybody was going crazy over fonts. Look I have proof!

Here’s the trailer for Objectified.