Hot Docs, the world-class documentary film festival in Toronto, has announced some major personnel moves – elevating Diana Sanchez to president and bringing in Mara Gourd-Mercado to succeed Sanchez as executive director.
Gourd-Mercado, currently head of industry at CPH:DOX in Copenhagen, will report to Sanchez in her new role, which begins October 19. As president, Sanchez will “concentrate on the organization’s strategic direction — artistic oversight, government relations, business development, and major financial partnerships — while safeguarding Hot Docs’ long-term health and stability,” according to a release.
The nonprofit Hot Docs, which will celebrate its 34th edition next year, also announced that Julie Bristow will serve as chair of the organization’s board of directors, while Aaron Zeghers will serve as vice-chair.
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Sanchez tells Deadline the moves are part of “creating a really solid foundation” for Hot Docs, “future-proofing the organization… But the proof will be in the pudding.”
In a statement, Bristow, the board chair, praised “the phenomenal work [Sanchez] has done to stabilize and elevate Hot Docs. As we look to the future, this enhanced executive leadership team enables Diana to focus on what matters most: taking Hot Docs to the next level while ensuring it is financially secure, resilient, and nimble.”
Just two years ago, before Sanchez’s arrival as executive director, Hot Docs warned it might go under as it faced a financial crisis emerging from the pandemic, a time of enormous challenge for many festivals including Sundance and Montreal’s Just For Laughs. It temporarily shut down its Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema and laid off some staff.
The 2024 turmoil extended beyond the financial into board governance and artistic operations. Shortly before that year’s festival,10 programmers abruptly left, followed quickly by the resignation of then-Artistic Director Hussain Currimbhoy. Two board members also resigned in the middle of that year’s event.
Sanchez says Hot Docs is on the right track, and pointed to a successful 2026 edition, which ran from April 23 to May 3.
“I think last festival was a real indication, and I think great example of what Hot Docs can deliver,” Sanchez observes. “That’s what I told my team… ‘Let’s just make something great. And then there’ll be word of mouth and people will want to come.’ You can’t do it backwards. You actually have to work on what you’re delivering first, and then that’s when people are going to come back.”
To foster stability and growth, she says, “You look at your revenue mix and one of the things I’d like to do is focus on earned revenue, more on that for the coming years. And that’s what I mean by future proofing. It’s like creating these great programs, diversifying our revenue mix, bringing people back by offering something that’s really exciting, being very intentional about what we are actually putting on — ‘You have to live within your means’ kind of thing. So, this year we did the Forum in our cinema, which was great, and people love that experience. And we had a great little delegate lounge close by that was really an intimate space… where people could meet, go and grab coffee. Making it easy for the industry to meet and do business I think is also top of mind.”
From her perspective at CPH:DOX, Gourd-Mercado says she saw a renewed appreciation this year for the importance of Hot Docs. “You see the excitement of the people that were there at the [2026] edition. I think that it’s going to only build for the coming editions,” she says, expressing enthusiasm for joining Hot Docs “to participate in building activities and to building a festival where people are going to be excited to go.”
As executive director, per the news release, “Gourd-Mercado will lead day-to-day operations and fiscal management of the organization and the festival, including festival and industry fundraising, with an additional focus on industry programming, including a revitalized Hot Docs Forum, and ties with the Francophone doc community in Canada and abroad.”
As an Argentinian Canadian and native of Montreal who grew up speaking French, Gourd-Mercado is well situated not only to connect with Canada’s Francophone community, but with documentary makers throughout the Americas as well.
“We want to make sure that we are showcasing stories that speak to the moment that we are in now, and that’s globally, not only locally,” notes Gourd-Mercado. “The Americas and Latin America and South America have a lot of great documentary makers. When you look at an event like Conecta in Chile or you look at BAM [Bogotá Audiovisual Market] in Bogotá [Colombia], you can see the incredible amount of projects that are coming out of those regions and those storytellers. And I think it’s our duty as international festivals to also showcase them.”
Gourd-Mercado, Sanchez, and Isabel Arrate Fernández – IDFA’s artistic director, who is the child of Chilean political exiles – are among leaders in the documentary festival space who bring international experience and ties to Latin America to their work.
“I oversaw Latin American cinema at TIFF for many years. And I was a founding artistic director of the Panama Film Festival,” Sanchez notes. “I also worked with the Los Angeles Latino Film Festival, a wonderful festival as well, every June. There is a very strong tradition of documentary filmmaking from Latin America that’s really informed a lot of my work. And we want to bring in this international experience into Hot Docs as well. We have that kind of vision, which is I think very exciting.”
Sanchez’s appointment as Hot Docs president is effective immediately. The 2027 edition of Hot Docs, set for April 23-May 2, is sure to feature a lineup of world premieres and acclaimed documentaries from around the globe. Along with programming a first-class lineup, Sanchez says there’s another dimension to the festival-going experience that she and her colleagues intend to bear in mind.
“If you’re a great host, people will also want to come back,” she affirms, “and we’re putting a lot of effort into that.”
