‘Eternal Spring’ Takes Rogers Audience and Hot Docs Audience Awards
Jennie Punter Hot Docs has wrapped its 11-day hybrid edition, handing out three more cash prizes, announcing audience top picks, and tipping the hat to the 225 films from 63 countries that screened during the festival.The animated documentary “Eternal Spring,” by Jason Loftus, won the Rogers Audience Award for Best Canadian Documentary, which comes with Cdn. $25,000 cash, and also claimed the top spot in the overall audience poll of cinemagoers and online doc-watchers.“Eternal Spring,” which had its North American premiere at Hot Docs and has racked up other awards this year at European festivals, mixes 3D and new live footage to trace the story of comic-book illustrator Daxiong (“Justice League,” “Star Wars”), a Falun Gong practitioner, who fled China after police began cracking down on members of the outlawed spiritual group.