# Toronto International Film Festival People's Choice Award: Documentaries

The Toronto International Film Festival People's Choice Award for Documentaries is an annual film award, presented by the Toronto International Film Festival to the film rated as the year's most popular documentary film with festival audiences. The award was first introduced in 2009; prior to its introduction, documentary films were eligible for the Toronto International Film Festival People's Choice Award, with two documentaries having won that award and six having been named as runners-up.
After the award is announced, the festival offers a repeat screening of the winner at the TIFF Bell Lightbox on the final day of the festival.
Unlike the main People's Choice Award for feature films, however, the documentary award does not have a similar record of being a reliable predictor of Academy Award nominations.

## Process

The voting process is the same as for the feature film People's Choice: at each documentary film screening, attendees are invited to "vote" for the film by rating it on their ticket stubs and leaving the stubs in voting boxes outside the theatre after the show.

## Winners

| Year | Film | Director(s) |
| 2009 | The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls | Leanne Pooley |
| 2009 | Capitalism: A Love Story | Michael Moore |
| 2010 | Force of Nature: The David Suzuki Movie | Sturla Gunnarsson |
| 2010 | Nostalgia for the Light | Patricio Guzman |
| 2011 | The Island President | Jon Shenk |
| 2011 | First Position | Bess Kargman |
| 2011 | Pearl Jam 20 | Cameron Crowe |
| 2012 | Artifact | Jared Leto |
| 2012 | Storm Surfers 3D | Christopher Nelius, Justin McMillan |
| 2012 | Revolution | Rob Stewart |
| 2013 | The Square (Al-Midan) | Jehane Noujaim |
| 2013 | Hi-Ho Mistahey! | Alanis Obomsawin |
| 2013 | Beyond the Edge | Leanne Pooley |
| 2014 | Beats of the Antonov | Hajooj Kuka |
| 2014 | Do I Sound Gay? | David Thorpe |
| 2014 | Seymour: An Introduction | Ethan Hawke |
| 2015 | Winter on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom | Evgeny Afineevsky |
| 2015 | This Changes Everything | Avi Lewis |
| 2015 | Al Purdy Was Here | Brian D. Johnson |
| 2016 | I Am Not Your Negro | Raoul Peck |
| Abacus: Small Enough to Jail | Steve James | |
| Before the Flood | Fisher Stevens | |
| 2017 | Faces Places | Agnès Varda, JR |
| Long Time Running | Jennifer Baichwal, Nicholas de Pencier | |
| Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken! | Morgan Spurlock | |
| 2018 | Free Solo | E. Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin |
| This Changes Everything | Tom Donahue | |
| The Biggest Little Farm | John Chester | |
| 2019 | The Cave | Feras Fayyad |
| I Am Not Alone | Garin Hovannisian | |
| Dads | Bryce Dallas Howard | |
| 2020 | Inconvenient Indian | Michelle Latimer |
| 2021 | The Rescue | Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin |
| Dionne Warwick: Don't Make Me Over | Dave Wooley, David Heilbroner | |
| Flee | Jonas Poher Rasmussen | |
| 2022 | Black Ice | Hubert Davis |
| Maya and the Wave | Stephanie Johnes | |
| 752 Is Not a Number | Babak Payami | |
| 2023 | Mr. Dressup: The Magic of Make-Believe | Robert McCallum |
| Summer Qamp | Jen Markowitz | |
| Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa | Lucy Walker | |
| 2024 | The Tragically Hip: No Dress Rehearsal | Mike Downie |
| Will & Harper | Josh Greenbaum | |
| Your Tomorrow | Ali Weinstein | |