If you can’t make it to the Hot Docs festival in Toronto, Hot Docs will come to you.

Kicking off on Thursday, Hot Docs is a highly anticipated fest that features just over 225 documentaries from around the globe. The fest is also a great opportunity to hear directly from the filmmakers. This year, 190 directors will ascend on Toronto to introduce their films and participate in post-screening audience Q&As.

If you can’t make it to T.O. this year, Hot Docs Festival will also be streaming nationwide. As always, there are way more docs to see than there is time to take them all in. If you happened to attend (or stream) the just concluded Seattle International Film Festival, you may have already seen a couple of the offerings.

“Navalny” (director Daniel Roher and Bulgarian investigative journalist Christo Grozev are slated to attend Hot Docs) was the opener at SIFF this year. Several other excellent docs to consider also played SIFF including, “Fire of Love,” “Framing Agnes,” “2nd Chance,” and “Riotsville, USA.” Other docs to put on your radar are “Crows Are White” and “The Thief Collector,” both of which we caught last month at SXSW.

There are plenty of other gems we are anticipating at this year’s Hot Docs fest. Among others, “Images of a Nordic Drama” which, after viewing the trailer, certainly has our interest piqued.

The fest runs April 28 to May 8. Find out more about Hot Docs and ticket packages here.