Black Zombie Awarded Hot Docs-CISF Connect Audience Engagement Grant

At the Hot Docs Awards on May 1, the new Hot Docs-CISF CONNECT Audience Engagement Grant was announced.

The Hot Docs-CISF CONNECT Audience Engagement Grant was created by the CISF in partnership with Hot Docs. The $10,000 grant supports a Canadian documentary by a Black, Indigenous, or racialized creator that screened at Hot Docs 2026 to help execute their audience engagement plans. This initiative reflects a shared commitment to ensuring that important stories not only get made—but also reach and resonate with audiences.

About the film

Black Zombie digs beneath the blood-soaked spectacle of modern horror to uncover the zombie’s buried origins. Born from enslavement, spiritual belief, and resistance, it first emerged in Haiti before becoming one of pop culture’s most profitable monsters. The film traces its evolution from Vodou, to White Zombie, Night of the Living Dead and The Serpent and the Rainbow. Part cultural reckoning, part horror remix, Black Zombie is a bold reclamation of Haitian Vodou and celebration of the only nation forged through a successful slave uprising. Featuring Yves-Grégory Francois, Anderson Mojica, Erol Josué, Mambo Labelle Déesse Botanica, Slash, Tom Savini, Tananarive Due, and Zandashé Brown.

About the filmmaker

Maya Annik Bedward (Director & Writer) is an Afro-Caribbean-Canadian film director whose work blends history, resistance, and pop culture through bold, genre-bending storytelling. Her work has screened at TIFF, Hot Docs, BlackStar, and the New Orleans Film Festival. Her credits include the short films The Haircut (2018) and Why We Fight (2021), as well as the TV series LIDO TV (2022) and BLK: An Origin Story (2022). She is a founding member of the Black Screen Office, championing stories that center Black creativity and power.

"We're incredibly grateful to receive the CISF Connect Audience Engagement Fund for Black Zombie. By tracing the zombie's origins in Haitian Vodou and histories of Black resistance, the film challenges audiences to rethink one of popular culture's most enduring icons and confront larger questions of race and representation in cinema. This support will help us bring those conversations to communities across North America through dialogue, education, and cultural exchange." -Maya Annik Beward, Director & Writer, Black Zombie

The grant is part of CISF CONNECT, a national marketing and audience development program designed to help creators build meaningful and sustainable relationships with audiences. Through targeted support for marketing and engagement activities, the program empowers filmmakers to expand the reach and impact of their work beyond the festival circuit.