The Bloor Hot Docs Cinema will be renamed the Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema, after a $4 million donation from the Rogers Foundation.

The foundation also launched a $1-million Hot Docs Ted Rogers Fund, that will go to Canadian filmmakers working on full-length documentaries.

“Doc-making has never been an easy way to earn a living, but it just got significantly more realistic for our Canadian filmmakers,” Hot Docs president Chris McDonald said in a statement on Thursday.

“Documentaries provide an urgently needed reflection of our society – warts and all. The Rogers Foundation’s generous support for doc-makers recognizes the depth of talent in this country, and provides them critical resources to tell their stories.”

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The fund will be doled out as production grants. Each year for the next ten years, the fund will disburse up to $35,000 each to three to four projects. Applications are available at hotdocs.ca.

Martha Rogers, chair of the Rogers Foundation and one of Ted Rogers’ children, said her father was ” a proud Canadian and a true lover of documentary, so this is a fitting legacy.”

“Hot Docs has a remarkable history of strengthening the documentary industry and supporting documentary filmmakers. We are proud to join their tradition with the establishment of the Hot Docs Ted Rogers Fund to provide direct funding to Canadian documentary filmmakers,” she added.

Next year’s Hot Docs runs from April 27 to May 7, 2017.

Disclaimer: Rogers Communications is the parent company of this website.

See an artist’s rendering of the new exterior of the cinema below: