Filmmakers, documentary fans and industry delegates from around the world have descended on Toronto for the 15th annual Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival.

Officially kicking off on Thursday, festival organizers will screen 173 films during the 11-day event.

This year's opening film is Anvil! The Story of Anvil, a U.S.-made profile of the aging heavy metal rockers from Toronto as they embark on a new tour and record a new album.

The opening Canadian entry is Air India 182, in which acclaimed filmmaker Sturla Gunnarsson reconstructs how the deadly attack took place, weaving in stark interviews with the families of the victims, RCMP officers, rescue workers and, remarkably, the airline workers who loaded the suitcase carrying the bomb onto the doomed flight.

Standard Operating Procedure, award-winning U.S. filmmaker Errol Morris' examination of the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal, is among the notable films on the Hot Docs bill. The titles are broken into a handful of different programs, such as special presentations, Canadian spectrum, international spectrum and world showcase.

Other film highlights include:

• All Together Now, a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of Cirque du Soleil's Beatles-themed show Love.
• Dr. James Orbinski's Humanitarian Dilemma, which follows the former Doctors Without Borders head as he returns to Somalia and Rwanda.
• General Idea: Art, AIDS and the Fin de Siècle, a chronicle of the Toronto-based art collective and surviving member AA Bronson.
• Green Porno, Isabella Rossalini's series of one-minute short films in which the famed actress and filmmaker — clothed as insects and other creatures — re-enacts the sex lives of tiny critters.
• Stranded, recounts the tale of the 1972 Uruguayan rugby team who, after crashing into the Andes Mountains, were forced to consume human remains to survive. The film accompanies the survivors as they return to the crash site more than 35 years later.
• Citizen Havel, a look at Vaclav Havel's career spanning his life as a playwright through his term as president of the Czech Republic.

Organizers will also screen films in several special programs, including separate spotlights on Iranian and Mexican filmmakers. Next will focus on films about artists and the artistic process, while the Make Me a Believer lineup features films about practising faith.

Canadian filmmaker Jennifer Baichwal and British-American icon Richard Leacock are being honoured with retrospectives.

Aside from the film screenings, Hot Docs also comprises an industry component. Organizers will present a range of related programs and services for the more than 1,700 industry delegates expected at this year's event.

Hot Docs runs until April 27.