Cornelia Principe is the winner of the Don Haig Award at Hot Docs this year. The festival announced the news today via a release. The award, which carries a cash prize of $5,000 courtesy of the Don Haig Foundation, honours a veteran producer who has a film among the official selections at Hot Docs. This year, Principe’s documentary Shamed, directed by her partner and frequent collaborator Matt Gallagher, screens in the Canadian Spectrum Competition. Shamed offers a riveting exposé of an online vigilante who entrapped men he believed to be sexual predators and exposed them on his online platform with tragic consequences. (Read more about the film in POV #123.)
Principe marks the 20th winner of the Don Haig Award, which recognizes a producer’s innovation in addition to her or his history of mentoring talents. Principe recently scored an Oscar nomination for producing To Kill a Tiger, directed by Nisha Pahuja, which scored the first Oscar nom for a Canadian feature documentary in over 35 years. The film won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Documentary and Best Canadian Feature at TIFF.
The award also comes following a turbulent run on the fall festival circuit for Principe, whose documentary Russians at War, directed by Anastasia Trofimova was rocked by bogus charges of being Russian propaganda before it even screened at the Toronto International Film Festival. (It had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival.) The board at TVO pulled its funding and TIFF was forced to defer screenings until after the festival due to security concerns. The film generally drew praise from those who actually saw it as a troubling and eye-opening portrait of the Russian army in disarray.
“For many reasons, this recognition is particularly special for me,” said Principe in a statement from Hot Docs. “I attended the very first Hot Docs back in 1994 as a newbie to this industry and have attended each year since – Hot Docs has been an annual touchstone for my growth as a filmmaker and as a person. I even met my husband at Hot Docs. Don Haig left an indelible impression on me as I was starting out. So, to now receive an award in his name, at Hot Docs, and to be included in a group of producers whose work I respect and admire is a huge honour. Thank you.”
Other documentaries in Principe’s body of work as an independent producer include Prey (2019), which won the Canadian Audience Award at Hot Docs; The World Before Her (2012), which won Best Canadian Feature at Hot Docs and Best Documentary Feature at Tribeca, and scored an Emmy nomination; #Blessed (2020), directed by Ali Weinstein; and How to Prepare for Prison (2016) and Dispatches from a Field Hospital (2021), both directed by Matt Gallagher.
Principe will receive the 2025 Hot Docs Don Haig Award at the Hot Docs Awards Presentation on Friday, May 2. The jury for this year’s Hot Docs Don Haig Award consisted of last year’s winner Alison Duke, 2023’s winner Bonnie Thompson, and Hot Docs board co-chair Nicholas de Pencier.
Other winners of the Hot Docs Don Haig Award include Mila Aung-Thwin (2022), Lalita Krishna (2021), and Bob Moore (2020).
