Hot Docs is proud to honour Oscar®, Emmy and Peabody nominated Canadian producer Cornelia Principe with the prestigious Hot Docs Don Haig Award at the 2025 Festival. Principe is the producer behind Shamed (D: Matt Gallagher), in which an online vigilante, self-described as the “Creeper Hunter,” seeks out potential sexual predators and ambushes them in videotaped confrontations, exposing them to the court of public opinion.
The Hot Docs Don Haig Award, celebrating its 20th anniversary at this year’s Festival, is presented to an outstanding Canadian independent producer with a feature-length film at the Festival, with the recipient being selected by a jury of independent filmmakers. The Award recognizes creative vision and entrepreneurship, as reflected in the recipient’s body of work, as well as a track record of mentoring emerging Canadian filmmakers. Principe will be presented with a $5,000 cash prize, courtesy of the Don Haig Foundation.
“For many reasons, this recognition is particularly special for me,” said Cornelia Principe, 2025 Hot Docs Don Haig Award Recipient. “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.”
Cornelia Principe is an independent producer whose documentary films have collectively screened at well over 100 national and international film festivals, been broadcast all over the world, and garnered numerous awards and distinctions, including: an Academy Award® nomination for Best Feature Documentary; Emmy Nomination for Outstanding Coverage of a Current News Story; Peabody nomination for Documentary; Best Documentary Feature, Jury Award Winner, Tribeca Film Festival; Best Canadian Documentary, Hot Docs; Audience Choice Award, Hot Docs; TIFF’s Canada’s Top Ten; Ted Rogers Best Feature Documentary, Canadian Screen Awards, and Sundance Film Forward Program.
Principe is currently releasing the feature documentaries Shamed, which premieres at Hot Docs 2025, and Russians at War. Russians at War had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival 2024, followed by the North American premiere at TIFF. Other credit highlights include To Kill a Tiger (2022), which premiered at TIFF 2022 where it won the Amplify Voices Award for Best Canadian Feature Film, and was subsequently nominated for an Academy Award® and a Peabody, and won the CSA Ted Rogers Best Feature Documentary; the award-winning feature Prey (2019); the Emmy-nominated documentary The World Before Her (2012); and the award-winning documentary series Diamond Road (2008).
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.
Past winners of the Hot Docs Don Haig Award include producers Alison Duke (2024), Bonnie Thompson (2023), Mila Aung-Thwin (2022), Lalita Krishna (2021), Bob Moore (2020), Peter Raymont (2019), Ina Fichman (2018), Daniel Cross (2017), Ed Barreveld (2016), Anne Pick (2015), Michael McNamara (2014), Merit Jensen Carr (2013), Mia Donovan (2012), Rama Rau (2011), Philip Lyall and Nimisha Mukerji (2010), Brett Gaylor (2009), Yung Chang (2008), Hubert Davis (2007), and Guylaine Dionne (2006).