Hot Docs is pleased to announce that Toronto-based producer Anne Pick has been named this year’s recipient of the Don Haig Award. The Award, now in its tenth year, is presented by the Hot Docs Board of Directors to an outstanding Canadian independent producer with a feature-length film in competition at the Festival, and is selected by a jury of independent producers. The Award recognizes creative vision and entrepreneurship, as reflected in the recipient’s body of work and Festival film, as well as a track record of mentoring emerging Canadian filmmakers. Pick is the producer of A Different Drummer, Celectring Eccentrics (D: John Zaritsky), which had its Toronto premiere at Hot Docs on Sunday, April 26. She will be presented with a $5,000 cash prize, courtesy of the Don Haig Foundation, at the Hot Docs Awards on Friday, May 1.
“This is truly an honour,” says Pick. “Don was one of the first people I went to for advice when I decided to set out on my own to make docs. He told me to fight to tell the stories I wanted to tell, make a difference and get joy and inspiration from the people I’d meet along the way. I've tried to do that. He also threw in a dose of reality: that it wouldn’t be easy, I probably wouldn’t get rich but that I’d have a good life! All pearls of wisdom that I continue to share with young filmmakers today.”
Anne Pick is an award-winning independent producer, director and story editor. Under her company banner Real to Reel Productions, she has a reputation for engaging and popular, character driven productions in a variety of genres including Gambing of Extinction: Animism: People Who Love Objects: Iris Chang: The Rape of Nanking, and series such as Foodstuff and Fire Station; Out in the Cold; and Canadians.
Anne’s passion for storytelling has resulted in many awards including a Canadian Gemini, an Australian AFI, a Chinese Golden Panda, Columbus Chris Awards and her programs have been screened at Festivals and distributed widely around the world. A brilliant innovator, she was one of the first to switch from film to tape with ground breaking doc series Canadians, launched one of Canada’s first Cable Networks (Life) with high rating, award-winning series Harrowsmith Country Life, and was producing ‘green’ programming before the phrase was coined. Anne also produced the first official documentary treaty co-production between Canada and Australia, Helen’s War: Portrait of a Dissident, which won her many awards.
Past winners of the Don Haig Award include filmmakers 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).