Hot Docs is pleased to announce that Toronto-based producer Michael McNamara has been named this year’s recipient of the Don Haig Award.
The Award 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 selected by a jury of independent producers, including Merit Jensen Carr, Nick de Pencier and Michael McMahon. 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. McNamara is the producer of DAVID & ME (D: Ray Klonsky, Marc Lamy), which had its world premiere at Hot Docs on Sunday, April 27. He will be presented with a $5,000 cash prize, courtesy of the Don Haig Foundation, at the Hot Docs Awards on Friday, May 2.
"I couldn't be more thrilled to get this award," says McNamara. "Don Haig's generous spirit touched so many emerging film makers and helped build an entire industry. It's so fitting that this award is a part of Hot Docs. I've attended Hot Docs since the films were running on TV screens perched on bars along College Street. I love the festival, I love what it's doing for documentary and the city of Toronto, and I love everything this award stands for. I'm deeply honoured to receive it."
Michael McNamara has been an editor, a sound recordist, a cameraman, a writer, a producer and a director, sometimes all at once, for thirty years. Fourteen years ago, Michael started up Markham Street Films with partner Judy Holm, and has followed his passion for pop culture, music, art and science, writing and directing films such as 100 FILMS & A FUNERAL and ACQUAINTED WITH THE NIGHT, series like DRIVEN BY VISION and FANBOY CONFESSIONAL, and science docs such as LIGHTS OUT! which recently won an award at the AFO Science Film Festival in Olomouc, Czech Republic. Michael believes that there is truth in humour and his films invite us to explore the world with curiosity and warmth.
His creative talents in both documentary and scripted have resulted in excellence and awards for Markham Street Films and he has increasingly used these talents to work with young filmmakers, such as Ray Klonsky and Marc Lamy, co-directors of DAVID & ME at this year's Hot Docs, and Daniel Perlmutter, whose feature comedy BIG NEWS FROM GRAND ROCK will hit the festival circuit in the fall.
Past winners of the Don Haig Award include filmmakers 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).