Diane Weyermann, EVP of documentary films for Beverly Hills-based Participant Media, is to be the recipient of Hot Docs’ 2012 Doc Mogul Award.

The award is handed out annually by the Canadian film festival to individuals that have made “an essential contribution to the creative vitality of the documentary industry.”

Weyermann, who is also founder of the Sundance Documentary Fund, will receive the award at a luncheon to be held on May 1 during this year’s Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival.

“Diane’s imprint on the documentary world has been immeasurable. The Sundance Documentary Fund alone has supported hundreds of groundbreaking projects and award-winning filmmakers, and Diane’s work with Participant has produced some of the most important and successful documentary films of the past decade,” Hot Docs exec director Chris McDonald said in a statement.

Since joining Participant Media in 2005, Weyermann has overseen high-profile documentaries such as Errol Morris’ Standard Operating Procedure, Davis Guggenheim’s An Inconvenient Truth, Robert Kenner’s Food Inc and Ted Braun’s Darfur Now.

Prior to that she was director of the Sundance Institute’s Documentary Film Program and oversaw the Sundance Documentary Fund, which supports docs focusing on human rights, social justice and civil liberties. She was also part of the Sundance Film Festival’s programming team.

In 1996, she launched the Soros Documentary Fund (later the Sundance Documentary Fund) and has been involved in the production of more than 300 documentary films.

Past winners of the Doc Mogul Award include IDFA’s Ally Derks, Films Transit International’s Jan Rofekamp, HBO’s Sheila Nevins, the BBC’s Nick Fraser, and The Knowledge Network’s Rudy Buttignol.