Banff World Media Festival
The Banff World Media Festival (formerly known as the Banff World Television Festival) is an international media event held in the Canadian Rockies at the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel in Banff, Alberta, Canada. The festival is dedicated to world television and digital content and its creation and development, and is owned and operated by Brunico Communications.[2]
Banff World Media Festival | |
---|---|
Frequency | Annual |
Location(s) | Banff, Alberta, Canada. |
Inaugurated | 1980[1] | as the Banff World Television Festival
As well as honouring excellence in international television, professionals from around the world participate in seminars, master classes, and pitching opportunities. Film directors, screenwriters, and producers from PBS, BBC, NHK, Arte, Channel 4, ABC, Sony Pictures, HBO, CBC, NFB, ICP (Israel Cable Programming), SBS, and many other broadcasters and production companies attend the annual event.[3]
The festival provides a global platform for industry members to discuss and debate, and explore current issues, challenges and trends.[4]
Awards
The festival features an international program competition, the Banff Rockie Awards. Past winners include PBS for The Hobart Shakespeareans and No Direction Home: Bob Dylan, ICP for Aaron Cohen's Debt, BBC and HBO for The Children of Beslan, NHK for Children Full of Life, BBC and WGBH for Bleak House, and Arte for Fellini: I'm a Born Liar.
The awards ceremony also bestows the Sir Peter Ustinov Comedy Award. Past recipients of the award include John Cleese, Dame Edna, Bob Newhart, Martin Short, Tracey Ullman, Kelsey Grammer, Ricky Gervais, Craig Ferguson, Shane Smith, Brent Butt, and Suroosh Alvi. Jan Randall was music director and Composer for the awards from 1995 to 2007.
References
- Barry Turner, ed. (2008). "Festivals". The Screenwriter's Handbook. New York: St. Martin's Griffin. p. 267. ISBN 978-0312379544. Retrieved 2013-04-20.
- "Popular TV shows trace origins back to Banff". Rocky Mountain Outlook, June 22, 2017.
- "CBC Executives at Banff" The Star
- ARTE Magazine, Issue 39, 23 November 2006, p. 30.