Jill Soloway Creator of Amazon’s Award-Winning Series Transparent and Amazon Studios To Be Honored at Banff World Media Festival


Soloway To Receive BANFF’s Showrunner of the Year Award

Amazon Studios to Receive BANFF’s Award of Innovation

Toronto May 14 2015—Creator and Writer of Amazon’s multi-Golden Globe award-winning series Transparent Jill Soloway and  Amazon Studios, are both set to be honored at the upcoming Banff World Media Festival. Soloway will be presented with BANFF’s Showrunner of the Year Award for her accomplishments on her award winning series Transparent. Soloway will receive the Award during BANFF’s Rockie Awards Program Competition Ceremony on Monday, June 8. Amazon Studios will be presented Banff’s Award of Innovation for their amazing innovation and success in original programming.

Soloway will also present an exclusive Master Class to open programming for the 2015 BANFF Fest on Transparent that will dissect the series.. Transparent made history as the first online series to ever win a Best Television Series-Musical or Comedy Award, at the 2014 Golden Globes.

Written, directed and executive produced by multi-award winner Soloway, Transparent is a half hour novelistic series that explores family, identity, sex, and love. The series stars Tambor as Maura, who has spent her life as Mort—the Pfefferman family patriarch. When she reintroduces herself to her family, everyone’s secrets finally start to come out. This includes her ex-wife Shelly (played by Light), and their children—meandering Ali (played by Hoffmann), record producer Josh (played by Duplass), and sexually conflicted Sarah (played by Landecker). Each family member spins in a different direction as they begin to figure out who they are going to become.

“Jill Soloway has made history with Transparent, a game changing series which has really shifted the traditional television landscape, while Amazon Studios has really revolutionized the current entertainment climate with their innovative programming model,” said Ferne Cohen, Executive Director of the Banff World Media Festival. “We are delighted to honor them both at this year’s Banff World Media Festival. We are delighted to welcome them to BANFF and give our delegates access to such incredible talent and creativity.”

Jill Soloway is an accomplished Director. She picked up a DGA Award this year in the Comedy Series category for Transparent’s episode Best New Girl. In 2013, she won the US Dramatic Directing Award at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival for her first feature, Afternoon Delight, which was released by Cinedigm/Film Arcade. She is also a three-time Emmy nominee for her work writing and producing Six Feet Under. She co-created the theater experiences Real Live Brady Bunch, Miss Vagina Pageant, Hollywood Hellhouse and Sit N Spin, and co-founded the community organization East Side Jews.

The Banff World Media Festival has unveiled its full schedule for the 2015 Festival. For details visit the Banff Schedule page to brows through the program. Registration is also currently available at: http://banffmediafestival.com/

About the Banff World Media Festival

The Banff World Media Festival is the world’s largest and most important gathering of entertainment industry and digital media executives dedicated to media content development, production, broadcast and distribution within TV and digital media. BANFF provides a platform for the evolving media industry to develop its creative and business objectives – it serves as the leading destination for co-production and co-venture partners and is an unparalleled marketplace for over 2,000 international decision-makers to connect with new partners, learn from industry leaders and execute new business deals. The 36th annual BANFF World Media Festival will take place June 7-10, 2015 at the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel in Banff, Canada.