Carrie Hunter, founding executive director of the Banff World Media Festival (BANFF), died on April 5 at the age of 83 following a brief illness.

Hunter (pictured) led the festival, which has become one of the world’s most influential international TV and media events, for 17 years.

In August 1979, Hunter led the first edition of BANFF after being asked by Fil Fraser, then president of the Banff Foundation, and David Leighton, then president of the Banff Centre, to join the festival’s founding team.

In a 2024 interview with the BANFF team, Hunter recalled the luck and timing of having stars like k.d. lang, appear at the festival months before hitting it big in those early days. In lang’s case, she won her first Grammy in 1990, a few months after performing at the festival.

Hunter’s daughter, Kendall Hunter, recalls being constantly inspired when she had a chance to work with her mother. “Meeting Walter Cronkite, Ted Turner and Jane Fonda and the journalists who’d covered [the Gulf War], was exceptional and I was privileged to have this exposure in my life,” she told Playback Daily. “Mom was consumed during those years. I often saw her busy and stressed, but I also saw a strong, confident woman making things happen. I’m sure it shaped my life almost as much as hers.”

The grit and tenacity Hunter brought to building the festival are why Jenn Kuzmyk, executive director of BANFF and publisher of Playback, says the event will honour her legacy by naming an existing Rockie Award that honours an up and coming Canadian producer/creator each year The Carrie Hunter Emerging Talent Prize.

“Carrie left us with an incredible legacy. Her boundless energy and a ‘dare to do’ attitude brought industry heavyweights and celebrities like Gregory Peck, Sir Laurence Olivier, Bea Arthur and even k.d. lang, to Banff,” says Kuzmyk. “It seemed a fitting tribute to honour her undeniable passion for the industry by naming the Emerging Talent Award after her, recognizing the next generation of talented creators who persevere to make great stories that are seen around the world.”

Image courtesy of Banff World Media Festival