The Banff Mountain Film Festival Celebrates the 2024 Winners

From skiing in Afghanistan, tragedy on Mount Washington, saving the Australian landscape, and Kayaking the Rondu Gorge - the annual Festival shines.

Big Water Theory / Banff Mountain Film Festival

The Banff Mountain Film Festival

The Banff Mountain Film Festival, officially known as the Banff Centre Mountain Film and Book Festival, is a world-renowned event held annually in Banff, Canada. Celebrating mountain culture, adventure sports, and environmental storytelling, the festival showcases a diverse lineup of films, book readings, and presentations over nine days. The annual outdoor and film event recently took place, and presented a wide variety of exciting and inspirational films. A selection of the winning films will soon embark on a world tour, bringing an array of outdoor adventure to global audiences. Andrew Marshall recently wrote an Article for ExplorersWeb highlighting a selection of the top finishers at this year’s Banff Mountain Film Festival.

Grand Prize and Audience Choice: Champions of the Golden Valley

Champions of the Golden Valley inspired the film festival’s participants. This film takes place in rural Afghanistan in the background of political strife. The film focuses on a group of young Afghan boys and girls learning to ski race while creating competitive, though friendly rivalries. Antiquated ski equipment and moderate facilites fail to diminish their enthusiasm and joy for the sport. The U.S. withdrawal from the country in 2021ushered the Taliban back to the region and upended the young skiers’ lives.
ExplorersWeb editor-in-chief Jerry Kobalenko said of Champions of the Golden Valley, “This labor of love was years in the making, and the unexpected return of the Taliban added a dark edge to what began as a feel-good story about the discovery of outdoor sports in Central Asia.”

Champions of the Golden Valley / Banff Mountain Film Festival

Best Adventure: 109 Below

109 Below chronicles a tragedy, and ensuing rescue attempt, that took place in 1983 on Mount Washington in New Hampshire. Mount Washington’s notoriously frigid and unstable winter weather hinders rescue efforts, and the saga remains within the heart of the community today. The film captures the audience immediately with riveting twists and turns.
“Directed with empathy and gravitas, the narrative spans decades of moral reconciliation in a mere 14 minutes while opening up a debate it can’t hope to resolve,” jury member Brian Johnson noted.

109 Below / Banff Mountain Film Festival

Best Environment: The Giants

The Giants portrays a battle to preserve the beautiful Australian landscape led by politician and conservationist Bob Brown. Brown works tirelessly and passionately to preserve giant trees from development and destruction. The film employs live-action cinematography and creative animation to bring-to-life breathtaking Australian nature and the powers seeking to marginalize it.

The Giants / Banff Mountain Film Festival

Best Mountain Sports: Big Water Theory

Big Water Theory follows Nouria Newman, the French extreme kayaking star, seeking to make the first female descent of the Indus River’s Rondu Gorge. Newman is a colorful and ambitious character that fills the screen with skill and adventure. “Ultimately, this is a story of small humans bravely facing vast nature — tiny figurines in plastic kayaks amid the foaming, powerful waters of the Indus, seemingly on the brink of disaster yet miraculously making it down the rapids unscathed. Is it luck or skill? Mostly the former, with just a touch of the latter.” (Jury Member Masha Gordon)

Best Mountain Culture: Mongolia, Valley of the Bears

The elegant film focuses on former hunter turned ranger Jal Tumursukh as he tries to protect conservation efforts and traditional cultural practices throughout Mongolian. Jury member Brian Johnson described Mongolia, Valley of the Bears as a “movie of many genres. A cinematic spectacle that distills poetry from landscape. An eco-documentary too complex to be doctrinaire. A character drama with a trickster protagonist. A western about an enforcer who fights an outlaw band of poachers by recruiting warriors from their ranks.”

Mongolia, Valley of the Bears / Banff Mountain Film Festival

Other Winners From the Banff Mountain Film Festival

The Festival announced that all of the winning films will be available online in the U.S. and Canada from November 6-13. (Related Article)                                                          Other Category Winners:  Best Climbing: Adra  Best Snowsports: Wild Days  Best Feature: Ashima  Best Short Film: The Bird in my Backyard         Creative Excellence Award: The Smoke that Thunders