Banff Mountain Film Festival Award Winners

A film about life, beauty, and death in the mountains has taken the Grand Prize at this year’s Banff Mountain Film Festival. Sur le fil des 4000 (France), directed by Gilles Chappaz, follows climbers Patrick Bérhault and Philippe Magnin as they attempt to climb all 82 summits in the Alps topping 4000 metres. “This film is about a beautiful adventure shared by two friends,” says festival jury member Laurence Gouault. “It shows their passion, love, and respect for the mountains and allows us to share the last journey of a great climber.”

The 2005 film festival jury included Canadian filmmaker Leanne Allison, U.S. filmmaker and adventurer Michael Brown, Swiss director and producer Fulvio Mariani, U.K. climber, filmmaker, and cameraman Keith Partridge, and Gouault, one of France’s top female alpinists.

David Kvart’s Everyday Extreme (Sweden), featuring “sports” such as extreme tooth-brushing and bus-catching, “takes a sideways look at the notion of extreme,” says Partridge. “Solid camera work and good visual gags are executed to a perfect length,” winning it the award for Best Short Mountain Film.

A visually-stunning film about a herd of African elephants who mine a cave for salt, Natural World: Elephant Cave (UK), directed by Vanessa Berlowitz, takes the 2005 award for Best Film on Mountain Environment. “The images in this film are truly haunting — and humbling,” says Allison.

Mirosław Dembiński’s Praszczur (Grandpa) (Poland), about a 79-year-old paraglider, “engages our sympathy for the passion and the tenacity of the main character,” says Mariani, and wins the Best Film on Mountain Sports award.

The Alpine Club of Canada award for Best Film on Climbing goes to Peter Mortimer’s Return2Sender: Parallelojams (USA), which takes viewers up, and into, the crack-climbing routes of Indian Creek, Utah. “With humour, memorable characters, and useful tips,” says Brown, “this film encourages people to participate in the sport of climbing.”

Kekexili — Mountain Patrol (China), directed by Lu Chuan, tells the story of the struggle between ill-equipped Tibetan rangers and antelope poachers. “This is a dramatic story, strongly executed, that immediately draws you in,” says Partridge. It wins the Best Feature-length Mountain Film Award.

The 2005 award for Best Film on Mountain Culture, goes to Bernard Boyer’s Charles, Edouard ou le temps suspendu (France), a tale of two brothers living on an isolated mountain farm. “In this film the everyday becomes poetic,” says Mariani.

The jury also awarded two Special Jury Awards, to Balancing Point (USA), directed by Danny Brown…

…and to New World Disorder V: Disorderly Conduct (Canada), directed by Derek Westerlund.

The People's Choice Award, chosen by the festival audience, goes to Canmore, Alberta, filmmakers Baiba Auders Morrow and Pat Morrow for The Magic Mountain (Canada), the offbeat story of educator Cynthia Hunt and her efforts to help the women of Ladakh, India.

The Banff Centre Audio Post-Production Award was awarded earlier this week to Stephen Burgess, producer/director of UFO, a film about skydiving and BASE jumping. This award provides up to $10,000 in audio post-production resources at The Banff Centre for a future film production.