2026 Banff Mountain Film Competition Finalists Announced
By
Banff Centre Communications
Posted on
October 05, 2026
Image from the film The Queen Swing (courtesy of Thibaut Marot).
After a record-breaking 610 submissions, the selection of 83 finalists includes Everest: The Other Side, Nuisance Bear, Good Luck, Kid, Derek vs Derek, and more to screen at the 2026 Banff Centre Mountain Film and Book Festival.
Banff Centre Mountain Film and Book Festival is thrilled to announce the 83 films that have been chosen as finalists in the 2026 Banff Mountain Film Competition.
The Banff Mountain Film Competition submissions include the world’s best adventure, environment, and adrenaline sports films—this year received a record-breaking 610 films from 59 countries submitted, with 83 films from 16 countries selected as finalists.
Held annually at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in the heart of Alberta’s Rocky Mountains, the Banff Centre Mountain Film and Book Festival is considered one of the biggest festivals of mountain and adventure films in the world. The 2026 festival will screen 12 world premieres, 24 North American premieres, and 20 Canadian premieres, and will award CAD $30,000 in cash across 10 categories, plus a Grand Prize of CAD $5,000. The festival runs October 31 to November 8, 2026. Tickets are on sale now.
This year’s international jury includes David Arnaud (France), a film director and former professional kayaker; Rose Bush (USA), an Oscar Award-winning director of photography and Banff Centre faculty member; Beki Henderson (UK), a BAFTA-nominated producer, series producer, and expedition specialist; and Kerry Stauffer (Canada), former Managing Director of the Digital, Film and Media department at Banff Centre, and former Director of Production and Program Competition at Achilles Media.
View the full list of 2026 Banff Mountain Film Competition finalists here. Names include icons in mountain sports like Andrzej Bargiel, Alannah Yip, Sasha DiGiulian, Jessie Diggins, and more.
The category award winners and the Grand Prize winner will be announced during the festival on Sunday, November 8, 2026.
This year’s competition reflects the incredible growth and reach of the Banff Centre Mountain Film and Book Festival. With more than 600 submissions from filmmakers around the world, the calibre and diversity of work continue to grow, making the selection process more challenging and more exciting every year! It’s a testament to the strength of the festival and the global filmmaking community that gathers here, and we’re thrilled to share such an exceptional lineup with audiences over the nine days.
Joanna Croston, Director of Mountain Culture at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity
Film Competition Highlights:
Everest: The Other Side (Alberta Premiere)
(USA, 2026, 115 minutes)
Directors: Jimmy Chin, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi
Producers: Bob Eisenhardt, Anna Barnes, Shannon Dill, Janet Yang
Elite ski mountaineers Jim Morrison and Hilaree Nelson fell in love while reaching the pinnacle of their sport. Their drive sharpened into a shared dream: to climb and ski the direct North Face of Everest, the most difficult and dangerous climb on the mountain and the most coveted ski line on earth. Thousands have summited the mountain via Nepal's southeast ridge, but only a handful have ever reached the top by this route—and no one has successfully skied down.
Screenings:
Saturday, Oct. 31, 2 PM, Jenny Belzberg Theatre, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity
Saturday, Nov. 7, 7 PM, Lux Cinema Banff
Mountains of the Moon
(USA, 2025, 49 minutes)
Director: Chris Benchetler
Producer: Alexandra Meiners
Chris Benchetler’s visually stunning Mountains of the Moon explores the unseen connections between sport, life, music, and the living earth—set to the timeless tunes of the Grateful Dead and the psychedelic visuals of nighttime shoots and light-up costumes. This festival screening also includes a live Grateful Dead score performed by Ross James & Friends.
Screening:
Saturday, Oct. 31, 8 PM, Jenny Belzberg Theatre, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity
The Lost Cache (Canadian Premiere)
(USA, 2026, 63 minutes)
Directors: Steve Jones, Todd Jones
Producer: Griffin Post
In 1937, Bradford Washburn conquered Mount Lucania but was forced to leave behind irreplaceable gear, including his prized aerial camera, on the Walsh Glacier—a loss he never stopped wondering about. Eight decades later, skier Griffin Post and glaciologist Dora Medrzycka lead a team of skiers, scientists, and explorers back into the Yukon's shifting ice to chase the question that haunted Washburn: could the cache still be out there? What begins as a search for lost equipment becomes something larger—a meditation on obsession, risk, and why certain mysteries refuse to stay buried, set against one of the most remote and unpredictable landscapes on Earth.
Screenings:
Thursday, Nov. 5, 7:30 PM, Jenny Belzberg Theatre, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity
Friday, Nov. 6, 7:30 PM, artsPlace Canmore
Only Music // Snake River (Canadian Premiere)
(USA, 2025, 40 minutes)
Director: Justin Fountain
Producers: Rush Sturges, AJ Fountain
Follow a group of musicians as they trade concert stages for river currents, embarking on a multi-day journey down the Snake River (US Pacific Northwest) with little more than their instruments and a shared willingness to connect. Along the way, music becomes a universal language— breaking down barriers, sparking unexpected encounters, and revealing the generosity of strangers in wild places.
Screenings:
Friday, Nov. 6, 7:30 PM, Jenny Belzberg Theatre, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity
Friday, Nov. 6, 7:30 PM, artsPlace Canmore
Annapurna: Dreams and Nightmares (World Premiere)
(USA, 2026, 114 minutes)
Director: Don Bowie
Producer: Don Bowie
Annapurna: Dreams and Nightmares turns the conventional “man-conquers-mountain” narrative inward, following some of the world's top climbers through fear, failure, and loss on the slopes of a notoriously dangerous mountain. What begins with a dream becomes obsession, and ultimately a reckoning with why we climb in the first place.
Screening:
Friday, Nov. 6, 7:30 PM, Margaret Greenham Theatre, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity
Nuisance Bear
(Canada, 2025, 87 minutes)
Directors: Gabriela Osio Vanden, Jack Weisman
Producers: Will Miller, Teddy Leifer, Michael Code
For thousands of years, polar bears have migrated along the shores of Hudson Bay in northern Canada. Today, that ancient rhythm collides with a human world of tourism, surveillance, and control. Nuisance Bear immerses viewers in the experience of a polar bear forced to navigate tourists, wildlife officers, and hunters as climate change delays the freeze and pushes bears closer to human settlements. When a sacred predator is branded a “nuisance,” it becomes unclear who truly belongs in this shared landscape.
Screenings:
Saturday, Nov. 7, 2 PM, Jenny Belzberg and Margaret Greenham Theatres, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity
Sunday, Nov. 8, 3 PM, Lux Cinema Banff
Derek vs Derek (North American Premiere)
(UK, 2026, 88 minutes)
Director: James Dawson
Producer: Serena Kennedy
In the idyllic English countryside lives a dairy farmer named Derek. One day his neighbour, also a Derek, forsakes tradition and starts to turn his land over to wild nature, sparking a long-running feud. This film charts the two Derek's turbulent and often funny relationship—as tempers fray, wild animals escape, and the land is transformed.
Screenings:
Saturday, Nov. 7, 9 AM, Jenny Belzberg Theatre and Max Bell Auditorium, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity
Saturday, Nov. 7, 2 PM, artsPlace Canmore
Threshold
(USA, 2026, 84 minutes)
Director: Torsten Brinkema
Producer: Lars Brinkema
At the peak of her career, Jessie Diggins was silently unraveling. Told over the course of a year, this is the story of the most decorated American skier ever and the struggle behind her smile—a painful battle with an eating disorder as Jessie fights to regain her World Cup title.
Screenings:
Saturday, Nov. 7, 7:30 PM, Max Bell Auditorium, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity
Saturday, Nov 7, 2 PM, Lux Cinema Banff
The Last First: Winter K2
(USA, 2026, 98 minutes)
Director: Amir Bar-Lev
Producers: Sarah Thompson, John Battsek, Howard T. Owens, Ben Silverman, Sean Richard
A historic race to become the first to summit K2 in winter unravels into tragedy—exposing how ambition, ego, and the pursuit of glory can be as dangerous as the mountain itself.
Screening:
Sunday, Nov. 8, 9 AM, Jenny Belzberg Theatre, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity
Since 1976, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity has been a global leader in celebrating mountain culture. This year’s nine-day festival of mountain art, music, film, and literature, taking place October 31 to November 8, 2026, will welcome adventurers, filmmakers, authors, photographers, and mountain enthusiasts from around the world. Highlights include the return of the bustling festival marketplace, free talks on the Rab stage, outdoor patio parties with live music, exhibitions, and much more!
The 2026 lineup of keynote speakers and featured guests includes renowned climbers Barry Blanchard, Ines Papert, and Sarah Hueniken, a special fundraising event with British mountaineer Leo Houlding, environmental author and ecologist Suzanne Simard, conservationists Ben Weissenbach and Dillon Osleger, Canadian novelist and journalist Claire Cameron, and naturalist and conservation biologist Kevin Van Tighem.
The festival schedule is available to view online. Tickets and passes can be purchased at banffmountainfestival.ca or Banff Centre Box Office.
Online films will be available to watch following the festival from November 12-22, 2026 (available in CAN/USA only). Early bird offer $125 (available to purchase October 8-22).
Please visit banffmountainfestival.ca for more festival information.
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If you’d like to provide media coverage of the 2026 festival, please submit a media accreditation application form (submissions open until October 1).
For more information or image requests, please contact:
Jess Elliott
Media and Communications, Banff Centre Mountain Film and Book Festival
Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity
107 Tunnel Mountain Drive
Box 1020, Banff, Alberta
Canada T1L 1H5
jess_elliott@banffcentre.ca
About Banff Centre Mountain Film and Book Festival: Created 51 years ago, Banff Centre Mountain Film and Book Festival has become the premier event of its kind in the world. The nine-day festival hosted by Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in Banff, Canada, showcases the world’s best films, books and photographs on mountain subjects – climbing, culture, environment and natural history, exploration and adventure, wildlife, and sport – and attracts the biggest names in mountaineering, adventure filmmaking, and explorers as presenters and speakers. An international jury will also award over $40,000 in prizes for films and books submitted to this year’s Festival competitions. banffmountainfestival.ca
Banff Centre Mountain Film and Book Festival Partners: The 2026 Banff Centre Mountain Film and Book Festival Presenting Sponsors are Rab and Banff and Lake Louise Tourism. The festival is also supported by YETI, Oboz Footwear, World Expeditions, The Lake Louise Ski Resort, Grangers, SLY Foods, NOLS (National Outdoor Leadership School), Bluetti, Clipper Ventures, Arc’teryx, Durston Gear, Wild Rose Brewery, and Wild Life Distillery.
About Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity: Founded in 1933, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity is a post-secondary institution built upon an extraordinary legacy of excellence in artistic and leadership development. What started as a single course in drama has grown to become the global organization leading in arts, culture, and creative decision-making across dozens of disciplines. From our home on Treaty 7 territory in the stunning Canadian Rocky Mountains, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity aims to move everyone who attends our campus – artists, leaders, thinkers, and audiences – to unleash their creative potential and realize their unique contribution to build an innovative, inspiring future through education, performances, convenings, and public outreach. banffcentre.ca