2009 Banff Mountain Film Festival Awards

Grand Prize - Finding Farley
When filmmakers Karsten Heuer and Leanne Allison, along with their two-year-old son Zev and indomitable dog Willow, set out to retrace the literary footsteps of Farley Mowat, they meant it literally. Their 5000-kilometre trip — trekking, sailing, portaging, and paddling from the Prairies to the Maritimes — is captured in this film. The family’s arrival at their final destination (Mowat’s Nova Scotian summer home) is, as Heuer says, “an affirmation of what the land and animals had already told us.”

Alpine Club of Canada Award for Best Film on Climbing - Committed 2: The Walk of Life
James Pearson climbs a 48-metre death E12 in North Devon.“This film is about a very British climbing ethic,” says jury member Daniel du Lac. “The photography and music unpretentiously maintain tension without being manipulative, making it an outstanding film about the climbing community.”

Best Film on Mountain Culture - A Little Bit Mongolian
Angus, 12, is from Australia. On a visit to Mongolia, he saw children his age racing cross-country in long distance horse races. He vowed he would one day join them. In this heartwarming film, Angus returns to Mongolia, intent on training so that he too can compete in the big Naadam Festival horse races.

Best Film on Mountain Environment - Natural World: Snow Leopard
In 2004, a team from the BBC’s Planet Earth series captured the first ever film of a wild snow leopard in the mountains of Pakistan. For Nisar Malik, who led the expedition, those images sparked a passion that compelled him to return. With cameraman Mark Smith, he spent two years documenting the snow leopard’s daily life, finally lifting the veil on the most elusive of all cats.

Best Feature-length Mountain Film - Beyond the Summits
Catherine Destivelle is an ambassador for the French Alps and is well known in France and abroad. In Beyond the Summits, viewers will feel like they are climbing up the mountain with her. The film shows three classic Chamonix routes with three different climbing partners. Each partner was chosen because they had a profound impact on her life. The camera captures the magnificent scenery, as well as frank and intimate moments during the ascents.


Best Film on Mountain Sports - Solo
On January 11, 2007, Andrew McAuley set out on his quest to become the first person to kayak from Australia to New Zealand across 1600 kilometres of one of the wildest and loneliest stretches of ocean on Earth. Thirty days later, New Zealand maritime authorities received his distress call. Contains some coarse language.


Best Short Mountain Film - Mont-Blanc Speed Flying
Six speed riders fly from the upper slopes of Mont Blanc down to Chamonix in one continuous 10-minute shot, filmed in Cineflex.




Special Jury Mention - Project Megawoosh
Bruno Kammell, a German engineer, works to perfect the world’s tallest human water slide.




Special Jury Mention - Take a Seat
Dominic Gill’s mission is to cycle the 32,000 kilometres from the north coast of Alaska to the southern tip of South America, on a tandem push bike, picking up strangers on the way. His journey will take him through some of the toughest landscapes on Earth, with unpredictability and danger always lurking. The film is a gripping worm’s-eye view of two years and two continents, full of extraordinary characters and incidents. Has Gill got what it takes to go all the way?

Special Jury Mention - Yellowstone: Winter
In winter, Yellowstone is frozen solid — locked in snow as deep as a house. The film charts the fortunes of Yellowstone’s wildlife in their finely balanced fight to survive. Bison use their powerful heads to dig through some of the country’s deepest snow in order to reach the grass beneath. A red fox listens for mice scurrying far below the surface before diving headfirst to snap up its prey, while otters seek out any remaining open water where they can fish.

People’s Choice Award - Finding Farley
When filmmakers Karsten Heuer and Leanne Allison, along with their two-year-old son Zev and indomitable dog Willow, set out to retrace the literary footsteps of Farley Mowat, they meant it literally. Their 5000-kilometre trip — trekking, sailing, portaging, and paddling from the Prairies to the Maritimes — is captured in this film. The family’s arrival at their final destination (Mowat’s Nova Scotian summer home) is, as Heuer says, “an affirmation of what the land and animals had already told us.”

People’s Choice Award for Radical Reels - Kranked  Revolve
The coolest human-powered adrenaline tool ever invented – the mountain bike? Revolve blasts from the French Alps to the lush coast of B.C., incorporating dirt jump, trail, freeride, slopestyle, and downhill.


Audio Post-Production Scholarship - Autour de Babel (Around Babel)
French climbers Arnaud Petit and Stéphanie Bodet go to Morocco with two friends to put up a new free-climbing route at Taghia, in the Atlas Mountains. In addition to taking on the challenges of opening up an 800-metre route in a strict ethical style, they have the opportunity to develop warm friendships with the locals in the nearby village.