Counting down the days to the 10th Mountain Film Festival

Only one week separates us from the biggest mountain celebration in the valley, the 10th Mountain Film Festival, which on its tenth anniversary from February 15 to 19, 2016, will spread its wings across five venues: Cankarjev dom in Ljubljana, Mestni kino Metropol in Celje, Mestni kino Ptuj, Kulturni dom Krško, and Mestni kino Domžale, where screenings of the winning films will take place on February 20 and 21.



The largest festival of its kind in Slovenia, organized by the Society for Mountain Culture led by director Silvo Karo, has offered audiences—around 35,000 so far—in its first nine years 400 films; this year, 46 films from around the world will be screened, many of them awarded at international festivals. In the alpinism and climbing categories, audiences will be able to see 11 films each, mountains, sports, and adventure will feature 12 films, and the same number will be about mountain nature and culture.



The mountain festival has delighted Slovenian audiences in past years with numerous esteemed guests from the world of climbing and alpinism—and it will be the same this year. In Cankarjev dom, lectures will be given by British traditional climbing master Hazel Findlay, the first woman to climb a route graded E9 (extremely difficult climbing) and celebrated as a master of crumbly sea cliffs, and Slovenian sport climbing ace Domen Škofic, who has had his most successful season, including a World Cup win and numerous top ascents in natural crags. Alpinism colors will be represented by legends: American Jack Tackle, who has climbed numerous first ascents in Alaska, Canada, and other mountain ranges around the world and will lecture on the importance of self-sufficiency and dedication to the goal, and Austrian alpinist and filmmaker Kurt Diemberger, the only living first summiteer of two eight-thousanders, Broad Peak and Dhaulagiri, who received the Piolet d'Or lifetime achievement award in Chamonix in 2013.



This year's festival will open on Monday, February 15, in Cankarjev dom with the Nepalese time-documentary Earthquake in Nepal: Heroes and Miracles and a duo of award-winning alpinism films: First Ascent of the East Summit of Kunyang Chhish about a primal adventure on the Karakoram giant and Meru, which brings to the screen climbing the technically demanding and dangerous peak in the Himalayas where no human foot had stepped before.



Fans of alpinism, climbing, and adventure on the big screen won't want to miss The Dawn Wall, following Alex Honnold and Tommy Caldwell on their thrilling traverse of the Fitz Roy massif, the tense adventure With Kayak through the Aleutians of a women's duo aiming to be the first in the world to paddle the remote and wild Aleutian Islands, and the multiple award-winning film Jurek, a portrait of the famous Polish alpinist Jerzy Kukuczka. Two films will bring audiences closer to the world's second highest mountain: K2: Touch of the Sky tells of a memorial expedition to this merciless mountain seeking answers to the price of passion, while K2 and the Invisible Porters offers insight into the lives of courageous and selfless Pakistani porters.



The film Where? will introduce the lecture by alpinism legend Kurt Diemberger, Hans Dülfer – The Man Who Loved the Rock will present the climber who set milestones in alpinism with his routes, Tom is a film narrative about Tom Ballard, whose goal is to link solo ascents of the six most famous north faces in the Alps in one winter, which no one has achieved yet, and Alastair Lee's latest film Citadel takes viewers to Alaskan wilderness and one of the hardest mixed routes in alpinism history.



Among the short films, Panorama, which follows with a camera the climbing of this magnificent route in West Cima, Valley of Giants: bouldering odyssey in the Sultanate of Oman, Operation Moffat, stemming from pure love of the wilderness, the inspiring story Sierra Quitiquit: How Did I End Up Here?, the film blend of art and extreme sports Metronomic, High and Mighty about highball bouldering, Project on Rebei Mountain about the world record in free solo, and the film about the wildest event in climbing Clash on the Ranch.



Among the stories bringing the pulse of mountain nature and culture to cinemas, premiering in Slovenia will be Afghan Winter, an emotional exploration of forgotten humanity on skis, The Cunning Fox, a story following the fate of four fox cubs from the den in the heart of the Alps, and Life in the Primeval Forest, a documentary taking us deep into the forests of Austria's Kalkalpen National Park, Europe's largest wilderness area. In this category, it's worth mentioning the short films Eastern Himalaya: Old Risks, New Dangers and Workplace.



The films will be judged by a three-member international jury: deputy director of the mountain film festival in the Tatras and vice-president of the International Mountain Film Alliance Gabriela Kühn from Poland, American top alpinist, mountain guide, author, and lecturer Jack Tackle, and Slovenian professional musician Marko Brdnik, whose great passion is climbing, which he also combined in music for the theater play Paul Above the Abyss.