Mountain Film Festival Celebrates 10 Years

The Mountain Film Festival, which will take place from February 15 to 19, 2016, in Ljubljana, Celje, Domžale, Krško, and Ptuj, has become a true mountaineering celebration in the valley during a programmatically rich and unique decade in Slovenia.
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<br> We Slovenians are a mountaineering nation, we live under the mountains – and with the mountains. The mountains irresistibly attract us, so we not only visit them, but also photograph, film, describe, draw, and depict them in various ways. How deeply they are inscribed in the people on the sunny side of the Alps is vividly shown by the fact that they were the backdrop for the first Slovenian feature films: In the Kingdom of the Golden Horn and Triglav Slopes.
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<br> Following the example of the world's most prestigious mountaineering festivals, in Slovenia too – slowly, just like in alpinism, with small steps – the mountains have found their place on the big screen. The beginnings of the mountain film festival date back to 1966, when at the sports and tourist film festival in Kranj, mountain films already occupied a third of the program space. In 1998, Mengeš hosted Banff after Banff, the International Mountain Year 2002 brought the first international mountain film festival in Bled, and in the same period, within the documentary film festival at Cankarjev dom in Ljubljana, alpinism films were gaining more and more space. All previous efforts matured in 2007 into a new festival, the first real festival with an international jury, films from numerous countries, lecturers, and round tables on mountaineering topics, organized since then by the Society for Mountain Culture.
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<br> The Slovenian Mountain Film Festival has grown in less than a decade into a true mountaineering celebration and stepped alongside the world's most renowned and established film festivals. "Over the years and visits to foreign festivals, we have become recognizable, also a bit thanks to membership in the International Mountain Film Federation. The festival's recognition opens doors to major feature films, which are the most important for the festival, while shorts add color. Famous guests also give great weight to the festival, who have shaken hands in Kosovel and Linhart halls of Cankarjev dom," draws a line on the anniversary the director and founder of the festival Silvo Karo, a top alpinist who has left first ascents not only in the steep walls of Patagonia, the Himalaya, and the Alps, but also plowed the mountaineering furrow in Slovenian film space.
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<br> From the first to the ninth festival inclusive, audiences – around 35,000 in nine years – have watched 400 films, this year there will be 46 on the program from almost all corners of the world. On average, between 90 and 100 films were submitted to the festival, about half were selected and shown, including many Slovenian ones. The winner's crown, the grand prize of the Municipality of Domžale, from 2007 to last year went to the films Brezno (Italy), Baffin – Island of Children (France), Unknown Antarctica (Slovakia), Asgard Project (United Kingdom), Journey to the End of Winter (France), Art of Freedom (Poland), Village, Far from Everything (France), Summit (Ireland), and Metanoia – Jeff Lowe's Transformation (USA). The film screenings were enriched by a diverse accompanying program: children's and youth, exhibitions, talks, round tables ...
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<br> The Mountain Film Festival has delighted Slovenian audiences with numerous distinguished guests from the world of alpinism and climbing. In previous years, foreign lecturers such as Nives Meroi and Roman Benet, Mick Fowler, Krzysztof Wielicki, Stefan Glowacz, Dave MacLeod, Paul Pritchard, Leo Houlding, Rolando Garibotti, John Porter, Dean Potter, Igor Koller, Chris Bonington, Adam Ondra, Michael Kennedy, Lynn Hill, Maurizio Zanolla – Manolo, and Sudarson Karki, as well as domestic legends and their promising successors: Tina Di Batista, Tanja Grmovšek, Sandra Vogler, Rok Zalokar, Pavle Kozjek, Martina Čufar, Marko Lukić, Janez Dovžan, Marko Prezelj, Andrej Grmovšek, Marjan Manfreda – Marjon, Matej Kladnik, Miha Valič, Rok Blagus, Simon Čopi, Rado Kočevar, Jože Andrej Mihelič, Andrej Štremfelj, Luka Lindič, Iztok Tomazin, Luka Krajnc, Peter Ščetinin, Nejc Marčič, Luka Stražar, Matevž Lenarčič, Urban Novak, Vlasta Kunaver, Danilo Cedilnik – Den, Janez Bizjak, Kazimir Drašlar – Mikec, Matjaž Jeran, and members of the 1975 Makalu expedition inspired us. At this year's festival, British traditional climbing master Hazel Findlay, Slovenian sport climbing ace Domen Škofic, American alpinist Jack Tackle who wrote the history of alpinism in Alaska, and Austrian alpinist Kurt Diemberger, the only surviving first summiteer of two eight-thousanders, Broad Peak and Dhaulagiri, will lecture.
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<br> The 10th Mountain Film Festival will take place this year from February 15 to 19 at five venues: Cankarjev dom in Ljubljana, Metropol City Cinema in Celje, Domžale City Cinema, Ptuj City Cinema, and Krško Cultural Center. On this anniversary, the Slovenian festival will also host a meeting of the International Alliance for Mountain Film (IAMF), of which it has been a member from the very beginning.
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<br> The program is already published on the website www.gorniski.si. With attribution, publication of the attached photos is permitted – you can download them in higher resolution from the website at this link. We will reveal this year's highlights soon, and we also invite you to accredit for the festival.
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<br> Until then – hearty mountaineering greetings.