A MOUNTAIN film festival – taking place in Edinburgh – is on the hunt for new films, to be screened at its showcase event this autumn.
Edinburgh Mountain Film Festival (EMFF) is calling for professional filmmakers and amateur enthusiasts alike to enter its film competition, before the closing date of June 30.
This year will be the fifth Edinburgh Mountain Film Festival and it will run between October 19 and 21.
Last year’s event attracted 2,000 people. Its star attraction was a film called E11 – about the climbing of the world’s hardest route, on, of all places, Dumbarton Rock, near Glasgow.
Says festival director, Stevie Christie: “E11 was a landmark film due to both the historic moment in climbing which it captured but also in terms of upping the standard of adventure films.
“Not only did it win all three film prizes at the EMFF, it was a success at festivals around the world, winning prizes from Canada to Slovenia.”
The film, which had its world premiere at the EMFF, documented Scottish climber Dave MacLeod’s obsession with a new route which he eventually climbed, declaring it the hardest route in the world and giving it the new grade of E11.
However, not all films feature such extreme action, nor are they all filmed by professionals. One locally-made film screened last year investigated the legend of the ‘Big Grey Man of Ben MacDui’, while a comic ‘mockumentary’ followed some ‘extreme trampers’ bouncing around on other people’s trampolines.
Adds Christie: “There are no strict rules to the types of films we show, as long as they evoke the spirit of adventure. We’ve shown films on skiing and snow-boarding, white-water kayaking, BASE-jumping, ski-mountaineering, mountain biking and mountain culture, as well as all disciplines of climbing.
“Shorter films up to 15 minutes are especially welcome and we’re always on the lookout for films which are a little bit different.”
