Content courtesy The Banff Centre.

The greatest untold story of American counterculture is that of the Yosemite Valley rock climbers. For 50 years, Yosemite’s cliffs have drawn explorers to venture on the high, lonesome granite. Climbing greats like Royal Robbins, Yvon Chouinard and Tom Frost not only set new standards for climbing hard routes, they pioneered the “dirtbag” lifestyle. Part fact and part attitude, Sender Films takes us on a journey through the history of Yosemite right up to the present and shows why the big walls of this amazing place are still as coveted today as they were 50 years ago. Valley Uprising has won the Grand Prize at the 2014 Banff Mountain Film and Book Festival.

“The mountain culture in which so many of us here are a part of; we are pretty good at telling our stories to each other,” said 2014 jury member Nicolas Brown. “We watch some sick action— and get totally stoked. However, sometimes we are less effective telling our stories to the rest of the world. This film tells an epic tale, giving us larger than life characters whose lives play out on a vast stage. The result is a work that will inspire not just climbers but the world at large.”

Created 39 years ago, the Banff Mountain Film and Book Festival has become the premier event of its kind in the world. The Festival showcases the world’s best films, books, and photographs on mountain subjects – climbing, culture, environment, exploration and adventure, and sport – and attracts the biggest names in mountaineering, adventure filmmaking, and extreme sports as presenters and speakers. 84 films were screened during the nine-day festival and an international jury awarded more than $50,000 in cash and prizes in 13 categories.

Category winners for the 2014 Banff Mountain Film Competition include:

Grand Prize—Sponsored by MEC

Valley Uprising
Director: Nick Rosen, Peter Mortimer, Josh Lowell
Producer: Zachary Barr
Production Company: Sender Films

Creative Excellence Award- Sponsored by SOLE

El Sendero Luminoso Director: Renan Ozturk
Producer: Aimee Tetreault
Production Company: Camp4 Collective

Best Film – Exploration and Adventure – Sponsored by MSR

And Then We Swam Director: Ben Finney
Producer: Robb Ellender

Best Film – Mountain Culture Sponsored by Helly Hansen

Tashi & the Monk
Director: Andrew Hinton, Johnny Burke
Production Company: Pilgrim Films

Best Film – Climbing Sponsored by the Alpine Club of Canada

Cerro Torre: A Snowball’s Chance in Hell Director: Thomas Dirnhofer Producer: Philipp Manderla*
Production Company: Red Bull Media House GmbH

Best Film – Mountain Sports- Sponsored by Live Out There

Little Red Bus (Petit Bus Rouge)
Director and Producer: Sébastien Montaz-Rosset
Production Company: Montaz-Rosset Film

Best Film: Snow Sports – Sponsored by Oboz Footwear

The Crash Reel
Director: Lucy  Walker
Producer: Julian Cautherley
Production Company: KP Rides Again LLC

Best Film – Mountain Environment and Natural History – Sponsored by Film Festival Flix

NATURE: Touching the Wild

Director and Producer: David Allen
Production Company: Passion Planet, THIRTEEN Productions LLC for WNET

Best Short Mountain Film – Sponsored by The North Face

Delta Dawn
Director and Producer: Peter McBride
Production Company: Peter McBride Productions

Best Feature Length Mountain Film – Sponsored by the Town of Banff

Marmato

Director: Mark Grieco
Producer: Stuart Reid
Production Company: Calle Films

Special Jury Mention

Jungwa: The Broken Balance

Director: Stanzin Dorjai Gya, Christiane Mordelet
Producer: Barra Muriel
Production Company: Lato Sensu Productions

People’s Choice Award for Radical Reels – Sponsored by Deuter

Sufferfest 2: Desert Alpine

Director and Producer: Cedar Wright*

People’s Choice Award – Sponsored by Treksta

Mending the Line Director Steve Engman, Producer John Waller. Production Company: Uncage the Soul Productions.

Jury members in 2014 included Swiss journalist and producer Benoît Aymon, multiple award-winning producer and director Nicolas Brown, former Programming Director for the Banff Mountain Film and Book Festival Joni Cooper,  American alpinist Mark Synnott and Shirley Vercruysse, Executive Producer of the National Film Board of Canada.

The Banff Mountain Film and Book Festival is presented by National Geographic and The North Face, and sponsored by Deuter, Bergans of Norway, Clif Bar, Cushe Footwear, Icebreaker Merino and Banff Lake Louise Tourism with support from Mammut, MSR/Mountain Safety Research, PETZL, World Expeditions, Kicking Horse Coffee, The Lake Louise Ski Resort, MEC, and the Alberta Foundation for the Arts.