NZ Mountain Film & Book Festival Dates Announced, Competition Entries Open

The dates for 2023 NZ Mountain Film & Book Festival have been released, with the popular seven-day event scheduled to run in Wānaka from 23 to 27 June, in Queenstown 29 to 30 June and online from 23 June to 23 July.

The festival is now in its 21st year and its co-founder and director, Mark Sedon, says he’s delighted that the event has become such an eagerly anticipated fixture on the Queenstown Lakes events calendar.

“We have a very loyal local following but people also come from all over the country to watch the films, enjoy the talks and to catch up with old friends, it’s a really community-focused event,” says Mark. “This is where adventures are shared and plans for new ones are made. There’s a real buzz in the air and you can’t help but feel inspired.”

For those who aren’t able to attend in person, the online festival has become an increasingly popular option and in 2022, the number of online viewers matched the number of attendees.

“We were a little reluctant to show our films online at first,” explains Sedon. “Bringing people together for the festival and encouraging them to visit the Southern Alps is an important part of what we do but, of course, Covid forced us to adapt a few years ago and introducing the online festival has turned out to be a very good thing. It opens the festival up to more people generally and helps us reach a few younger fans which is also one of our goals. We want to inspire the next generation to take on their own adventures and then share them with the world.”

Another way in which festival organisers reach out to younger adventurers and film enthusiasts is through the free schools’ sessions. 300 secondary school students attended the Wānaka session in 2022 enjoying a selection of films and a talk by award-winning filmmaker Maddy Whittaker. This year, Queenstown students will also have the opportunity to attend a free session at the Queenstown Memorial Centre. Transport costs for school groups are covered by the NZ Mountain Film Festival Charitable Trust.

The festival is a competitive event with the finalists of the film and book competitions making up the festival programme. Competition entries opened on 1 January and entries have already been received from around the globe as well as throughout New Zealand. The NZ Mountain Film Festival is a member of the International Alliance of Mountain Film and has built a reputation for attracting world-class films. The Grand Prize winner is awarded USD1000.00.

As New Zealand’s only adventure filmmakers’ competition the organisers are also keen to support Kiwi creatives and adventurers and offer a $2500 (NZD) prize for the Best New Zealand made film. Last year’s winner was 21-year-old director Maddy Whittaker, a former student of the Adventure Film School run every year as part of the NZ Mountain Film Festival.

The Mountain Book competition is an opportunity for writers to showcase their work and win prizes, with the Nankervis/Bamford NZ Mountain Book of the Year awarded a generous $2000 prize.

Authors have until 30 March to submit entries for the NZ Mountain Book competition while the deadline for the Film competition is 20 April.

The festival programme will be announced on 23 May with tickets sale launched the same day. A limited number of festival passes will be available from 1 May giving access to all shows in either Wānaka or Queenstown and these typically sell out well before opening night.

Find out more at mountainfilm.nz