Symposium | Films | Guests | Special Events | Schedule | Jury | Awards

Mountainfilm in Telluride

Currently in its 30th year, the Mountainfilm Festival is a four-day, six-senses experience of art, adventure, culture and the environment. It attracts filmmakers, photographers, conservationists, mountaineers and explorers from around the world. Our audiences also come from around the world to gather in theaters that range from historical to state-of-the-art in the box canyon of Telluride, Colorado and the gondola-linked town of Mountain Village.

Our motto is “Celebrating Indomitable Spirit.”

The spirit we celebrate may be of a vital eco-system or a fragile one. It may be of an endangered culture or of one courageous soul. It may be of a grassroots sustainability movement or of the struggle of a species on the brink of extinction. In whichever case, it is always a spirit that is unique, important and eminently laudable.

The festival begins each year with its Moving Mountains Symposium. This full-day event has a different topical theme each year that is explored, discussed and debated by a panel of world class experts drawn from many and varied disciplines. In 2006, the Symposium theme was Mongolia, in 2007 it was Energy, the theme for 2008 will be announced shortly.

The Gallery Walk following our Symposium affords a chance to meet and greet while strolling from one Telluride art gallery to the next to view original paintings, sculpture, photography and multi-media works of wonder.

Films begin Friday evening and run through mid-Monday. A special focus of our film programming for 2007 was the Eiger, sometimes called “the Everest of the Alps.”

On Sunday we get a little crazy with The Reading Frenzy, an opportunity to talk with authors, get signed copies of their books and enjoy a Happy Hour libation.

The Closing Picnic on Monday rounds out our weekend. Set in Telluride’s Town Park, surrounded by the soaring drama of San Juan peaks, the picnic serves as our awards ceremony and offers a last chance for free beer and great food, and to catch up with old friends and make some new ones.