Banff Film, Book Winners Announced

A non-climbing film took the grand prize at the 28th Banff Mountain Film Festival last weekend. Coming next year to a theater near you, The Other Final, directed by Johan Kramer of The Netherlands, documents a match between the lowest-ranked teams of international soccer, Montserrat and Bhutan, that takes place in mountainous Bhutan on the same day as the World Cup final. This film was one of 307 from 38 countries submitted to the annual competition. Touching the Void, the feature-length account of Joe Simpson’s epic survival tale from Peru, won the award for best feature film. The festival’s People’s Choice Award, voted by the audience, went to Sister Extreme, a “mockumentary” on Canadian climbing by Glen Crawford and Brad Wrobleski. Eiger North Face—In the Footsteps of its First Climber, directed by Frank Senn and Thomas Ulrich of Switzerland, won the award for best climbing film for its re-enactment of the Eiger first ascent with period clothing and gear. At the 10th anniversary Banff Book Festival, Nov. 5-7, David Roberts took the grand prize for Escape from Lucania, the story of Bob Bates and Brad Washburn’s splendid 1937 climb of Lucania peak and epic march out. The festival’s Jon Whyte Award for Mountain Literature went to Maria Coffey for her book Where the Mountain Casts Its Shadow: The Personal Cost of Climbing, about the aftermath of fatal climbing accidents. Tenzing: Hero of Everest by Ed Douglas won the prize for best work of mountaineering history, and The Bugaboos, a new guidebook by Chris Atkinson and Marc Piché took the prize for best work of “mountain exposition.” Special jury mentions went to Everest: 50 Years on Top of the World, by George Band, and Everest: Summit of Achievement, by Stephen Venables. For a list of all the winners and finalists, go to www.banffcentre.ca/mountainculture/