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AWEFF ’25 2025 Festival Selections are out! See them online here: https://aweff.vhx.tv/awe-ff-2025-film-selections Films AWEFF Poster Dark

THE HEADLESS HORSEMAN

Deception and illness. Separation and doubt. Icy cold, abyssal emptiness, and lurking death.

In the merciless snows of the Himalayas, Charles Dubouloz and Symon Welfringer discover that the joy of life can be found, perhaps above all, on these perilous paths

Director

Andy Collet

DANCING ON THE EDGE

Three young women fuse dance and rock climbing across Australia’s striking cliffs. Dancing on the Edge captures their balance of strength, grace, and risk as movement and landscape merge in a bold exploration of art, freedom, and the edge between fear and flight.

Director

Emily Lecky

WHERE THE IBEX RUN

The film showcases mountain ultra runners embarking on the 170-kilometer mountain running challenge known as the Julian Alps Trail Run. While exploring their motives for this incredibly demanding test, we gain insight into the stunning Julian Alps and the Triglav National Park, which, like many other national parks around the world, is grappling with numerous sustainability challenges.

Director

Aliash Tepina

THE MENTAL GAME

What was going on in the mind of the late professional climber and alpinist Martin Feistl when he pushed himself to his limits? “The Mental Game” tells how he dealt with his fear and his high ethical standards on difficult climbing routes in rock and ice and recalls his open nature. Shortly after the film was completed, Martin Feistl suffered a fatal fall on the Scharnitzspitze in Tyrol.

Director

Lukas Neugebauer

THE END of the world

Maxime Chabloz is a Seafarer, a man of the sea, a versatile athlete and a lover of the wind and watersport. Often surrounded by the ocean and other enthusiasts, this time he decides to set off alone on a unique journey to the end of the world.

Maxime sets off in his Citroen 2CV towards Finistère for a solitary adventure. It quickly becomes an introspective journey, punctuated only by timely encounters with other lovers of the water, former lighthouse keepers and their descendants, people who, like him, are all united by a life dedicated to the sea.

Director

Anthony Lietart

Bhutan: Trails of Happiness

“Bhutan: Trails of Happiness” is a 9-minute sports film capturing Bhutan’s stunning mountain bike trails and unique culture through the journey of two remarkable protagonists.Austrian world-class mountain biker Tom Öhler travels to the remote kingdom of Bhutan to explore its hidden trails. Joined by Tandin Wang, a pioneer of Bhutan’s mountain biking scene, their adventure combines challenging rides with cultural discoveries.

Director

Martin Bissig

Odyssea Borealis

Four modern explorers challenge the icy waters of eastern Greenland in an epic 300-kilometer odyssey. Their goal: to scale the untouched northwest face of Drøneren, standing 1,200 meters high. Driven by the primal instinct of exploration, these modern Odysseuses are not seeking conquest, but the pure essence of adventure. With ingenuity and determination, they dive into a world where curiosity is the only compass. Odyssea Borealis is a manifesto of exploration, a call to rediscover our bond with nature.

Director

Alessandro Beltrame

Made of Grit

An inspirational film capturing hikers just before they finish their 6 month long Appalachian Trail hike at Mt. Katahdin, Maine.

Director

Josh Hardwick

NORDEND: Dreaming Beyond Limits

For the past three years, renowned athlete and pioneer Géraldine Fasnacht has been working on a project of exceptional scope: riding the northwest face of the Nordend, a steep 55-degree slope culminating at 4,608 meters. Rarely practicable due to its extreme conditions, this slope is in ice practically all year round and is rarely in a condition to be descended. Géraldine chose to access it by air aboard her ultralight aircraft,Roméo, combining her passions for snowboarding, aviation and exploring the most beautiful lines in the Alps.

Director

Guido Perrini

RUN AGAIN

Dave Pen is the singer of Archive, an English rock band that has been selling out Europe's biggest venues for 30 years. But this father from Southampton is condemned to silence. With covid, Archive hasn’t played live in 4 years. Dave, 45, is looking for a new lease of life. He signs up for England’s toughest event. The Spine Race and its 268 miles in winter. The race of a lifetime and a multi-faceted quest that, in the end, may never end.

Director

Alexis Berg

KEEP GOING

What’s the secret to discovering gems hidden in plain sight? Join climbers Josh Levin, Sierra Knott, and Ryan Lieberman as they explore the Upper Red Springs area of Red Rocks in search of first ascents.

Director

Miguel Villegas, Josh Levin

FREELAND- A BLACKWATER STory

The follow up to A White Grass Story, this film dives into the history of the Blackwater River in the Monongahela National Forest in West Virginia, and the kayaking community that has developed around it. Blackwater Canyon contains world class whitewater, with 17 miles of Class IV-V+ rapids. This river is home to the birth of steep creeking, and A Blackwater Story reviews the early history of the sport, told by those who were here to live it. The film explores the topic of death in whitewater, and the impact social media plays on the next generation of whitewater kayakers.

Director

 Justin Harris

THE Cambodia project

Cambodia Recognition follows the advocacy and trail-building efforts from the volunteer-driven North Shore Mountain Bike Association to officially sanction one of Mount Seymour’s most iconic and controversial trails: Cambodia. The film explores the cultural significance of the Cambodia trail within the North Shore riding community, the challenges of legitimizing unsanctioned trails, and what it means to preserve legacy while adapting to evolving standards in trail stewardship. This is a story of collaboration, compromise, and the future of mountain biking on the Shore.

Director

Ethan Reynolds

Leaving a Legacy

Leaving a Legacy takes you inside the first-ever women’s category at Red Bull Rampage, where Chelsea Kimball and seven other riders reshape what freeride mountain biking can be. Over five days, they dig and build their own lines—carving features into raw desert cliffs—then drop in with no guarantees. The film captures the real cost of progression: the bruises, the doubt, the quiet resilience it takes to show up and send. With no fanfare or shortcuts, Leaving a Legacy is a grounded, unfiltered look at what it means to claim space in a sport that wasn’t built with you in mind.

Director

Madeleine Reynolds

La Rubia

In this all-female production, 32-year-old Canadian climber Bronwyn Hodgins faces a burnout from Big Wall expeditions and decides to shift her focus to sport climbing. Little does she know that this new curiosity for training and performance will plunge her into the most intense mental undertaking of her life… as she pours herself into La Rubia, a 5.14c (8c+).

Director

Bronwyn Hodgins, Julia Cassou

Real Grit: No friends but the mountains

Serge journeys into Iraq to attempt to do what no paraglider has done - hike and fly the Zagros Mountains. This documentary follows his mission despite the risk of land mines, being shot at by terrorist organisations and being arrested by the military. Serge learns the ancient Kurdish proverb that in Kurdistan one can have 'no friends, but the mountains'.

Director

Ben Whimpey

Eternal Solo

Stefano Ragazzo wasn’t born among the mountains; his passion came later, like a bolt from the blue, with climbing drawing him far from the plains. Inspired by the Dolomite tradition, he became captivated by solo climbing—a way to push beyond his own limits. His challenge? The Eternal Flame route, a legendary rock face in the heart of Pakistan’s Karakoram range. An exhilarating journey into the world of mountaineering, where passion, courage, and a love for the mountains come together in an adventure that seems impossible.

Director

Andrea Cossu

Queen of the Catskill

After a series of traumatic events, a high school English teacher in the South Bronx begins retreating to the mountains looking to heal. As the wilderness starts to mend her spirit, she rediscovers a past love of skiing, and embarks on a multi-year quest to become the first woman to backcountry ski 33 of the highest peaks in the Catskill Mountains—alone.

Director

Jamie Kennard

ICE

After 15 years of competing at the highest level worldwide, taking them to the top of the podium, Tristan and Louna Ladevant are exploring and developing a more artistic approach to their discipline: ice climbing.

With dance as the backdrop to their artistic expression and the waterfall lit up in the middle of the night like the stage of a theatre, the performance can begin.

Director

Thibault Gachet

INTO Altai

This film takes us deep into the Tavan Bogd massif, nestled in the Mongolian Altai Mountains.

Camille Armand, Pierre Hourticq, and Victor Daviet share a common passion — not only for the mountains, but also for exploring remote and unfamiliar lands.

Tavan Bogd — literally “The Five Sacred Mountains” — refers to a group of peaks steeped in symbolism and legend.

For two weeks, a yurt will serve as their base camp, allowing

them to explore this little-known massif on skis and snowboard

Director

Yannick Boissenot

*Please note that do to timing constraints, not all films may be screened on the festival date but will be available for viewing online afterwards.