The Banff Mountain Film Festival will return to Orillia next week and, in typical fashion, it has almost sold out.
The festival’s Orillia stop, hosted by Sojourn Outdoors in Barrie, has been held at the Orillia Opera House for about a decade. It sells out every year.
This is the first year the festival will take place for three nights instead of two.
“It has grown predominantly because of our customer base, but because the Orillia Opera House advertises it, it’s brought more people out,” said Sojourn Outdoors owner Cheri Doman.
The original Banff Mountain Film Festival is held at the Banff Centre in Alberta. It took place in late October and early November of 2018. Films are submitted from around the world.
Judges then choose a handful of films to be included in the festival’s “world tour,” and the local hosts select films from that list to be shown at the various stops, including Orillia.
“We try to show a really well-rounded variety,” Doman said.
The same films will be shown each night. It hasn’t yet been determined which ones will be screened in Orillia, except for one — The Bikes of Wrath, an Australian film that won the People’s Choice Award.
The films must be somehow related to mountains. They don’t have to be about sports, though most seem to be.
“This is for adventure seekers of all walks of life,” Doman said of the festival. “We call it the best armchair adventure in the world.”
Eight to 10 films will be shown each night. They vary in length, with some submissions to the festival being as short as two minutes.
Being able to offer a third night in Orillia “is huge,” Doman said.
“We’ve been asking the Banff Centre to be able to do that for years.”
The city “really benefits from this as well,” she said, noting many attendees have dinner in town before the event, and some stay the night at local hotels.
The festival in Orillia runs from Jan. 10-12. As of late Friday afternoon, only 10 tickets remained for the Jan. 10 screening. The other two nights are completely sold out.
Those interested in tickets for Jan. 10 must contact Sojourn Outdoors at 705-739-9694. Tickets, at $28 each, can be purchased over the phone, via credit card.
Find out more about the Banff Mountain Film Festival here.
