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The Banff Mountain Film Festival Returns to Boone for Three Days Beginning March 30th

The Banff Mountain Film Festival is coming back to the Appalachian State campus in Boone, N.C.! On Thursday March 30, Friday March 31, and Saturday April 1 2023, three large public screenings will take place at the Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts. Doors open at 6:15pm and the films start at 7:30pm each night. 

The Banff Mountain Film Festival – a program of The Banff Centre – is the largest, and one of the most prestigious, mountain film festivals in the world featuring films from across the globe. The films this year are chosen from the recently concluded film festival which occurred at the Banff Centre for Mountain Culture in November 2022.  

Local tour hosts like Appalachian State University’s University Recreation will screen three completely different programs highlighting award winning mountain films each night that combine elements of mountain adventure, culture, and the environment. 

The Banff Film Festival is highly anticipated every spring underscoring how strongly this festival is supported on the Appalachian State campus and in the High Country. Continuing a tradition, live music on the Schaefer Center stage will be featured on Friday and Saturday night before the films. For more information on this year’s event, check out the official festival website found at University Recreation, hosts of the Banff Film Festival.

The Friday and Saturday night screenings are sold out, but a limited number of Thursday night tickets are still available for purchase at the Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts.. Ticket prices are $10 for App State students and $15 for all others, per screening. 

Presenting Partners for the event this year include Footsloggers, Appalachian State Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences, VPC Builders, and Western Carolina Eye Associates.  

In partnership with App State University Libraries, and the Watauga County Public Library, Katie Ives will be in town for the weekend of Banff this year. University Libraries are sponsoring an event in conjunction with the Banff Film Festival by adding a literary component which features a lecture from Katie Ives.  Ives is the recipient of the 2022 Banff Mountain Book Competition Special Jury Mention for her debut book,  Imaginary Peaks: The Riesenstein Hoax and Other Mountain Dreams, which will be available for purchase at book signings throughout the weekend.  

In 2016, Ives received the H. Adams Carter Literary Award from the American Alpine Club. She has participated in the Banff Mountain and Wilderness Writing Program and has served as a judge for the Boardman-Tasker Award, and as a jury member, panelist, and panel moderator at the Banff Mountain Book Festival. Ives is a former editor in chief at Alpinist magazine and lives in Boulder, Colorado.

The lecture will be on Saturday, April 1 at 2pm in the Schaefer Center.  This event is free and open to the public. 

“We are excited about the addition of Katie Ives coming to the Banff Film Festival here in Boone, NC” states University Recreation organizers of the event. “It underscores the festival atmosphere that audiences have come to love about the event on the App State campus every year. Additionally, we are excited to showcase a state-of-the-art, new projector that is now a permanent installation at the Schaefer Center, which will make the viewing experience even better than before.” 

More information is available online at the Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts and  University Recreation.

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The Banff Mountain Film Festival is an annual international competition featuring the world’s best films on mountain themes. In November 2022, the festival screened over 50 finalist films, chosen from more than 400 entries from over 30 different countries. The film festival is organized by The Banff Centre for Mountain Culture in Banff, Canada. For information visit: https://www.banffcentre.ca/