It's a year of threes for the Mountain Movie Festival, which celebrates its third anniversary this year by tripling the audience capacity for three nights of film screenings all meant to get skiers and snowboarders stoked for winter.
Started by Collingwood resident Lindsay Earle with support from Caitlin Foisy, a local rep for Salomon, the Mountain Movie Festival includes three evenings of screenings from Nov. 23-25 with apres parties, giveaways, vendor markets, and raffles all in support of a youth education program run by Protect Our Winters.
Earle started the festival because of her fond memories of watching the new Warren Miller film every year before the ski season with her dad. The festival features three film nights, one is the latest Warren Miller Film (All Time), one is the most recent Teton Gravity Research film (Legend Has it) and the third night is a series of short films that form the Salomon Quality Ski Time Film Tour 2023.
This year, the youth program, Hot Planet, Cool Athletes, came to Collingwood with a visit by Canadian freestyle skier and Olympic bronze medallist Marion Thénault to Our Lady of the Bay Catholic High School. Protect Our Winters is a charity investing in education and awareness around the impacts of climate change on winter sports. The Hot Planet Cool Athletes program sends pro athletes to schools to talk about what youth can do to help curb the impacts of climate change.
For the past two years, the films have screened at the Simcoe Street Theatre, which sold out quickly. This year, Blue Mountain Film Festival has joined as a presenter for the Mountain Movie Festival, and films will be screened at the Blue Mountain Village conference centre, with a seating capacity of about 300.
Earle said she's happy to see the film festival growing, and glad it has kept the inspiration she used to begin the local event.
"I started it because my dad and I went to the Warren Miller film annually, and it seems like similar things are happening here," said Earle. She notes she can see groups of the same names getting tickets together every year.
She's also started getting questions in September about when the next film festival will be.
"I like that it's been an annual thing that the community gets excited about and looks forward to," said Earle, a lifelong skier herself.
She's glad to see the event grow under the partnership with Blue Mountain Film Festival, and hopes it will continue to grow while also spreading awareness about climate change and the impact it has on mountain sports.
In the spirit of getting the community together and excited about winter, Earle has planned an "industry night" screening of the Warren Miller film, All Time, at the Simcoe Street Theatre before the official film festival on Nov. 21. Business owners from Collingwood, whether they're part of the ski industry or not, can reach out to [email protected] to request an invite.
The film festival runs Nov. 23 to 25 with film screenings at 7:30 p.m. and the doors opening at 6 p.m. for raffles and vendor markets (bring cash).
The Salomon Quality Ski Time tour kicks off the festival with short films featuring athletes, ski stories, different types of skiing, and the evolution of ski hills.
On Nov. 24, the Teton Gravity Research film, Legend Has It, will bring stories of ski lore to the screen.
The final night, Nov. 25, will be the Warren Miller film screening. All Time is a lead-up to the famous ski filmmaker's 75th anniversary. The two-year celebration of Warren Miller takes a look back at all the films made including the growth and developments of ski towns, innovators in the sport, and athletes who became legends.
Tickets are available online and sell out every year. For more on the festival, visit mountainmoviefest.ca.
