The backcountry film festival is a pre winter institution in Melbourne. We have been screening the festival each year since 2011. This is a first announcement for the 2025 screening and a call for local backcountry films to be included in the festival.
The festival will happen on Sunday May 11, 2025.
The festival
We are going for a slightly different format this year, with a late afternoon screening on a Sunday on May.
The program
– Arrive from 4pm for yarns, merchandise, info stalls – from MSC, POW, Liebe Skis and more
– The program kicks off at 4.30pm: starting with a few speakers from groups like Mountain Safety Collective, Protect Our Winters and the Victorian Backcountry Festival, and a mini launch of this year’s Mountain Journal print magazine, then
– at 5pm, we will screen the program that is put together by the US-based Winter Wildlands Alliance (check below for the listing of films, there will be a brief interval half way through)
– Followed by a selection of other backcountry films, including Papsura: Peak of Evil and Alpine Odyssey, which covers Huw Kingston’s winter crossing of the Australian Alps
– Finish by 7.30pm
The festival is organised by Friends of the Earth Melbourne, with support from RMIT Outdoors Club (ROC).
Tickets
You will also be able to buy tickets on the night (cash or card).
Stalls
If your group or business would like to have an info or merch stall you are most welcome to do so. There is no charge for this. Please get in touch: cam.walker@foe.org.au
The program
Presented by Winter Wildlands Alliance (WWA), the annual Backcountry Film Festival celebrates the power and spirit of humans in winter. We are screening the 2025 season from WWA, followed by a short Australian film, finishing with the new Patagonia film Papsura.
Winter Wildlands film festival line up
The program will run in this order.
SURVIVING OUR STORY – 2024 Human Powered Film Grant Winner
24:33 minutes
By Connor Ryan and Isaiah Branch Boyle
For two skiers caught in back-to-back Colorado avalanches, surviving the accident is only the beginning of the journey to reclaim their lives and find their way back to the snow.
DRAWN IN
7:33 minutes
By Jessa Gilbert and Justin Taylor Smith
Artist Jessa Gilbert finds inspiration, lines in the snow, and a beginning at the bottom of the world.
A ROSE FOR ALL
6:00 minutes
By Chris Kitchen, KGB Productions
Half an hour from downtown Reno, Nevada, lies a public gateway to wild snow. But can we make room for everybody?
SVEN – A LIFE IN FRONT OF THE LENS
16:05 minutes
By Gabe Rovick, F4D Studio
Veteran cover boy Sven Brunso may just be the most photographed man in backcountry skiing. Will he ever give up?
THE GLIDE – Backcountry Film Festival Jury Award Winner (2024)
3:00 minutes
By Luc Mehl
After several close calls in avalanches, Winter Wildlands Alliance’s Alaska-based ambassador Luc Mehl wanted to explore some different terrain.
A LINE IN THE SNOW
14:02 minutes
By Ryan Rumpca, Manifested Moose Media
Professional arctic explorer Annie Aggens, her daughters and their four-legged friends go winter camping in the wilds of Minnesota’s Boundary Waters.
THE POWER OF FOUR
7:33 minutes
By Forest Barton
Spandex, skinny skis, struggle and redemption in the headwaters of the Roaring Fork.
NOVELTY LINES
4:42 minutes
By Anthony Cupaiuolo, First Tracks Productions
Splitboarder Claire Hewitt-Demeyer pushes the limits of human-powered type 2 fun for a surprising first descent.
ON THIN SNOW
9:22 minutes
By Jonah Rafael and Kalef Steinberg
Avalanche scientist Brian Lazar digs into the increasingly variable snowpack in Colorado to see what climate change means for backcountry skiing.
NISEI
7:36 minutes
By Iz La Motte, Sierra Schlag
In the tension between her Japanese and American heritage, pro-skier Sierra Schlag finds graceful lines through deep powder.
SONG OF ICE
2:26 minutes
By Arthus Kauffeisen
A lyrical dance through frozen mountain landscapes with very earnest voiceover.
Liquid Heart: restoring the Australian Alps
The liquid heart of the continent, the Alps draws First Nations people and scientists to share stories of regeneration.
Come on an immersive journey into the Australian Alps. Join First Nations storyteller Shane Herrington and key mountain ecologists, practitioners, advocates and scientists—Alec Costin, Ken Green, Walter Jehne, Gen Wright, Jenny Whinam and others—to tell their shared story of caring for Country and mountain ecology. Their continuous commitment to regeneration of country is a result of shared understanding of the natural, balanced regulation of soil, water, biodiversity, landscape and climate.
The story engages passionate ecologists, their voices clearly describing the miniature and greater vision for conservation and regeneration of the mountains. This story surrounds the audience with the sounds, sights and feelings of the Australian high country, building the community of millions of Australians who love the mountains.
8 minutes. The film will be introduced by Stephen Curtain.
Alpine Odyssey – The Backcountry Screenings
Alpine Odyssey, a film by Ivan Hexter, tells the story of Huw Kingston’s winter 2022 journey along the 700km length of the Australian alps.
Once the film was launched, there were screenings around Australia, including two that happened in backcountry huts – one in Victoria and one in NSW. Huw says: ‘If you make a film about skiing the length of the Australian Alps, the backcountry, then surely, amongst the ‘urban’ screenings, there should be a couple of screenings out in the backcountry. So much fun despite the desperate nature of the Australian 2024 winter season’.
4 minutes.
Papsura: Peak of Evil
Tucked deep in the Indian Himalaya is a 21,165-foot behemoth called the Peak of Evil, the face is split by a line so perfect and massive it pushed the skills of even the most renowned ski mountaineers. Papsura: Peak of Evil follows professional snowboarders Nick Russell and Jerry Mark from California’s Sierra Nevada to this remote corner of the world’s greatest mountain range as they harness years of experience in pursuit of the biggest line of their lives.
DIRECTED BY Morgan Shields
CONCEPT BY Nick Russell
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS Monika McClure Alex Lowther Kristo Torgersen Colleen Quigley
FEATURING Nick Russell Jerry Mark Jim Morrison Jeremy Jones Jim Zellers Hilaree Nelson
35 minutes.
Presented by PATAGONIA.
Alpine Odyssey
This film follows Huw Kingstons winter crossing of the Australian Alps. ‘In the winter of 2022, I skied and walked the full length of the Australian snow country. But this time, en route, I tasted the Skier’s Dozen, enjoying a ski at each of mainland Australia’s snow resorts. This was my Alpine Odyssey.’
Mountain Journal 
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