Epic Adventure. Incredible True Stories. On A Screen Near You

The Banff Mountain Film Festival, now in its 50th year, is a celebration of personal achievement designed to be shared with a worldwide audience.

This year’s Red programme (there’s a separate Blue programme) of five films will make you laugh and make you cry. There are screenings across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland for the rest of 2026.

The Banff festival organisers have been coming to the UK for 17 years with their handpicked selection of some of the most wonderful adventures from the wildest places on earth.

It’s a truly joyful experience to sit and watch with a crowd, to gasp and laugh with your fellow humans, watching films about those who aren’t content with just ‘being’ and spend their lives ‘doing’.

Last year, mountain biker Kilian Bron (pictured above), won the People’s Choice award for UK and Northern Ireland screenings with an astounding film about biking in the Dolomites. This year, he and his team (never forget someone’s actually filming this stuff!) have gone further afield.

Mandala is a visual feast, a six-minute version of his journey through Nepal, capturing the beauty of the country, its people and the unbelievable skill of Bron himself.

Gabon Uncharted is about kayaking the remote Ivindo River in Gabon, Central Africa. But above all, it’s a story of friendship. It’s the tale of what really happens when four human beings really trust themselves and each other.

From grown men throwing themselves down rushing rapids, to Emil and Karl: Little Wheels, Big Mountains. Two cycling-mad dads take their two-year old sons on a six-day mountain bike tour through the Swiss Alps, attempting to reach scenic camping sites and comfy lodges along the way.

Anyone who’s struggled to get a two-year old into the front of a supermarket trolley will know that’s unlikely to go as planned.

It’s a realistic and heart-warming insight into the families’ determination to share adventures with their youngest members to create memories that’ll last a lifetime – even if there aren’t croissants on demand along the route.

You’ll have a smile on your face all through Riders on the Storm, the story of Siebe Vanhee who enlists the help of his climbing heroes and veterans Sean Villanueva O’Driscoll and Nico Favresse to conquer 1300m of big wall climbing with 41 pitches on one of Patagonia’s most demanding mountains.

It’s an hilarious tale of different approaches to the same problems as the team endures 18 days of howling snowstorms, frozen feet and precarious sleeping arrangements (pictured above).

This year’s star attraction, though, is The Finisher, the extraordinary tale of an extraordinary woman, Jasmin Paris and her attempts to run the notorious Barkley Marathons. Jasmin is an Edinburgh-based vet, research scientist, mother of three and one of the world’s leading ultra runners (definitely replacing ‘What would Beyonce Do? with ‘What Would Jasmin Do?’ after watching this).

The Barkley Marathons is an unmarked, annually changing 100-mile course through Frozen Head State Park in Tennessee, USA. Until 2024, it had only been completed by 20 people in its 40-year history. And it had never been won by a woman.

The Finisher takes you through Jasmin’s attempt to achieve that feat – supported by her husband and fellow runners.

The festival and its films are for everyone, whether you’ve got plans to head for the hills or simply relish someone else telling you the story of their amazing adventures.

This year’s two programmes (Red and Blue) really demonstrate that the most important thing you can do in 2026 is to find your own adventure, tiny or terrifying, because life is short, being human is amazing, so let’s make the most of it.

You can find out more about screenings of this year’s Banff Mountain Film Festival at https://www.banff-uk.com/.