FILM PROGRAMME 2026

While clearing out his basement, Checker Tobi comes across an old video recording. In it, his eight-year-old self asks his very first Checker question: who leaves the biggest mark on the ground beneath our feet? His search for the long-forgotten answer turns into his greatest adventure yet. It takes him into the extraordinary animal and plant world of Madagascar, to the Arctic seed vault on Svalbard and deep into the maze-like cave systems of Mexico in the footsteps of the Maya. Between dog-sled rides and climbing adventures, Tobi begins to understand the responsibility we all share for our planet. Checker Tobi’s third feature film is bursting with adventure, humour and curiosity – a must-see for young film fans!

“Si Vîf” roughly means “one lives” in Friulian – a laconic response to the question “How are you?” Singer-songwriter Gigi Maieron has remained deeply rooted in the mountains of his northern Italian homeland throughout his artistic life. Amid the peaks and valleys of Carnia, where rugged nature meets quiet expanses, an artistic world unfolds, shaped by Maieron’s intuition, individuality and poetic sensibility. Blending scenes from everyday life, moments on stage and reflections on the past, the film creates a portrait of a musician whose work is closely bound to the place he comes from.

They are the quiet, stoic masters of the Arctic tundra: muskoxen. For around a million years, these sturdy animals have inhabited the hostile, freezing and windswept regions far north of the Arctic Circle. In breathtaking images, the film follows their lives – herd cohesion, clashes between rival bulls, threats from Arctic wolves and polar bears, merciless winters and the sheer intensity and resilience of life in one of the most extreme landscapes on Earth. But muskoxen are under threat. Climate change and resource extraction are steadily shrinking their habitat. Can one of the world’s oldest surviving species endure into the future?

The animated short film “Natura Fugit” was inspired by a painting by Caspar David Friedrich depicting the Mer de Glace in the Mont Blanc massif. Confiscated by the Nazis, the work was long believed to be lost. From its starting point on the glacier, the film embarks on a journey through time and a mountain world in constant transformation. Seen from the perspective of the ice, both the growing human imprint on nature and the effects of climate change and global warming come into view. Created over more than four years and based on almost 3,000 large-format drawings by Jesús Mari Lazkano, the film weaves aesthetic and ecological concerns together.

“100 Solleder Lettenbauer” is a documentary about the legendary first ascent of the northwest face of Monte Civetta, located in the Dolomites, by Munich climbers Emil Solleder and Gustav Lettenbauer in 1925. The film explores the historical importance of the route, which is considered a milestone in mountaineering and one of the first Alpine routes at Grade VI difficulty. The film draws partly on archive material. It also features present-day climbers, who explain the history of the wall and how climbing there has developed up to the present day.

Born with cerebral palsy 45 days before his two triplet brothers, Clay refuses to let disability define his limits. Raised by “Super Mum” Joanne, who rejects the idea that disability should mean exclusion, the brothers grow up with a deep belief in the power of adventure and belonging. Clay and his triplet brother Tanner set their sights on ski touring and big-wave surfing. Together with a diverse group of world-class para-athletes, they challenge assumptions about limits, inclusion and who gets to move freely in nature. What begins as a personal journey grows into something bigger: a movement built on connection, possibility and the belief that outdoor adventure should be open to everyone.

This film is a poetic journey back to the roots and wonders of a childhood in Siberia – to the hanging stone, which seems to say: I have lain here for a very long time. Since the sky split open and the mountains began to remember. Once, people whispered about me around their fires. If I awaken, everything will be thrown out of balance. But I do not sleep out of anger. I sleep so that the world may endure. My stillness rests on a single stone. It hangs above an abyss thousands of years deep. Like memory. Like silence. Like the last thing still holding. Sometimes I can feel it: the balance has trembled. Because of something small. What happens in the end will be decided by those who walk upon the earth.

Monteviasco is a remote village in Lombardy, largely cut off from the outside world, with no shops or school. Since the cable car serving the village stopped running seven years ago, Monteviasco has been accessible only by a two-hour hike or by helicopter. Yet five residents still hold on in this “forgotten mountain village”. The film observes their isolated daily lives amid dwindling infrastructure, while also capturing the quiet determination of those who remain and asking what future lies ahead for the community.

A group of climbers begins gathering in the Atxarte Valley in the Pyrenees in 1970. Over the years, the women and men grow into a close-knit community. A serious accident marks a turning point and gives rise to a special tradition – one that celebrates life and strengthens the bonds within the group. But after five decades, the annual gathering comes under pressure from social change and risks fading into obscurity. The film portrays a community in transition, searching for ways to preserve its identity and keep the spirit of freedom alive.

Some events remain alive in places, memories and relationships. “Karma” moves through familiar spaces – a home, the city, an airport and the mountains – which together gradually form a quiet story about choices and their consequences. Drawing on his own experiences as a mountaineer and big-wall climber, Marcin Tomaszewski explores moments when people find themselves at a crossroads. Past and present begin to blur, while the voices of those close to him return like distant echoes. A poetic film about transitions, memory and the courage to follow one’s own path.

Drawing on eyewitness accounts, photographs, archive footage and historical reports, the documentary traces the years mountaineer Walter Bonatti spent in Bardonecchia. After his early fame following the Italian K2 expedition of 1954, he was hired by the local community the following winter as a mountain guide and ski instructor. He lived in the Piedmont town for two years, and Bardonecchia did more than simply welcome him – it practically adopted him. His time there proved formative, marking a period of transition between a major mountaineering career and a new life as a public figure.

For Chiara Schmidt, there is no contradiction between mountain sport and environmental protection. The Salzburg pianist is a passionate climber and climate campaigner who brings her music into the mountains. With concerts on summits and elsewhere high in the Alps, she hopes to draw attention to the dramatic effects of climate change. Helped by friends and fellow climbers, she carries her keyboard and equipment to remote performance sites set against spectacular mountain scenery. The film follows her as she climbs at Mt. Plombergstein and performs a glacier concert in the Hohe Tauern, capturing the powerful connection between experiences of music and nature

Two fathers set off with their young sons, Emil and Karl, on a six-day mountain-bike journey through the Swiss Alps. Carrying heavy loads and towing child trailers, they cover 180 kilometres and climb 6,000 vertical metres around the Swiss National Park in the canton of Graubünden. Between steep ascents, sudden weather changes and the needs of two small children, the trip brings daily challenges – and becomes an unforgettable family adventure. As the boys discover the natural world with wide-eyed curiosity, the fathers learn to adjust their pace and their expectations. During the demanding tour, a special bond develops between fathers and sons amid spectacular mountain scenery.

Former professional cyclist Joe Petrowski has 14 hours to make history. Within that time, he aims to cycle 290 kilometres from the Italian Riviera to Chamonix, then climb Mont Blanc, gaining a total of 4,810 metres in elevation. His goal? To beat the Fastest Known Time (FKT) set by Italian triathlete Marcello Ugazio. A crash, thunderstorms and crevasses all stand in his way. Over the course of one sleepless night, Joe pushes himself to the limit to discover exactly where endurance ends and madness begins. A breathtaking, visually striking journey into the thin air between success and failure.

In summer 2024, mountaineers Liv Sansoz and Zeb Roche set out for K2 (8,611 m). Their ambitious goal is to climb the world’s second-highest mountain without supplementary oxygen and then launch from the summit on a tandem paraglider. Featuring spectacular, never-before-seen footage, the film is far more than a record of an extraordinary summit attempt. It accompanies the couple through doubt, hardship and the decisive moments of an expedition, and becomes a poetic declaration of love to the wild, rugged and captivating beauty of K2 and its unique high-altitude landscape.

The film follows alpinists Nicolas Hojac from Switzerland and Philipp Brugger from Austria as they attempt to break the speed record for climbing the north faces of the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau. Their goal is to complete the trilogy in under 24 hours. In darkness, on ice and steep rock, the two alpinists fight against the clock under extreme conditions. After 15 hours and 30 minutes, they reach the summit of the Jungfrau – almost ten hours faster than the previous record, set in 2004 by Stephan Siegrist and Ueli Steck. Director Jochen Schmoll is a three-time award winner at the Tegernsee International Mountain Film Festival.

In the church of Kolfuschg (Ladin: Calfosch) in the Dolomites’ Val Badia, members of the local community reconstruct the Holy Sepulchre (“Fossa Santa”) every Easter – a 19th-century installation of considerable historical and artistic value. This striking depiction of the Passion presents scenes from the suffering and death of Jesus Christ and forms part of a long-standing tradition of Holy Week and Easter liturgy that is being kept alive across the Alpine region. Paolo Vinati’s documentary explores this remarkable custom and its cultural significance for the Val Badia and beyond.

“Loving Karma” by Johnny Burke and Andrew Hinton is the sequel to the Emmy-winning documentary “Tashi and the Monk”. Twelve years after their first visit, the filmmakers return to Jhamtse Gatsal in the Himalayas, a community founded by former Buddhist monk Lobsang Phuntsok for children who have experienced severe trauma. At the heart of the film are Lobsang himself, Tashi, now grown up, and children who have joined the community more recently. An emotionally gripping film about the work of a remarkable man who gives children a second chance in life by embodying the love, care and patience they need.

“To fathom” means to get to the bottom of something, to investigate it and understand its causes. This short film by brothers Jakob and Matthias Weger bears its title for good reason. While climbing a steep, narrow couloir in the Dolomites, the two South Tyroleans are caught by a slab avalanche and swept down the mountain. The accident forces them to confront a difficult question: do they want to keep telling only heroic stories, or also reveal the harsh reality of extreme freeriding – and learn from facing up to their own mistakes?

Frenchman Léo Slemett is one of the most promising newcomers in the world of freeriding. He fights tirelessly against adversity to pursue his dreams and push the limits of what he can do on skis. But fate has not been kind to him: repeatedly, Slemett is forced to cope with setbacks, and the loss of two life partners leaves him reeling. Knowing that the mountains have taken much from him but also given him everything, he slowly tries to find his way back to life.

Director Jennifer Peedom originally set out to document the tensions of the 2014 Everest season from the Sherpas’ perspective, as anger over dangerous working conditions and economic exploitation erupted into physical confrontation. But during filming, an avalanche in the Khumbu Icefall kills 16 Sherpas and fundamentally changes the direction of the film. From then on, it centres on the grief and solidarity of the Sherpa community: in the wake of the tragedy, its members decide to reclaim a greater say in the business of the mountain they call Chomolungma.

Jennifer Peedom received the International Alliance for Mountain Film’s “Grand Prix” in 2026 in recognition of her body of work. 

Two women set off together on a ski expedition across Jostedalsbreen, the largest glacier in mainland Europe. Their approach is deliberately minimalist: they travel to Norway by train, prepare their own food in advance and pare their equipment down to the essentials. Crossing the vast expanse of ice, they encounter extreme weather, battle through storms and whiteouts, and at the same time experience the overwhelming beauty of a landscape in constant change. Paring back the means at their disposal, trusting in their own skills and meeting the wilderness on its own terms become the ingredients of a great adventure.

In this autobiographical documentary, Núria Castán Barón, who finished second in the 2024 Freeride World Tour, looks back on her journey from the beginnings of her snowboarding career to a life-changing event. On 4 April 2023, she survives an avalanche whose consequences have a profound effect on her mental health. Passion gives way to fear and pain. What follows is a process of healing, as the young athlete learns to accept her past and to regain control over her thoughts. Through beautifully composed images, Núria recounts her struggle and her return to freeriding – a story of resilience, mental health and inner strength.

In February 2024, Lise Billon, Fanny Schmutz and Maud Vanpoulle complete the first all-female ascent of the legendary “Compressor Route” on Cerro Torre in Patagonia. Ever since its first ascent by Italian climber Cesare Maestri in 1971, the route has been both famous and infamous. With humour and insight, Billon tells the story of how the three mountaineers battle technical challenges on rock and ice, their own inner demons and traditional ideas about women’s place in alpinism. Guillaume Broust received a Special Mention from the jury in 2025 for “The Future of Climbing” and won “Best Film – Mountain Experience” in 2019 for “The Pathan Project”.

A group of skiers travels to the far north to ski steep lines on an Arctic island. But shortly before departure, the whole plan is thrown into doubt: in the tiny village of 500 people that is meant to serve as their base, the petrol station has burned down – a seemingly minor event that upends the logistics of the entire expedition. The skiers face uncertainty and long delays. Forced to improvise, they adjust their goals to the new situation. When a narrow weather window finally opens, they are rewarded with a descent that far exceeds their expectations.

“Der Letzte seiner Art” follows nature filmmaker Jürgen Eichinger, who has remained dedicated to shooting on analogue 16 mm film for more than four decades. With patience, technical precision and an intimate knowledge of Alpine habitats, he captures wildlife, mountains and landscapes. The portrait takes us behind the camera of a filmmaker whose work is shaped by long stays in the mountains, waiting for the right moment and a commitment to the analogue medium. A tribute to nature filmmaking – an unhurried craft that thrives on a keen cinematic eye.

Directors Markus Schindler and Theresa Weidmann, as well as Jürgen Eichinger, will be in attendance.

Over four years, Jürgen Eichinger documents the profound transformation of the Alps. Through striking before-and-after comparisons, sweeping panoramic images and close observations of wildlife, the film traces changes across summits, mountain forests, wild rivers and Alpine pastures. It shows how climate change and human intervention are reshaping habitats, and how wild animals adapt to new conditions – or reach the limits of what they can endure. A visually powerful mountain nature documentary about the changing dynamics, transience and future of the Alpine habitat. Jürgen Eichinger is a multi-award-winning filmmaker who still works with analogue film today. 

Director Jürgen Eichinger will be in attendance.

An important and deeply impressive film. Told from the perspective of its protagonists, it portrays life in Numbi, a small town in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The film takes us straight into the daily lives of people mining coltan in extreme conditions – a raw material essential to almost every modern electronic device. With an observant, never judgemental eye, filmmaker Jean-Gabriel Leynaud manages to capture the brutal hardship of a life lived between dust and mud, intoxication and deprivation. Without moralising, he shows the consequences of globalisation and asks who ultimately pays the price for the ongoing digitalisation of our world. A film that concerns us all.