Sender Films, Forge Motion Pictures win big at 2012 Banff Mountain Film Festival

Sender Films

Boulder's Sender Films won three awards at the 2012 Banff Mountain Film Festival, including Best Film -- Climbing for 'Honnold 3.0'

Colorado-based filmmakers won four of the top prizes at the 2012 Banff Mountain Film Festival in Banff, Canada on Sunday, including three awards to the Boulder-based Sender Films crew - all for films featured in the Reel Rock 7 video compilation and film tour - and one to Carbondale-based director Skip Armstrong of Forge Motion Pictures for the third episode of his Of Souls + Water series.

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Best Film -- Climbing went to Honnold 3.0, a 33-minute documentary following climber Alex Honnold's solo link-up of the Yosemite Triple (Mt. Watkins, El Capitan, and Half Dome), from directors/producers Peter Mortimer, Josh Lowell, Alex Lowther, and Nick Rosen. "With so many great films, the climbing category was very hard to evaluate," wrote jury member Tommy Heinrich. "Reel Rock 7: Honnold 3.0 rose above all else with its great imagery, editing, and storytelling. It is gripping, and made our hands sweat, most likely yours too. It is a simple portrait of a young man who keeps breaking unimaginable boundaries over and over."

Best Short Mountain Film went to Paul Diffley and Chris Alstrin's Wide Boyz, a 12-minute excerpt from their feature-length film about British off-width crack climbing specialists Pete Whittaker and Tom Randall. "The Best Short Mountain Film award goes to a film with two of the most charming, talented, tenacious, oddball Brits you're ever going to meet," wrote jury member David Brenner. "Their giddy enthusiasm is infectious, their never-say-die attitude is inspiring, and their training methods are just peculiar."

People's Choice Award -- Rad Reels went to La Dura Dura, from directors/producers Josh Lowell, Brett Lowell, Peter Mortimer, Alex Lowther, and Nick Rosen for their 27-minute documentary following Chris Sharma and Adam Ondra attempts at a 5.15c-rated first ascent in Spain.