VIMFF 2023 Is Packed with Climbing Films

The 26th annual Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival (VIMFF) will run from February 24 to March 5 this year, playing 70 films in venues across Vancouver. If you’re not in the area, you can purchase an online pass to view the films from the comfort of home anywhere in Canada from February 24 to March 26.

VIMFF 2023 features 17 climbing films, 16 of which can be viewed with the online pass. The films include big names in climbing like Marcel Remy, Siebe Vanhee, Bronwyn Hodgins, Jacob Cook, Guy Robertson, Greg Boswell, Malik Martin, Conrad Anker, and Barry Blanchard, among others.

See below for a list of the climbing films included in VIMFF 2023. You’ll find film title, running time, VIMFF’s short synopsis, and trailer (if available):

Bravo Marcel – The Century Climber (22 mins)
Still climbing at 99 years of age, Marcel Remy is a unique climbing superhero of our time that shows us that you are never too old to achieve your goals.

Clean Mountains (18 mins)
During the pandemic, a famous Sherpa family climbs Mount Everest to clean the garbage and restore the holiness.

Darkest Before Dawn (19 mins)
Peek into the world of Belgian climber Siebe Vanhee’s authentic, raw process of his first season climbing on Yosemite’s hardest big wall.

El Gavilán (20 mins)
Shrouded in mysticism, young gals from Canada try a 9-pitch 5.13 established in the 90s by Jeff Jackson.

Ephemeral (53 mins)
Follow top climbers Guy Robertson and Greg Boswell in their quest to seek out and climb new winter lines and find out what makes the Scottish winter so special.

I Am Because You Are (17 mins)
Six women of colour set out to the Bugaboos to re-imagine the traditional narrative of mountaineering.

Inseparable: Skye (14 mins)
Skye Kolealani Razon-Olds founded Kanaka Climbers to bridge the connection between Indigenous members of the islands and modern sports’ culture and advocate for the protection of sacred spaces.

Malik (11 mins)
Malik Martin and Conrad Anker are from different worlds but they form a friendship and find a shared understanding of life and loss.

Mum’s Gone Climbing (22 mins)
A story of adventure women facing challenges and redefining motherhood.

New Way Up (24 mins)
Fabi Buhl and Will Sim, find a new way to get to the base of the climb, Gulmit Tower, in hours, not days by paragliding over glaciated terrain.

PASANG: In the Shadow of Everest (71 mins)
A story of Pasang Lhamu Sherpa’s tragic and inspiring journey to become the first Nepali woman to summit Everest in 1993.

Sea to Summit (30 mins)
This crew takes on a modern day expedition in Greenland where they kayak 450 km to access an 800m wall rising straight from the Arctic Ocean.

Spindrift – The Barry Blanchard Story (30 mins)
After sustaining a serious major brain injury, alpinist Barry Blanchard reflects on his adventures and reconciles his life in the mountains.

The Ascension Series – Adam Raja (10 mins)
A story about Adam Raja, who spent his youth embroiled in gang culture, knife crime, drug and alcohol abuse, until he set foot in the mountains.

The Illness (23 mins)
A blue-collar crew of Appalachian adventure seekers go deep into the mountains as they try to use their single-pitch skills to summit a 1,300ft rock face.

The Last Mountain (106 mins)
A story of a mother and son, two of the greatest climbers of all time, died at almost the same age, in the same mountain range, both doing what they loved best.

The Long Wall (21 mins)
One Dream. Two Dirtbags. 9000 ft of climbing in upstate New York at the Great Wall of China route.