2026 Backcountry Film Festival

The 21st Annual Backcountry Film Festival (BCFF) returns to Park City bringing a celebration of human-powered adventure, winter storytelling, and public lands advocacy to the local community.

Hosted in partnership with Wasatch Mountain Institute and Winter Wildlands Alliance—the national nonprofit dedicated to protecting America’s wild snowscapes—the Backcountry Film Festival is part of a 100+ city international tour celebrating the spirit of human-powered adventure through stories that connect us to wild places, to each other, and to the movement to keep winter wild.

Ticket proceeds benefit Wasatch Mountain Institute.

Film Program:
- A BAFFIN VACATION, LOVE ON ICE (26 min), directors Skip Armstrong, Rush Sturgis, Erik Boomer and Sarah McNair-Landry — Join one couple’s adventure love story and witness what dating might look like if you’re both a little crazy and love hardcore winter adventures.
- RIDGE TO RIVER (12 min), director Steven Gnam — A story from one of Winter Wildlands Alliance grassroots groups in the North Cascades, Friends of Mission Ridge, about how a community’s love of a place has inspired a growing collaboration to protect the ridge from too much development.
- LET MY PEOPLE GO SKIING (17 min), directors Kakéin Shee and Ellen Bradley — Ellen Bradley leaves the city and travels home to ski on her ancestral lands in Alaska.
- POLAR (11 min), directors Robert Pallin Aaring and Rasmus Bjerken — One crazy Norwegian skier’s unique approach to balancing fatherhood and finding epic lines.
- DESCENTS TO DUNES (4 min), directors Anthony Cupaiuolo and Claire Hewitt Demeyer — A fun film about two friends finding turns wherever they can when the snow is low and the stoke is high.
- 40 YEARS ON THE TRAIL (5 min), director Evan Kay — In the green mountains, a passionate group of snowscape conservationists spent 40 years partnering with different landowners across Vermont to establish the longest cross country ski trail in the United States.
- SHAPED BY ICE (6 min), director Dan McComb — Brings to life the power that art and community can play in communicating the data and science of how our wild snowscapes are changing at alarming rates.
- ADAPTIVE AVALANCHE (7 min), directors Vasu Sojitra and Dani Aravich — Winter Wildlands Alliance Ambassador, Vasu Sojitra and friends head to Cooke City, Montana, to redefine travel access in backcountry avalanche terrain.
- UNCHARTED: THE WHITE CONTINENT (6 min), director Tamara Susa — This film comes from one of Winter Wildlands Alliance proud Snowschool supporters, Ice Axe Expeditions, about the rare experience of skiing in Antarctica alongside penguins and seals.
- GOING HOME (12 min), directors Anna Tedesco and Kylie Zarmati — A vagabond story of 4 rad ladies exploring the marvels of Alaska and deepening their love for the friendship-fueled, human-powered adventures that sustain us all.