The Banff Mountain Film and Book Festival features a number of different competitions which garner hundreds of entries from around the world, each and every year. Genres include filmmaking, writing, photography, and others.

The competition’s goal is to showcase the best in mountain-themed photo essays – to recognize the best stories told through a series of still images. We invite photographers to submit photo essays to illustrate their mountain related stories whether culture, adventure, wildlife, sport, environment, or natural history. The jury is seeking a sequence of images that conveys a compelling story or message – with each image strong enough to stand on its own while conveying a greater narrative when viewed in the photographer’s desired sequence.

Each essay submitted is to consist of three (3) to five (5) images.

We suggest photographers include only those images required to tell their story – unnecessary images may reduce the overall impact of submissions.

Entry Deadline: Wednesday, May 1, 2017.

$2000 Grand prize and a trip to Banff (Trip includes airfare, 3 nights’ accommodation and select Festival tickets for the 2017 Banff Mountain Film and Book Festival.)

Selection Process

All entries will be viewed by a selection committee chaired by the Programming Director.

Finalists chosen by this committee will be viewed by an international jury.

The Grand Prize winner will be announced in June 2017.