E V E RY M E M O R I A L DAY W E E K E N D Mountainfilm: Our Mission
Telluride Mountainfilm is dedicated to educating, inspiring and motivating audiences about issues that matter, cultures worth exploring, environments worth preserving, adventures worth pursuing and conversations worth sustaining.
Mountainfilm: The Festival Started in 1979, Telluride Mountainfilm is one of America’s longest-running film festivals. Through the years, in and out of trends and fads, the festival has always been best described by one unchanging word: inspiring. Far more than any other adjective, that’s how festival audiences describe their experience.
In addition to screening leading independent documentary films from around the world, the festival includes a full-day symposium on a critical contemporary issue, art and photography exhibits, beer, wine and coffee talks, a book signing party, an ice cream social, student programs and a closing picnic/awards ceremony. Presentations and panels are scheduled throughout the Memorial Day weekend event with a wide diversity of special guests, ranging from artists to adventurers and from academics to activists.
Mountainfilm on Tour
Year-round and worldwide, we take a selection of festival films out on the road. We present both single-event and multi-day shows hosted by a wide array of organizations, including both for and not-for-profit corporations, schools and colleges, community groups and theater operators. Through the tour, we touch the lives of some 40,000 people every year and visit over 100 locations on five continents.
Mountainfilm on TV
Through a partnership with Outside Television—a cable channel reaching more than 31 million households annually across the country—we’ve expanded our audience far beyond the reach of the festival and the tour. Festival films, as well as interviews with festival filmmakers and special guests, screen on Outside TV four nights a week at prime time.
Mountainfilm in the Classroom: Learning from Movies that Matter
Mountainfilm’s school initiative introduces students to essential environmental, cultural and social issues through festival films supported by customized educational materials. Wherever and whenever Mountainfilm on Tour goes, we are reaching out to local schools, especially in underserved communities, to provide free learning opportunities based on our uniquely informative and inspiring programming.
The Mountainfilm Commitment Grant
In the interest of helping individuals tell important stories—and having those stories heard—we award five $5,000 grants annually. The recipients are filmmakers, artists, photographers and adventurers whose projects are intended to move audiences to action on issues that matter. This is our way of giving back to the amazing community of filmmakers and other content providers that have generously supported Mountainfilm over the decades.