MountainZone.com is pleased to sponsor the 2000 Banff Mountain Film Festival and the Banff Mountain Book Festival. Check out this section for an overview of festival events, a comprehensive list of nominated books and films, selected video clips and up-to-the-minute announcements of festival winners.

Reinhold Messner, Sir Edmund Hillary, Sir Christian Bonington, Yvon Chouinard and many more of the world's greatest mountaineers will gather in Banff to discuss the state of climbing. Topics will include discussions about the ethics of adventure, the last frontiers of climbing and the future of alpinism in the Himalaya. As a part of the Summit, the book Voices from the Summit will make its debut, featuring photos of, and essays by, each speaker at the Summit.

This year marks the 7th Banff Mountain Book Festival, the only festival of its kind in North America. The Festival is a celebration of mountain literature which brings together writers, publishers, editors, photographers and - of course - readers. Guest speakers this year include Dr. Tom Hornbein, famed mountain photographer Bradford Washburn and a special forum on five decades of Yosemite climbing by Peter Croft, Royal Robbins, Yvon Chouinard, Lynn Hill, Leo Houlding and Todd Skinner. There will also be readings, a book fair, book signings and launches. The Festival will culminate in the presentation of awards for the international competition.

For the 25th year, people from around the world will gather in Banff to experience the world's best mountain films and videos. Finalists range from A Life of My Choice, a documentary about Middle East adventurer Sir Wilfred Thesiger, to the freeskiing mockumentary, There's Something About McConkey. Special presenters will include Kurt Diemberger, with a retrospective of his multi-decade mountain-filmmaking career, and Reinhold Messner, marking the 50th anniversary of the first ascent of Annapurna, the first 8000-meter peak to be summitted.