We are really pleased to have just received a further film award for E11, and a rather special one at that. This time from America's longest established mountain film festival at Telluride in the San Juan mountains of Colorado, USA.

The Charlie Fowler Climbing Film Award went to E11. Many of you will doubtless be aware of the death of Charlie Fowler and Chris Boskoff. Locals to the San Juan mountains they were prolific climbers, well known and highly respected throughout the international climbing community.

The background to this award:
Based on an idea by Charlie's sister Ginny and her husband Maurie, Mountainfilm in Telluride is honored to announce the establishment of an annual Charlie Fowler Climbing Film Award. The cash award of $1,000 will be initiated at the 2007 Festival and will be announced by Charlie's sister at the Closing Picnic & Awards Ceremony at Telluride Town Park on May 28, 2007.

The film selected to receive the award would express a love for documenting remote exploration and climbing, exhibit an adventurous flair for filmmaking, and would include but not be limited to either first ascent attempts or a strong cultural thread throughout the piece. The hope is that the award will afford the winning filmmaker the opportunity to continue making climbing films, a cinematic genre that Charlie was very much a part of, either as the main talent or simply as part of the crew. This yearly tribute to a former member of the Mountainfilm Board of Directors and Advisory Board member until his death, a humanitarian, and one of the finest mountaineers in the world aligns with Mountainfilm's idea that friends, adventure, passion,and powerful ideas are worth sustaining.

This weekend saw the first Domzale-Ljubljana Mountain Film Festival. The festival screened over forty mountain films from around the world. Included in that line up were three films from Hot Aches Productions. Fools With Tools , CaveWoman and E11.

An international panel of judges awarded E11 the Best Mountains Sports and Adventure Film Award. This is how the award was announced:

"The award for this category goes to a film that explores the limits of personality beyond belief, pain, stamina and life goals. There is a clear idea by the film maker to follow this climber in all aspects of his life, both internal and external as he makes a commitment to a difficult route on a local rock. His is a small world but his aims are universal. Using modern film techniques, narration, music and editing the film is entirely successful in addressing issues bigger than the climb itself - that of personal achievement. The film is E11."

In addition to the awards presented by the judges, the Alpine Association of Slovenia awarded their Best Alpine Climbing Film Award to E11

You can see the full list of award winners here.

E11 was awarded the Judges Special Prize at the Kendal Mountain Film Festival. This is one of the most prestigious awards at the Kendal festival, beaten only by the Grand Prize.

Here's how Michael Timney from the international film jury announced it at the Kendal awards ceremony:

"We decided this year that the judge's special prize should go to a film made by a pair of film-makers who have demonstrated exceptional promise in their work. The film we've chosen was made on a micro budget... but in the things that matter -ambition, action, story-telling, and above all emotional honesty - it punches way above its weight. The winner of the judge's special prize is E11."

E11 premiered to a sellout crowd of 500 people at the Edinburgh Mountain Film Festival. We were very pleased with the reception the film received and delighted to have been awarded 'Best Film', 'Best Climbing Film' and the 'People Choice Award'.

You can read a review of the Edinburgh Mountain Film Festival 2006 here.

We'd like to thank Stevie Christie for doing such a fantastic job organising this festival; we're already looking forward to next year.

Festival Sponsors
Tiso, Wilderness Journeys, Highland Park, Climb, Digital Face, Alien Rock, Glenmore Lodge, Go Fast!, Rucksack Readers, Mountain Equipment and the John Muir Trust

Festival Report

For the third year running Hot Aches Productions have succeeded in getting a film into the prestigious Banff Mountain Film Festival.

E11 will be shown alongside some of the best new mountain films from around the world. Paul Diffley, Dave Brown and the man himself, Dave MacLeod, will be flying over to Canada to attend the festival and introduce the film.

Screening Times:

Heason Events are organising a special film night in Sheffield on Wednesday 8th November. Come watch E11 and the world premiere of Set In Stone at the Showroom Cinema in Sheffield. Following the films Both Dave MacLeod and Dave Birkett will answer questions from the audience.

For details see Heason Events

Watch the trailers here:
E11
Set in Stone

The epic story of the world's hardest traditional rock climb
This offbeat dramadoc tells the story of Dave MacLeod's ascent of 'Rhapsody', the worlds first climb graded at E11 (Trad f8c+ / US 5.14c).

Release Date
E11 goes on sale on October 21st 2006. We will ship to distributors and retailers shortly prior to this. The DVD will be available to purchase online from:

Film Festivals
E11 will premiere at the Edinburgh Mountain Film Festival on October 21st during the evening session that also features Tim Emmett's lecture. E11 will also be shown at other Film Festivals around the world, see the Screening List for details.

See what we've been up to for the last few years.