The BMC and Kendal Mountain Festival are calling for all adventurers and filmmakers to switch their cameras on and get ready to enter the Women in Adventure Film Competition 2023!

We want to see your adventures captured on film and keep the cycle of inspiration rolling as we head into the nineth year of the competition.

Rachel Sarah, winning Director of the 2020 competition, said: “Make something, and submit it. Enjoy it and have fun with it or, equally as important, explore something you are uncomfortable with, and let bad experiences be shared. It's cathartic to create and share, either way. Collaborate if you can; you'd be surprised by how many other people are out there wanting to make things, too. And, quite often, two or three creative brains and cameras are better than one. Community is everything!”

How To Enter:

The competition invites entries for short films of up to 12 minutes in length, showcasing the outdoor pursuits of women. Regardless of their expertise in filmmaking or athletic abilities, filmmakers are encouraged to submit their work, featuring those who partake in adventure, with the prospect of winning one of five awards available.

Entries for the Women In Adventure competition are now closed The winners will be announced at a special awards ceremony in Kendal in November 2023.

WATCH: All the 2023 Women in Adventure Film Competition Entries

ENTRIES NOW CLOSED

1) DOWNLOAD the Entry Form & Submission Guidelines and the Judging Guidelines

2) SUBMIT your film by midnight (GMT) on Monday 2nd October 2023

Send a Dropbox link (or similar) to emma@thebmc.co.uk using the subject line “Women in Adventure Film Competition”

3) INCLUDE:

• Completed Entry Form
• Promotional images, including a suggested YouTube thumbnail
• Open Captions (engrained permanently into the film) See the captions guidance document by Coldhouse Collective and Find It Film for more information on how to present your captions.

The Awards

By entering the competition, you'll not only be in with a chance of winning cash prizes and the opportunity to showcase your film at some epic outdoor film festivals, but you'll also spur on fellow females to get outside and maybe try something new. 

Best Film Award: £600 

Runner Up: £300

Best Professional Film: £300

This category is for films that have been commercially backed and/or produced by a film company. You can see the submission form for the full criteria for this category.

Make a Difference Award: £300

This award has been created to encourage films that highlight women and their projects that are promoting the important issues. Whether that be combatting the climate crisis, promoting sustainability, amplifying diversity, or uniting society behind a valuable cause through the outdoor community .

Climate Action Award: £300

This award will be presented to the team who produces a film specifically capturing the effects of climate change today either here in the UK or abroad. This might be a film that documents issues as wide ranging as a changing landscape, a long journey using public transport or a climber's / walker's perspective of tackling their own carbon footprint. 

WATCH: 2023 Competition Trailer on BMC TV

Women in Adventure at Kendal Mountain Festival

We are delighted that this year Kendal Mountain Festival is partnering with the The BMC to host the Women In Adventure Film Competition 2023.

Join us for this awards ceremony and special interactive film screening from the Women In Adventure Film Competition. The winners will be announced during this session and you will have a chance to hear from them about their incredible adventures.

Our Judges

Claire Carter

Claire is a writer, poet and a creative consultant in the outdoor industry. Claire is the Artistic Director for Kendal Mountain Festival and has been Head Judge at Sheffield Adventure Film Festival.

Lynn Robinson

Keen advocate for the Women in Adventure competition year on year, Lynn is President of the BMC and brings with her judging experience from sitting on the jury panel for Banff Mountain Film Festival in 2019.

Emma Brennand

Emma is an award-winning director who has "scripted, directed and taken through the edit blue chip natural history, presenter & contributor films" with credits including Planet Earth II and The One Show.

Frit Tam

Frit is a transgender filmmaker and a visual storyteller focussing on sharing the stories of underrepresented groups in the outdoors. Womxn, LGBTQ+, all age groups, all ethnicities and those with disabilities - athletes in these groups are often overlooked. His mission is to give them their fair share of the adventure media spotlight. He won the Best Professional Film Award for his film The Wanderlust Women in the 2021 BMC Women in Adventure Film Competition.

Emily Lyons

Emily is the Production Co-ordinator for Kendal Mountain Festival and actively researches within the Outdoors / Adventure industry to ensure that speakers voices are inclusive and representative of what is happening in the world of adventure. She has also been a host of the Women in Adventure film competition for several years.

Need inspiration?

READ: Meet the winners of the 2021 competition

WATCH: All the 2022 winners and entries

WATCH: Most Watched Film 2022 'Three Lakes' on BMC TV

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